North Dakota Considers Eliminating Property Tax

BISMARCK, N.D. ? Since Californians shrank their property taxes more than three decades ago by passing Proposition 13, people around the nation have echoed their dismay over such levies, putting forth plans to even them, simplify them, cap them, slash them. In an election here on Tuesday, residents of North Dakota will consider a measure that reaches far beyond any of that ? one that abolishes the property tax entirely. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/us...x.html?_r=2&hp

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Jim Wilson/The New York Times A group of Edgeley residents, including Nicole Gibson, who held a ?Vote No on Measure 2? sign, gathered after the debate. ?

I would like to be able to know that my home, no matter what happens to my income or my life, is not going to be taken away from me because I can?t pay a tax,? said Susan Beehler, one in a group of North Dakotans who have pressed for an amendment to the state?s Constitution to end the property tax.

They argue that the tax is unpredictable, inconsistent, counter to the concept of property ownership and needless in a state that, thanks in part to wildly successful oil drilling, finds itself in the rare circumstance of carrying budget reserves.

?When,? Ms. Beehler asked, ?did we come to believe that government should get rich and we should get poor??

Republic. I like the sound of the word. It means people can live free, talk free, go or come, buy or sell, be drunk or sober, however they choose. Some words can give you a feeling that makes your heart warm. Republic is one of those words. - John Wayne


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