Williston, ND Active Issues

Sue Evans · Senior Member

RE: Opinion

Sue Evans · Senior Member

http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/royalty.html

I have another opinion here of a different type. Why is ND oil worth so much less than any where else? Why don't our legislators stand on our side and fight? You would think shipping issues are ironed out by now.

vko · Senior Member

Maybe you could email him Steve, he left his email address. And good luck with that one. biggrin

Steve Powell · Guru

Any way we could get Nick involved in this website?

Sue Evans · Senior Member

http://www.willistonherald.com/articles/2010/06/04/opinion/columnists/doc4c0932437e68c694913347.txt

I am glad Nick found humor in this new web site. Does he understand that the same type of people who work to undo the TEA Party (like the SEIU) also know how to type?

True patriots who would like to see the nation brought back to the beliefs of our founding fathers do not want to bring back suffrage or slavery.

He chose to bring out absurd postings planted by those wishing to undo a good idea and mock the web site as a whole.

Steve Powell · Guru

NDGirl, I believe at this point your argument is speculation. I can understand how bordertowns may be affected by this but keep in mind we don't currently charge a sales tax to out of state buyers for anything over $50. Yes, locals will buy in Montana, but that already happens.

I will say this, however....to rebut your argument...if I can save $2800 per year in property taxes, I'll gladly pay 13.5 percent on purchases through the year.

I do concur with your questions on "where do we get our dollars to support our local economy/infrastructure". If we go to a statewide sales tax and eliminate property taxes, we have given that control to the state. Now we have to fight even harder for those monies. I could see trouble stemming from that situation.

Sue Evans · Senior Member

We got off on 2 separate topics. I was pointing out the article in the Herald. The opinion by one of the writers on the staff. He was trying to point out our FEDERAL property tax.

If you would like to more about the property tax issue that does exist, there will lots of information and a much better explanation than I can give you here at the MDU building on Thursday night.

You can learn about the waste of our tax dollars and see for yourself where the money to fund these services can come from. Voice your concerns.

7 PM at the MDU meeting room. The petition you were offered does not abolish the property tax. It only gives the voters the right to decide this for themselves in November. It is not concrete. Just the right to vote.

NDGirl · Veteran Member

Sue Evans wrote:

The point here is there is not a federal property tax. It does not bring in a trillion dollars per year.

North Dakota Policy Councel has put out a pork report that demonstrates where a lot of our tax dollars are applied in a poor manner. Those tax dollars could easily be put to a better use for the needs you are listing.

The fire dept does not put out your fire for free. There is a charge for a visit.
The police charge fines for various issues. Even to answer a false alarm at your business.
The ambulance is surely not a free ride. While these services do cost, the money they charge does not cover all of the costs.

Our state has not alway hosted a lottery. What are those funds currently being used for. They seem to quickly have been absorbed. Let's revisist that.The ND lottery money is earmarked for education and enviromental

The employee retirement fund. We currently compensate at 100%. In the private sector I put in a percentage and the employer contributes a percentage. Now with the tax payer funding the government, we are the employer. We could give them the same deal and save over 50 million a year. This chould stand to be changed

In the pork report there was over 921 million of improper spending. More to be found. We eliminate the government office for collecting property tax and that saves over 50 million.

Stop funding tuition for to out of country/state people who have never paid a tax dollar here and save 200 million. Out of state students still have to pay for their education. they infact pay more than the local students to go to college.

These are real dollars that could be allocated towards actual needs. Our ND government has grown in the thousands of percentile while our income has not. Our legislators passed so many bills and resolutions they claimed they didn't have time to read it all. I for one am glad we live in a state that is in the positive. The fact that they pass too many bills they do not read has nothing to do with the property tax issue. They just need to spend more time on each issue.

Slow them down. They were asked to sign and let us know they are reading the bills. They won't. They don't even know what they are doing with our money in ND.

The issue is not a federal property tax. The petition that a lady brought to my door was a ND property tax. I am gladly willing to pay my local property tax instead of raising the sales tax. I for one do not want to see our local mom and pop stores close down because people can get goods and services elsewhere cheaper since nd would have a higher sales tax. Getting rid of the ND property tax would hurt our state and put us into a recession like the rest of the country.

Sue Evans · Senior Member

The point here is there is not a federal property tax. It does not bring in a trillion dollars per year.

North Dakota Policy Councel has put out a pork report that demonstrates where a lot of our tax dollars are applied in a poor manner. Those tax dollars could easily be put to a better use for the needs you are listing.

The fire dept does not put out your fire for free. There is a charge for a visit.
The police charge fines for various issues. Even to answer a false alarm at your business.
The ambulance is surely not a free ride.

Our state has not alway hosted a lottery. What are those funds currently being used for. They seem to quickly have been absorbed. Let's revisist that.

The employee retirement fund. We currently compensate at 100%. In the private sector I put in a percentage and the employer contributes a percentage. Now with the tax payer funding the government, we are the employer. We could give them the same deal and save over 50 million a year.

In the pork report there was over 921 million of improper spending. More to be found. We eliminate the government office for collecting property tax and that saves over 50 million.

Stop funding tuition for to out of country/state people who have never paid a tax dollar here and save 200 million.

These are real dollars that could be allocated towards actual needs. Our ND government has grown in the thousands of percentile while our income has not. Our legislators passed so many bills and resolutions they claimed they didn't have time to read it all.

Slow them down. They were asked to sign and let us know they are reading the bills. They won't. They don't even know what they are doing with our money in ND.

NDGirl · Veteran Member

My only question for the people who want to eliminate the property tax is where would the money come to fund our schools, police departments, ect? We already do not have enough police patroling to accomodate for the increase in population in williston. Someone once thought we should use the incoming oil money, but what do we do when the oil boom is over and we have no more oil money coming in? The state has also said that if we get rid of the property tax, then the state will have to increase sales tax. Williston already has a high sales tax, people are going to stop buying local and start shopping in Montana or other areas of the state where they have lower local sales tax. Then people will really have something to complain about in williston, because a good portion of our mom and pop shops will close up and we will have nothing in williston.
A good majority of the people who want the property tax gone are tea party members who ARE local business owners. Are these people not thinking? Why would they want to raise the sales tax, all they are going to do is drive business away. We already have local businesses laying people off to get their number of employees down below a certain number so they do not have to offer benfits, and these businesses are the businesses who are booming from all this oil activitiy.

Sue Evans · Senior Member

Just got to say sometimes our paper is ill informed.
In the opinion article the writer suggest we would loose a trillion dollars if we eliminate FEDERAL PROPERTY TAX. So do not listen to the tea party candidate from Nevada. Of course, we all know how heavy this tax burdens us all. LOL. He sure does his homework prior to putting pen to paper.

Here is the history on our Federal property tax and our local paper with the article.

http://www.advantax.com/ATaxToGrind/post/2010/03/11/A-Federal-Property-Tax!.aspx

http://www.willistonherald.com/articles/2010/06/01/opinion/columnists/doc4c0548bf995b2777875607.txt