Prairie Public Broadcasting

Counties struggling with property tax relief measure BISMARCK, ND (Prairie Public) - Some North Dakota counties are struggling to implement a property tax relief plan passed by the 2007 Legislature.
And they're not happy.

"They really didn't give us a whole lot of help," said Towner County Commissioner Ken Teubner. "It didn't really do us a lot of good, what they did."

The Legislature provided $116-million in property tax relief -- through the state income tax. But Teubner says the counties were left with the job of figuring that out.
Teubner says it would have been a lot easier if the Legislature would have appropriated that money into the state aid distribution fund.

"There is so much administration cost with this -- and if the Legislature would have put that money in state aid to local governments, it would have been property tax relief -- and it would have been smoother."

Counties are also concerned about whether county taxpayers will make the connection between property and income taxes.

"When they pay their property taxes, they're not seeing any kind of reduction or rebate at that moment," said NDACO spokesman Jeff Eslinger. "When it comes later on, there's a concern about people forgetting where it came from."

Eslinger says counties are trying to remind their taxpayers that this is the mechanism the Legislature used.

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