A taxpayer in Virginia gets ready to drop off a property tax payment. Virginia is one of several states that had property tax measures on the ballot this year. (Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images)
Voters in half a dozen states approved ballot issues aimed at lowering property taxes, but a measure in North Dakota that would have completely repealed the property tax proved to be a bridge too far.
Ballot measures to cut taxes for some or all property owners passed in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, Virginia and Wyoming.
But in North Dakota, a coalition made up of police, firefighters, teachers, real estate brokers and many other groups who rely on funding from local governments successfully persuaded voters that scrapping property taxes would cripple local services. The measure failed.
“North Dakotans are frustrated about property taxes, but Measure 4 was not the way to accomplish reform,” Chad Oban, chair of the Keep It Local coalition, said in a statement. “The coalition’s 113 members were successful in informing North Dakota voters about the dangers of Measure 4. Local officials will continue to work with their constituents to make thoughtful decisions regarding funding and what is best for their communities.”
He suggested the state legislature should take up property tax reform in January.
The proposed constitutional amendment would have prohibited state and local governments from taxing property’s assessed value and required the state legislature to replace the roughly $1.3 billion per year in lost revenue. If it had passed, North Dakota would have become the only state without property taxes, according to the conservative Tax Foundation.
Supporters of the measure had argued that it would restrain government spending and that the legislature had other pots of money to replace the lost revenue.
Former Republican state Rep. Rick Becker, a leader of the referendum drive, told Stateline earlier this year that many residents in his state hate property taxes.
“Do you really own your property if the government can take it away?” he said, referring to cases in which people who don’t pay their taxes might face foreclosure on their homes.
Property tax increases across the country have been driven by the increase in home and commercial real estate values, due to inflation and shrinking stock. And experts say because those taxes often arrive in a large lump a couple or so times a year — as opposed to income taxes or sales taxes, which come in dribbles — they tend to leave a bigger impression on taxpayers.
Two proposed property tax initiatives in Colorado — to cut property taxes and to cap the annual growth of the revenue they generate for the state — were withdrawn from the ballot after the legislature, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and the groups behind the initiatives agreed on compromise legislation. That law reduces property taxes in the next two years by a smaller amount.
In Arizona, the issue was intertwined with homelessness and vagrancy problems. Voters approved a measure to allow property owners to apply for a property tax refund if their municipality does not enforce laws against illegal camping, loitering, panhandling, public urination, public consumption of alcohol and possession of illegal substances.
Republican supporters argue the measure will force local governments to enforce those bans. But cities objected to the measure, saying it will put them in a difficult legal and fiscal position as they deal with homelessness.
Florida voters backed a measure to give homeowners a bigger tax break as the cost of living increases. It will institute an annual inflation adjustment to the amount of a home’s assessed value eligible for a homestead exemption from the property tax.
Similarly, Georgia voters approved a ballot measure that aims to limit property tax increases when home values rise. It will allow for a statewide homestead exemption that will cap increases in the assessed value of homes, though it allows localities to opt out of the exemption.
New Mexico and Virginia voters overwhelmingly approved ballot measures to extend more property tax breaks to veterans and their surviving spouses.
Wyoming voters passed a measure to set up a new class of property for taxation, allowing the legislature to put owner-occupied primary residences in a separate category from rental property.
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