A coalition of North Dakota organizations has launched a campaign to fight the effort to prohibit local governments from levying property taxes.
The groups call their effort “Keep It Local.”
The Coalition chairman is Chad Oban, with North Dakota United – a group that represents teachers and government employees. He referred to a recent study that says replacing property taxes with state money would cost $1.3 billion per year.
"There is no plan to replace than $1.3 billion," Oban said at a Bismarck news conference. "No plan is a bad plan for North Dakota."
North Dakota Lignite Energy Council president Jason Bohrer is also a member of the coalition. He called it bad policy, because of the loss of local control.
"You walk through coal country communities, and you're going to see prosperous communities with great services," Bohrer said. "The schools are amazing, the services are enabled, because they have had the ability to chart their own course. This measure reduces that ability, and threatens their ability to make those choices and investments the way they see fit."
Backers of the Constitutional amendment have until June 26th to turn in signatures to put the question on the November ballot.
