Port: The voters are standing behind North Dakota's property tax cap

Tom Stromme / The Bismarck Tribune Opinion by Rob Port Today at 6:00 AM Listen Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? MINOT — During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers in Bismarck passed a property tax relief plan that paid a $1,600 credit to primary residence owners and capped growth in property tax levies at no more than 3%. Later that year, the North Dakota Association of Counties, at its annual meeting, passed a resolution calling for the cap to be removed. ADVERTISEMENT If there was ever any meaningful appetite to remove the cap among state lawmakers, it's a lot less now after the recent election. Two counties put on the ballot a request to exceed the cap. Divide County asked voters to approve an additional 2% in property tax growth; Traill County asked for an additional 6.41%. Both measures were defeated. In Divide County, 53.3% said "no." MORE FROM ROB PORT Port: When it comes to school bonds, a simple majority should be good enough 18h ago Port: North Dakota mandated school meals but didn't fund them. It's time to pay the bill. 4d ago Plain Talk: 'We're just disconnected' — Rep. Julie Fedorchak breaks down the GOP midterm wipeout 4d ago In Traill County, 61.6% said "no." These were the first two attempts by counties to exceed the property tax cap since it was implemented, and they both failed. Consternation over property taxes has been a hot topic in North Dakota politics for the entirety of my writing career, which is roughly 25 years now. Lawmakers have gone through great pains to avoid capping tax increases, buying into the idea, expressed in the Association of Counties resolution, that "local elected officials know their communities’ needs better than anyone and should be left with the most flexibility in financial decisions." But local control didn't work. Even as lawmakers provided $7.25 billion in cumulative property tax relief, over 17 separate legislative initiatives through 2022, the bills kept going up, thanks in large part to decisions made by those local elected officials. Voters made it clear that they're not ready to get rid of property taxes — they rejected ballot proposals to do so by wide margins in 2012 and 2024 — but were still demanding relief. The locals weren't delivering, so the state did. Part of the 2025 package was yet another buydown (the primary residence credit), adding to the billions in buydowns the state had already appropriated, but the key component was the cap. That cap ensures that the credit doesn't immediately get gobbled up by local spending, as has been the case in past buydowns. ADVERTISEMENT Now, with these results from Traill and Divide counties in hand, we have evidence that the voters probably aren't in the mood to exceed the cap. Certainly that's how lawmakers are going to see it. This means two things. The first is that any aggressive lobbying campaign to get rid of the cap, or modify it in any substantial way, is probably dead on arrival in Bismarck next year. The second is that the voters may need to adjust. In the past, those legislative buydowns have knocked the edges off local government growth, allowing voters to enjoy expanded services without the bills matching the spending. Now there's a new reality. Capped levies mean tougher choices locally. Some triage is needed. In many jurisdictions, it's going to be painful. I would argue that this pain is needed. We had an unsustainable situation enabled by North Dakota's oil tax bounty that allowed lawmakers to obscure the extent of the property tax problem. We have to get back to reality. The voters want an end to big property tax increases. The trade-off will be a new world of priority management in local government. Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS NORTH DAKOTA PLAIN TALK INFORUM BISMARCK PLAIN TALK COLUMN Opinion by Rob Port Rob Port is a news reporter, columnist, and podcast host for the Forum News Service with an extensive background in investigations and public records. He covers politics and government in North Dakota and the upper Midwest. Reach him at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to his Plain Talk podcast. 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