By: Mary Steurer
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A ballot measure to repeal property taxes based on assessed value wouldn’t just eliminate standard residential, commercial and agricultural property taxes — it would also impact six special tax categories, according to Tax Commissioner Brian Kroshus.
This includes taxes on mobile homes, electric generation, distribution and transmission taxes, a forest conservation tax and other kinds of payments in lieu of property taxes implemented by local governments.
Taxes on electric generation companies, electricity distributors and transmission lines accounted for about $30.8 million of taxes collected by the state in 2023.
The state collected around $4.4 million in mobile home taxes in 2023.
In 2023, North Dakota received roughly $1 million from local in-lieu-of property taxes and the forest conservation tax, which owners of forested land can pay instead of property taxes in participating counties.
While these are separate from traditional property taxes, the ballot measure would erase the sections of the North Dakota Constitution that make them legal, Kroshus said. The ballot measure would repeal sections four, five, seven, nine and 10 of Article 10 of the state constitution.
Kroshus said the oil and gas gross production tax — which oil and gas companies pay in lieu of property taxes — would not be impacted by the property tax measure.
North Dakota collected $1.4 billion in residential, commercial, agricultural and other value-based property taxes in 2023.
The ballot measure, if approved by voters in November, would require the state to at minimum reimburse local governments by an amount equal to the property taxes they collected in the 2024 tax year.
Kroshus last week told a group of lawmakers that North Dakota can expect the ballot measure to cost anywhere between roughly $3.04 billion and $3.15 billion over the 2025-2027 budget cycle if it passes.
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