ND State Sen. David Hogue
BISMARCK, N.D. (Prairie Public) – State lawmakers will be deciding on bills to cut both the property tax and the income tax.
And legislative leaders think it may be possible to do both.
“I think we’re at the stage now, where we’re trying to figure out how many discretionary dollars we have to provide both income and property tax relief,” said Senate Majority Leader David Hogue (R-Minot). “And of the amount we pick, is that sustainable going into the next biennium, and the biennium after that?”
Hogue said that could be between $300 million and $600 million in total tax relief. But he said there will be some efforts to make sure tax relief goes to North Dakota residents only.
“If you don’t use more of a scalpel for reduction in income taxes, you’ll be giving a lot of tax relief to people who aren’t even residents,” Hogue said. “The same is true of property tax relief— if you don’t appropriately tailor it, you’ll provide property tax relief to non-residents.”
Hogue said most legislators are of the view that it should be targeted toward North Dakota taxpayers. He saids that will take some work – because there is no central repository for information on out-of-state property tax payers.
Rep. Craig Headland (R-Montpelier) chairs the House Finance and Tax Committee. He’s in favor of income tax relief – but not as much on property tax relief.
“We can assure that lowering the income tax will relieve taxpayers,” Headland said. “There have been issues with property tax in the past, and those issues have not gone away.”
But Headland said there are on-going discussions that could lead to relief in both tax types.
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