Dakota Beacon

It is time for the North Dakota Legislature and Governor-elect Armstrong to give all property owners across the state a tax break. I suggest they eliminate property taxes on the primary residence of all North Dakotans who make North Dakota their home.

Corporations, co-ops, associations all weighed in on Measure 4 and said they wanted to pay property taxes. So let them. Give this tax break to North Dakota homeowners.

This will cost the state about $1 billion. The state can afford it and it’s time to rein in some unnecessary spending. 

Legislators like to give exemptions along with various tax break gimmicks so they can pretend they are King Kong and beat their chest to brag about cutting taxes. I recognize it is difficult for them to eliminate a tax because once they do, they can’t brag about the exemption or write down what they have orchestrated.

The state has over $20 billion in various accounts and the balances will continue to grow. The economy, especially the oil industry, is going to flourish for another four years due to the Trump administration's pro-energy initiatives.

They will fill the coffers across the state along with increasing profits for the oil industry. So, now is the time for Republicans to demonstrate leadership and give citizens a break.

The $1 billion put in the homeowners pockets will pay dividends across the state. Economic advisers continue to tell us how tax credits given to corporations have a multiplying effect to the economy, so how is this different?

Families can do whatever they want with these dollars; my suspicion is that they will put it back into the economy and the state and businesses will continue to thrive.

For the past couple of decades, we have been hearing from our political leaders that the latest and greatest project they want to spend money on “is a one-time appropriation.” Of course that is just one time until next time when they give us that tired pitch again.

North Dakota’s Constitution states that the state funds education. This is another area legislators need to correct. We have the funds to do this as well and doing so would take pressure off the local leaders to keep their budgets in line.

While millions of dollars from the various groups scared North Dakotans into defeating Measure 4, over half of the dollars spent opposing it came from out of state. So, let’s give these special interests what they want. Keep the property taxes on all other areas except the primary residence.

I suspect there will be dozens of bills introduced, from capping spending by local authorities, inciting new property tax exemptions, super charged investment funds to grow the economy and elimination of income tax.

Why don’t these politicians for once just do what citizens want?

Other Columns by Emineth

Emineth is a North Dakota native businessman and political activist. He is a former executive director and chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party. Emineth has served on the Republican National Committee and chaired numerous presidential campaigns in North Dakota. He is the host of “The Legislature Today” and “Open Range” daily TV shows on BEK. He is a serial entrepreneur and has 40-plus years of business experience with multi-national companies. He has traveled the world extensively and has served as CEO and president of mid-tier companies.