Latest news with #HB1176
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Property taxes, book bans and resolutions: Three Grand Forks lawmakers discuss recent session
Jun. 6—GRAND FORKS — Through an hour-long conversation looking back on the 2025 legislative session, three Grand Forks state lawmakers found moments of agreement and professed similar opinions on issues more than they disagreed. Rep. Nels Christianson, Rep. Erik Murphy and Rep. Zac Ista, all from Grand Forks, went through some of the topics from the session with different mindsets but familiar answers. For example, on the matter of property tax and Gov. Kelly Armstrong's bill — which expanded the primary tax credit to a maximum $1,600 and capped local-level tax increases to no more than 3% annually — Christianson said they found some common ground. Property tax was one of the several issues discussed during the legislative wrap-up, held at the Grand Forks County office building on Thursday, June 5. All 18 members of districts 17, 18, 19, 20, 42 and 43 were invited, but Ista, Murphy and Christianson were the only ones in attendance. Joel Heitkamp, host of KFGO News and Views and a former state senator, served as moderator. Some issues involved public funding to private schools, Medicaid, the North Dakota Republican Party and what bills the legislators worked on. Property tax was among the most newsworthy issues during the session. Armstrong discussed it prior to his November election and his bill, HB 1176, was not passed until May 2, near the end of the session. "Did we deliver relief? Yes," Christianson said. "Reform? Maybe not so much." Murphy said property taxes are typically something outside of the Legislature's lane, but that he begrudgingly supported Armstrong's property tax bill. "Property tax is part of the reality of living in a nation such as ours," he said. "Property tax, to me, is a local issue." Ista, the only Democrat among the three, said there will be a trade-off. Homeowners will get some tax relief, but political subdivisions will have to figure out how to continue to pay for things. "Now the burden is going to fall on our local, county, city, school districts to see how to live within this new reality. I think it's going to be a challenge going forward for the state and locals to balance it," he said. One issue on which all three agreed was the matter of banning books. Each legislator was against it, though they had different thoughts on the matter. Ista said he has voted against every book censorship bill, and will continue to do so every chance he gets. "The issues in our state that affect our kids are not what books are displayed where in our libraries," he said. "I love taking my kids to Grand Forks Public Library and watch them go down that big pink slide, and I've never once worried about what book they might stumble into." Christianson said that, under no circumstances, should books be banned. Instead, he said, they should be placed in the appropriate area, and that he wants his daughters to be able to go around the children's section of the library and look at any books they would like in that section. "I absolutely do not support taking anything out of the ability for people to check out from the library," he said. "I just want to make sure that ... parents have a chance to be in the loop, just that parents can understand what their children are reading, especially in the younger ages." Murphy said there are better things to do and think about in North Dakota than book bans, and he mentioned Senate Bill 2307, which would have required libraries to make material considered sexually explicit unavailable to minors, and could penalize failure to comply. One issue he took with the bill was the difference between what was said about it versus what it would really do, he said. "What it really did is, opened up every library in the state, whether it's UND's library, it opened up the (North Dakota Museum of Art)," he said. "If there's a nude in there, that could be considered pornography, therefore we need to take that picture down." Two resolutions that failed during the session — House Concurrent Resolution 3013, which requested the U.S. Supreme Court overturn gay marriage, and House Concurrent Resolution 3020, declaring that "Christ is King" of North Dakota — drew disagreement between Christianson, who voted "yes" on both, and the other two legislators, who voted against them. Christianson's thought on HCR 3013 was that issues such as marriage need to be defined at the state level, not through a court decision, referencing Obergefell vs. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding same-sex marriages. Ista said that it was probably the darkest day of the session for him when the resolution came to the floor, and that he was caught "flat-footed" by it. He said he had thought everyone had moved beyond the issue of marriage equality. Murphy said it's not up to him to decide who any individual should love. He also said that during this recent school year, he knew of students who were transgender and transitioning. The resolution sends the wrong message to North Dakota residents and creates a division in the state, he said. As for HCR 3020, Murphy simply said "absolutely not" when Heitkamp asked if he thought North Dakota should be in the business of declaring that Christ is king. Ista said that the faith leaders in his life respected a foundational concept of no official religions in America, and that, while he respects the religion of his colleagues, the state should be accommodating to all religions and not place one above the others. Christianson said the resolution would have no effect on state policies, claiming that he voted for what he believes is the truth. "It was simply a statement, and that's a statement that I will make every day, that Christ is king," he said.
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jamestown mayor criticizes Legislature over property tax reform
May 8—JAMESTOWN — Mayor Dwaine Heinrich criticized the North Dakota Legislature for creating "chaos at the local level" over property tax reform while also touting the progress that has been made in Jamestown. Heinrich said the Legislature's passage of House Bill 1176 is "very positive action" and means millions of extra dollars for Jamestown residents. He said HB 1176 grants a $1,600 property tax buydown on every taxable primary residence in the state but also caps the amount local political subdivisions can raise levies at 3% yearly. "From a local political subdivision standpoint, the disappointing part of the property tax buydown discussion was the unnecessary false narrative surrounding the property tax issue and the blatant political pandering made part of the process," he said. "If political pandering were an Olympic event, some North Dakota legislators would be sporting shiny new gold medals, unless of course they were disqualified for the use of steroids or other performance enhancing drugs." Heinrich delivered the State of the City address on Thursday, May 8, at North Dakota Farmers Union. He criticized the passage of HB 1176 in its current form, expressed frustration with a housing development bill that failed and touted economic development in the Jamestown area in the past 47 years. Heinrich said the 3% cap on raising levies annually is not workable for the city of Jamestown. He said local political subdivisions will need to find other ways to raise money. Heinrich said the city of Jamestown receives about $5 million in property taxes for its general fund that is used by police, fire and municipal court. He said sometimes health insurance costs increase annually by 10%. "We have no control over the costs of police cars, fire equipment and other supplies that we must purchase," he said. "On these budgets, costs over which we have no control likely will exceed the 3% cap. This without any pay raises for employees or cost-of-living raises. A 3% cap for many political subdivisions across the state is simply going to create chaos for many of our cities who do not have access to large per-capita tax bases or other funds." Using approximate numbers, Heinrich said the city of Jamestown's per-capita value of taxable real property — which is fourth lowest in the state — is about $39,000 compared to the city of Wahpeton and $33,000 and the city of Bismarck at $66,000. He said Bismarck has the highest per capita value of taxable real property in the state while Wahpeton has the lowest. "It would follow that in Wahpeton the taxes or mill levies would have to be twice as high as in Bismarck to raise the same number of dollars per capita," he said. "Given that there is often an economy in scale, that puts even a greater burden on communities with lower population and lower property valuation per capita." Heinrich also said a recent article on property taxes shows North Dakota ranks 34th out of 50 states for property tax burden. When looking at the total tax burden per capita in the nation, North Dakota ranks 43rd, he said. Heinrich said the city of Jamestown received another setback in its attempt to develop residential lots with the Legislature killing Senate Bill 2225. "We are now back at the drawing board and we will continue until we are successful," he said. Senate Bill 2225 would have established the Housing for Opportunity, Mobility and Empowerment (HOME) grant program in the North Dakota Department of Commerce. The program would have provided grant dollars for one-third of the infrastructure costs for residential development projects. The local political subdivision and the developer of the residential lots would each provide one-third of the costs for residential development projects. Heinrich said the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp., the city of Jamestown and Stutsman County were proactive and approved potential funding to use the program. The JSDC Board of Directors had approved in March a forgivable loan of $1 million to the city of Jamestown that will be used as matching dollars for a grant program that helps create residential housing development. The funding was contingent on approval of Senate Bill 2225 in the state Legislature. Heinrich said one challenge for Jamestown is overcoming news by social media and negative comments about the city. He said some negative comments include Jamestown remaining the same for years and no new development going on. In his 47 years of living in Jamestown, he said the University of Jamestown has gone through a "remarkable" transformation, a new high school has been built, and the Jamestown Civic Center has become the host to state girls basketball tournaments. Heinrich said the I-94 Business Park in Jamestown and the Spiritwood Energy Park Association's industrial park at Spiritwood are also the result of positive forward-thinking individuals in the community. "All of these things did not happen by accident," he said. "They happened because of you." Moving forward, Heinrich said a large portion of aged infrastructure is getting replaced, including aged water lines and water mains. "Constantly failing water lines creates a huge expense to you, the city taxpayers, as it is very expensive to dig up and repair failed waterlines particularly during the winter months," he said. He said the city is fortunate to have expert grant writers who have helped Jamestown receive millions of collars for projects. He said the $9 million water main replacement project will be completed without using any locally generated tax dollars. Heinrich also said the Legislature revised the "Operation Prairie Dog" program. He said there isn't enough information on the changes to the program to fully understand the impacts to the city. "What I do understand is the Prairie Dog bucket was moved up in the oil funding stream to almost certainly guaranteed funds, but it looks to me that the guarantee will be about $3.5 million instead of the $5 million per biennium we have received the last couple of sessions," he said. Heinrich added that additional funding was added to the North Dakota Department of Transportation's budget that will go directly to cities and more grant funding might be available.
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
District 12, 29 lawmakers update constituents on bills
Mar. 24—JAMESTOWN — District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered several questions about bills that they are working on in the North Dakota Legislature, including property taxes, keeping explicit sexual material out away from areas accessible to minors in libraries, education bills, helping rural communities and a bill related to energy conversion and transmission facility, siting among other issues. District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered questions about the legislative session on Saturday, March 22, at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce at the Gladstone Inn & Suites. Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown, did not attend the event. Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, said the House Finance and Taxation Committee has seen almost 60 bills in regard to property tax. "I think the Senate has settled in pretty much on House Bill 1176, a bill that in some ways I and the House Tax Committee completely rewrote from its original design," said Headland, who chairs the House Finance and Taxation Committee. "The original design had the intent of taking every primary residence to zero. We took that out. We don't know that we believe in that." HB 1176 would expand the primary residence tax credit from $500 to $1,450 beginning in tax year 2025, Forum News Service reported. "I've also heard that there's a move to possibly take the $1,450 down to $1,250," Headland said. "I don't know that I agree that we need to do that either. What I do agree with that I've heard that they're thinking about is putting some type of percentage into the equations so no one's primary residence goes to zero today. If we want to take properties to zero in the future, and future legislators have the funding ability to do it, that's a decision they should make." HB 1176 would also expand eligibility for the Homestead Tax Credit program, which is available to homeowners over 65 years old, Forum News Service reported. The income thresholds for eligibility would be expanded from $40,000 to $50,000 to be eligible for the full credit and from $70,000 to $80,000 to be eligible for half the credit. It also expands the maximum available renter's refund from $400 to $600. The bill also proposes a 3% cap on property tax levy increases from taxing districts. "We put in some provisions to help the political subdivisions deal with the restrictions caps," Headland said. "Some of them stayed in the bill. One of them, the opt-out provision where we allowed a county to opt out or a city to opt out of the cap altogether, was stripped out of the bill in House Appropriations, which I didn't really think was appropriate because the policy committee, which I chair, had put it in." Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, said he would support some of the amendments to HB 1176. "I think it's not probably prudent to take one class of property down to zero," he said. "In some cases, that's the way it's designed right now would go to zero and there is an amendment that would say that's limited to 75%. You could end up getting a full $1,450 tax credit on your primary home. ... Targeting primary homes does make sense. "Most of us have a home and a primary home and are paying taxes on it, and it would single out, in my view, more of North Dakota citizens," he said. " ... Some property if we provide a huge property tax decrease, it's going to out-of-state people and it's leaving our state. That's of some concern." Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, said Senate Bill 2307 is about keeping explicit sexual material away from areas accessible to minors. "It's about safety of children,"he said. He said it's illegal to allow children to have explicit sexual material. "Some of you probably know that sexually explicit information is being used by groomers and sexual abusers, and it's not a positive thing for children to have sexually explicit information, have access to it, particularly at a young age," he said. SB 2307 would require public libraries and school districts to develop a policy and review process by Jan. 1 for library collections to ensure explicit sexual material is not in an area accessible to minors. The bill also requires safety policies and technology protection measures for digital or online database resources offered by a school district, state agency or public library to students in grades K-12. If a provider of digital or online library resources fails to comply with having safety policies and technology protection measures, the school district, state agency or public library shall withhold any further payments to the provider pending verification of compliance, the bill says. The bill also creates an obscenity review procedure where any person may request a local state's attorney's opinion to review if material in a library or school district has explicit sexual material. The state's attorney would need to issue an opinion on the alleged violation within 60 days to the interested person, provider of digital or online library database resources, school district, state agency or public library under review. If it is determined that a public library, state agency or school district is in violation, funding may be withheld if correction action to comply with the law isn't taken within 10 days. The state's attorney may prosecute for failure to comply with the law. Satrom said some librarians didn't comply with a previous bill that was passed during the legislative session in 2023. Rep. Mitch Ostlie, R-Jamestown, said any concerns with library materials should be handled locally. "If you have a concern with something in the library, you should go to the librarian," he said. "If you don't like the answer you get there, there is a library board. If you don't like the answer there, they're under control of either city council or county commission. So those are important steps in the process to deal with a lot of issues but sometimes we jump a few levels of governing bodies and go right to the Legislature and we're supposed to fix some of this stuff." He said local law enforcement and the state's attorney's office brings charges forward to individuals who are breaking the law. "We're overstepping a whole lot of levels there," Ostlie said. Wanzek said the Legislature is working on a couple of bills to address economic development in rural North Dakota. "It's to try to help those small rural communities that mean a lot to the rural people and some fashion," he said. Wanzek said he sponsored Senate Bill 2097 with Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, and Rep. Mike Brandenburg, R-Edgeley, to create a rural community endowment fund and a committee for the fund. The bill would appropriate $5 million to the rural community endowment fund from the general fund in the state treasury. "It started out wanting $50 million," Wanzek said, referring to the original bill that included $50 million for the community endowment fund. He said the endowment fund could provide consistent and sustainable funding for small rural communities in the future. "We're trying to get it passed and get it in there, and even if it isn't accessible right away," he said. "If our ancestors, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, if we'd have done that, we'd have that endowment fund now." Headland said the Legislature is taking it seriously to put funds aside for infrastructure. "What we're really talking about is what's holding back economic development in rural areas is lack of infrastructure," he said. "I think we're going to have historic levels of funding for county roads, township roads, transmission, electric transmission, natural gas transmission pipelines." Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, said economic development is one of the most important things legislators work on. "That is the fuel that drives the economy," he said. Ostlie said a bill in the North Dakota Legislature could provide up to $100,000 for improvements at the Stutsman County Fairgrounds. HB 1591 — sponsored by Ostlie, Satrom, Wanzek and Conley — would create a one-to-one matching grant program and appropriate $3 million to the agriculture commissioner to provide grants to county agriculture fair associations for the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. No more than $100,000 could be awarded to a county agriculture fair association. "It's well needed across the state," Ostlie said. Satrom said agriculture development and diversification is a big deal. He said all local lawmakers sponsored a bill for value-added agriculture. Wanzek said bills in the Legislature are being pitted as public versus private schools. "I see this as empowering parents and empowering students to have a choice where in some situations they're limited in their ability to make that choice," he said. Headland agreed. "It's more of empowering parents to make the decisions that would they feel would be best for their children and the state being able to help with that," he said. "It doesn't take any money away from public (schools)." Wanzek said Senate Bill 2400 is an education savings account. Senate Bill 2400 would provide a $1,000 education savings account payment — it previously was $500 — to an eligible student if that student's household has an annual income less than or equal to 300% of the most recently revised poverty income guidelines. Headland said there is a misunderstanding of what House Bill 1258 does. "It doesn't take away local decision making unless that decision is deemed unreasonable," he said. House Bill 1258 would give the state Public Service Commission the authority to override rules set by local governments that conflict with a state approval for an electric transmission project, The Bismarck Tribune reported. The bill would apply to all power line siting cases, including the JETx project — a $440 million transmission line project that connects the Otter Tail Power Co. substation north of Jamestown along North Dakota Highway 20 to the Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. substation near Ellendale. The project was requested by the regional power grid operator Midcontinent Independent System Operators (MISO) and is promoted as a way to improve regional power grid reliability. MISO manages the power grid for a 15-state area and parts of the province of Manitoba. The Stutsman County Commission rejected a proposed zoning ordinance for gas and liquid transmission lines. The proposed zoning ordinance would have required a setback distance of 2,600 feet between any occupied dwelling and a new high voltage power line or large pipeline. The current standard is set at 500 feet by the North Dakota Public Service Commission. The proposed zoning ordinance change originated at the Stutsman County Planning and Zoning Commission, which unanimously approved in July changing the setback distance to 2,600 feet. The current Stutsman County zoning ordinance does not address setbacks for electrical transmission lines or pipelines. "You can't allow a small political subdivision to just zone something else because they don't want it," Headland said. He said all customers of Otter Tail and MDU pay for the cost of transmission line projects. "They need to be least tried to be kept as reasonably priced as we can," he said. "If you ended up with just nothing but a zigzag across the state, you're not going to have the ability to proceed forward with those projects." Headland said the last resort is eminent domain. Eminent domain means the government would have the power to take private property for public use even if the owner doesn't want to sell. The property owner would still be compensated. "In most cases, there are ways to work around it," Headland said. Headland said some landowners are unwilling to take a phone call from Otter Tail or MDU. "My suggestion to any property owner who has not yet talked to Otter Tail in this case with this particular line ... at least take their phone call, sit down with them," he said. "If you can't come to some kind of amenable agreement ... that's a decision you and the company will make. Let's just hope that we can find a route for this very, very critical piece of electric transmission infrastructure that we need."
