701-566-9300Your NDSGA is a charter member of the North Dakota Transportation Coalition (NDTC) and joined about 20 other organizations in a call this week to discuss, primarily, the effects of passage concerning the ballot measure which would eliminate property taxes in our state. To be clear, the needed signatures (and vetting thereof) are not yet handed in so while it may not be on the ballot, the time needed to successfully defeat it would be in short supply. Therefore, the NDTC was asking their members to vote on the measure. NDTC bylaws state that 75% of membership must approve before action can take place on any given matter, and while all that voted approved the motion to defeat the property tax elimination, it was only 12 of the 20 voting members. Three abstained because their members had not yet voted on it, and five of the 20 voting members were not in attendance. (The 20 members mentioned in the first sentence were not all of voting status). It was explained that money needed to supplant the over $2 billion taken away by property tax elimination would dry up huge amounts of infrastructure monies that the NDTC works so hard to tag for our transportation system. Railroads, construction, utilities, agriculture, counties, townships, oil and gas and others are part of this big coalition which fear the loss of local control and centralized power which would occur upon passage. The organizations missing the vote will be contacted and the votes eventually tallied.
