Area county officials say they will back their state association’s efforts to inform voters that abolishing property taxes would be a bad policy move.

A statewide committee is circulating petitions to place a measure on the ballot that would eliminate property taxes, which is the primary tax of political subdivisions. The North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACo) expects to put a resolution before its members at its October convention that would oppose elimination of property taxes.

“That’s about a $1.4 billion deficit that the Legislature would have to make up,” said Aaron Birst, executive director for NDACo, who spoke to officials from several area counties in Minot Tuesday.

Pierce County Commissioner Terry Hoffert said the loss of local control could limit services that counties provide.

“So this guy calls and says, ‘My road needs gravel really, really bad. You can’t even drive on it anymore.’ The state says, “I don’t think so.’ Then what do you do?” he said.

Mountrail County Commissioner Trudy Ruland agreed that without local control, counties will need to beg for money and provide justification for requests, just as oil-producing counties had to do in the past to get a share of oil taxes to address impacts.

Area commissioners also raised concerns about out-of-state residents buying large amounts of land and leaving it idle – to the economy’s detriment.

Birst said a few county commissioners in the state have come out in support of the proposed ballot measure.

“Reasonable minds can disagree on this. Debate is good for society and good for county government, but we will see what the members think about it,” he said.

Based on a lawsuit over the use of government money to oppose a previous measure to eliminate property taxes, Birst said NDACo and counties will not be putting any money into a campaign on either side of the issue.

“That would violate the law. But I can also assure you that we are going to assert our First Amendment right to talk about public policy issues,” he said.

Another resolution expected to come before NDACo members stems from concern about the state’s broadening takeover of social service and court functions.

“I’m not criticizing things that have been ‘statecized’ in the past or in the current process, but I think there’s an appetite to say stop ‘statecizing’ county jobs for the time being,” Birst said.

“As they start chipping away at what we provide, we no longer are relevant. We don’t exist,” explained Ruland, who serves on the NDACo board.

“Counties are smart enough to get together and share services without the state being involved,” added Bob Marmon, Renville County commissioner.

Birst said a number of county commissioners in the state are dissatisfied with the way the state’s handling of social services has gone. Ruland said for large counties the zones have worked, but zones haven’t functioned well for many smaller counties.

Another anticipated resolution would urge the Legislature no to place a burden on counties when it comes to bailing our the unfunded liability of the North Dakota public Employees Retirement System.

PERS is underfunded by $3 billion to $5 billion, based on different actuarial reports, Birst said. With the Legislature’s decision to close PERS to new employees as of Jan. 1, 2025, the underfunding gets worse, he said.

“This resolution says the counties didn’t ask for this to be closed. We’ve done our part over the years. You should not stick us with the unfunded portion. In other words, use state dollars to backfill the unfunded portion,” Birst said.

“Honestly, half the people in the PERS program are political subdivision employees,” he noted. “We want them funded but we can’t afford a large dollar amount. I think the legislators – at least the ones in power currently – also acknowledge that. They do not want property taxes to go through the roof to pay to close the plan.”

Area officials also asked NDACo to consider drafting a resolution addressing failed federal-aid road and bridge projects. Mountrail County cited a situation in which a contractor went bankrupt and disappeared. It disrupted the ability to provide or access existing paperwork and caused the state to pull promised federal aid, leaving the county to foot the bill with no help from an unresponsive bonding company.

“I can see where it would really destroy a small county that doesn’t have a lot of reserves. You’re counting on being able to utilize that federal funding,” Ruland said. “It’s a state-created problem. The policy, somehow, we need to change it because this is going to happen more.”

Counties participating in the meeting in person or remotely were Bottineau, Burke, Mountrail, McHenry, Pierce, Renville and Ward.