BISMARCK -- Voters and state officials face several tax relief plans over the coming months. Gov. John Hoeven and Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, have similar tax relief proposals that try to institute property tax relief from the state. Americans for Prosperity put an income tax reduction plan on the November ballot.
Which plan will give guaranteed tax relief? The income tax cut. No one disagrees that property taxes are rising higher than homeowners' ability to pay them; however, the state does not collect property taxes, so it cannot reduce them.
Hoeven and Mathern's plans rely on local governments to cut property taxes. Large sums would be given to local governments with the hope that the governments would then pass the savings on to property owners. If it sounds confusing, that's because it is; and it does not guarantee tax relief.
Even if the law requires local governments to lower property taxes to get the new funding, will that requirement last longer than a year? Doubtful.
While both Hoeven and Mathern's tax relief plans contain modest income tax cuts, those cuts are dwarfed by higher spending. That's right: Their "tax cut" plans include massive spending increases.
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The Measure 2 tax cut would guarantee that North Dakotans would see a 50 percent income tax reduction. It goes a long way toward guaranteeing meaningful, simple, fair and permanent tax relief for North Dakotans.
Brett Narloch
Narloch is executive director of the North Dakota Policy Council, www.policynd.org .
