Rep. Pamela Anderson, District 41, Fargo

To Governor Burgum, State Tax Commissioner Kroshus & Representative Hedland:

You are introducing a bill to cut North Dakota’s income tax. Other than states with no income tax, we already have the lowest. You are proud to give North Dakotans $250 million back, but you – in your pressed jeans and button-down shirts – should meet some of our citizens.

Talk to a single parent working a $15 an hour job. Look in their refrigerator and closet. At $30k per year, this parent pays very little in income tax. I bet they’d rather receive benefits and childcare assistance. They weren’t in mind when you made this bill.

Have coffee at a domestic violence center. Ask the stay-at-home mom what she needs. Safe and affordable housing to put her children to bed at night might be top of her list. She wasn’t in mind when you made this bill.

Sit at the kitchen table of a disabled veteran struggling with addiction. Since he can’t work, he doesn’t pay income taxes. I applaud the First Lady for her great work on addiction, but everyone sponsoring this tax proposal can be in a treatment program within 48 hours because they have the means. Conversely, this veteran will have to wait months because our behavioral health system for him (and most North Dakotans) is broken and chronically underfunded. He wasn’t in mind when you made this tax bill.

How will your flat tax proposal help families like these, and many others, that pay none or very little in income tax but urgently need other services? I pay ND income tax. I’d like you to keep it to help the families that didn’t win the family lottery, unlike myself and the sponsors of this bill.