North Dakota voters will decide in November whether to eliminate property taxes. The change would be a first for a state and a major move.

North Dakota voters will decide this fall whether to eliminate property taxes in what would be a first for a state and a major change that officials initially estimate would require more than $1 billion every year in replacement revenue.

Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office said Friday that backers submitted more than enough signatures to qualify the constitutional initiative for the November general election. Voters rejected a similar measure in 2012.

Property taxes are the base funding for numerous local government services, including sewers, water, roads, jails, deputies, school building construction and teacher salaries — “pretty much the most basic of government,” said North Dakota Association of Counties Executive Director Aaron Birst.

  • Mk23simp
    60·
    4 months ago

    There definitely are better taxes than property taxes. But, since it’s a red state, they would probably replace it with a worse one. Or just debt.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      66·
      4 months ago

      It’ll probably be replaced with sales tax increases. Sales taxes are very well-known to be regressive.

      Or think of “low-tax” Texas, where every other road is privately operated and charges tolls out the ass.

      • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
        47·
        4 months ago

        Even ignoring privatized services, taxes in Texas are higher than California for the average person. It’s a total myth unless you belong to the upper class.

      • ramble81@lemm.ee
        6·
        4 months ago

        “Every other road…” serious [citation needed] there. I live in San Antonio (you know 6th, largest city, metro of 2.2m people) and there’s not a single toll road. Austin, Dallas and Houston have a few but it’s by far not every other road. You can get around on 10, 35, 45 and the corresponding ring roads just fine.

        Also the property taxes here are quite high compared to a lot of other states, but as such there’s no state income tax.

        • reddig33@lemmy.world
          9·
          4 months ago

          I live in Austin and they’ve built a toll road bypass to the interstate, added toll lanes to loop 1, and now they’re adding them to 183.

      • shastaxc@lemm.ee
        1·
        4 months ago

        Sales tax benefits residents more in states with high tourism like CA, FL, NY. But ND? Lol

    • treadful@lemmy.zipEnglish
      4·
      4 months ago

      This would be great if it eliminated property tax for primary residences or something like that. Everything else is a handout to the wealthy.