Before Repealing the Property Tax, Look Under the Hood

Imagine never again receiving a property taxA property tax is primarily levied on immovable property like land and buildings, as well as on tangible personal property that is movable, like vehicles and equipment. Property taxes are the single largest source of state and local revenue in the U.S. and help fund schools, roads, police, and other services. bill. That’s the alluring prospect being offered to North Dakota voters when they go to the polls this November. It sounds good — really good. But when a deal sounds this good, sometimes it’s worth looking under the hood. If voters do that with Measure 4, they might not like what they see.

Or, in this case, what they don’t see, since Measure 4 repeals the property taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. — which raises over $1.5 billion for local governments each year—without an inkling of a plan to replace it, other than obligating the state to do so.

That’s a problem, since $1.5 billion a year is about what the state generates from income and sales taxes combined. If voters are being asked to charge state legislators with raising the equivalent of a doubling of the current income and sales taxA sales tax is levied on retail sales of goods and services and, ideally, should apply to all final consumption with few exemptions. Many governments exempt goods like groceries; base broadening, such as including groceries, could keep rates lower. A sales tax should exempt business-to-business transactions which, when taxed, cause tax pyramiding. , shouldn’t they get to know what the plan is first?