701-566-9300This committee is attempting to find some methods by which they can help their fellow legislators navigate through the next months in the face of a threat (the property tax initiative) which would upend our state’s economy as we know it. They addressed this in two major ways; one is to prevent the passage of the initiative eliminating the property tax by increasing the Homestead Exemption to a more impactful level – therefore mitigating the desire to completely eliminate the tax – along with some other changes as well as educating the public to the dangers of property tax elimination. The other is to figure out some fixes to enact next session should it pass. They also discussed eliminating the marriage penalty in our state income tax.
One senator expressed urgency when speaking against the initiative because the price of agricultural land will skyrocket. With no carrying cost, it was mentioned that anyone with a few hundred million dollars in another state could see what a bargain land with no property tax would be. Another senator mentioned that some such land would lend itself to becoming recreational because the need to generate income has been reduced. How would a beginning farmer ever be able to afford to get in? Who would maintain roads and bridges at the local level without the county/city/townships having ability to levy mills? Fire districts, ambulance services, school districts survive on mills levied. These and other examples were brought up by committee members who will have their next meeting towards the end of March.
This video shows legislators going over the potential problems that would come with the passage of the property tax referral. One can greatly reduce the time of viewing by limiting it to committee discussion should you so choose.
