North Dakota counties were disappointed that the 2013 Legislature defeated a proposal to have the state take over the funding of all social service programs delivered at the county level.
North Dakota Association of Counties director Mark Johnson says the proposal did get a lot of support from legislators who were concerned that although the Legislature was heading down the road of property tax relief, there wasn’t much in the way of property tax reform.
"Counties are required to levy for social services," said Johnson. "It's a dedicated levy that can't be used for anything else. If the Legislature would have seen fit to replace those revenues and fund social services -- like they have with local education -- we would have seen true reform, because the counties would have taken those mills off the books."
Johnson says the counties levy about four mills for social service programs.