While voters in North Dakota have overwhelmingly rejected a constitutional amendment to abolish the property tax, state lawmakers are gearing up to make property tax reform a central issue in the next legislative session.
According to a recent article in The Jamestown Sun, the legislature is exploring several possible reform measures, including:
- Increasing state funding for K-12 education (currently at an average of 70%),
- Expanding the state’s homestead tax credit to all property owners,
- Placing caps or controls on local spending, and
- Reducing state mandates on towns and school boards.
The constitutional amendment would have made North Dakota the first state in the country to place a constitutional ban on the property tax. The campaign to eliminate the tax comes as the state is awash in oil and gas tax revenues, with projected reserves of $5 billion.
