
Andrew Keshner of MarketWatch reports that North Dakota voters could end property taxes — and pour ‘gas on the spark’ of a growing tax revolt. Keshner writes:
Many homeowners across the U.S. aren’t happy with property-tax bills that have climbed alongside a pricier real-estate market. But voters in North Dakota have a chance to act on that discontent next month by repealing property taxes and barring counties, towns and other local governments from levying them.
If the ballot measure passes, North Dakota would become the first U.S. state to end property taxes. Its passage could also add muscle to the push to eliminate the tax elsewhere, property-tax skeptics say. The idea has been floated in states like Texas, Nebraska and Michigan, while lawmakers in the Great Plains and Mountain West states say big reforms are needed quickly.
Property taxes are the “most egregious and least moral of all the taxes,” according to Rick Becker, chair of the organization that put Measure 4 on the North Dakota state ballot. The ballot measure would repeal residential, commercial and agricultural property taxes, he noted.
These taxes uses opaque formulas to make homeowners keep paying for property they already own, he said. They’re also based on the “unrealized” paper value of a home, he added. […]
Nevertheless, “what North Dakota is doing is helping to drive the narrative for the need to do something about property taxes,” Ginn said.
As Walczak sees it, turning to other taxes as a replacement would hurt “far more than a property tax does now.” He’s waiting to see what happens with the North Dakota vote, and what could come next.
“It’s likely to turn out very poorly — but it could be hard to reverse,” he said.
Read more here.