2025 Session: The Week Ahead for January 27th - 31st
Each weekend this session, the North Dakota Watchdog Network will do its best to let you know what is coming up in the next week, and encourage you to contact your legislators on these issues.
Citizens: you can contact your legislators by clicking here to tell them to support the following bills
Top Priority - Taxpayer-Funded Campaign Reform
HB 1141 is the bill introduced by State Representative Nathan Toman (R-Mandan) to close the loophole that allows public entities to give taxpayer dollars to private organizations to skirt the prohibition on public entities using public resources for political purposes. It is co-sponsored by Sen. Boehm, Rep. Frelich, Rep. Hendrix, Rep. Holle, Rep. D. Johnston, Sen. Magrum, Rep. Morton, Sen. Paulson, and Rep. Rohr.
For background on this issue, read the previous articles on this issue.
HB 1141 was originally scheduled for two weeks but was rescheduled but will now be heard in the House Industry, Business, and Labor Committee on Monday, January 27th at 2:30 pm.
Citizens: you can contact your legislators by clicking here, and letting them know you support efforts to reduce taxpayer-funded campaigning, and taxpayer-funded lobbying, by telling them to vote YES on HB 1141!
So far, the testimony submitted against the bill is a bit unusual as there are libraries talking about sending employees to conferences and other things, when the purpose of the bill it to remove the ability for public entities to fund ballot measure campaigns.
If there are such situations, why can’t the public entities pay directly for their own employees to goto such conferences?
Property Tax Reform
(Note: Reform is defined as a systemic or formulaic change to the property tax system. Bills that appear to only spend more state dollars are “relief” without meaningful changes to the underlying problems.)
HB 1353 is another property tax reform concept introduced by Representative Ben Koppelman that can be a stand-alone provision. It is a “clean” 3% cap on local property tax revenue growth, without a special provision attached to provide separate relief.
Strategically, it would be smart to use this bill as a “test vote” to see how much raw support there is for caps in general.
As I wrote in my analysis of the Governor’s plan, getting a handle on who will support a cap at all is an important first step in the process, since without the cap, the Governor’s plan falls apart.
HB 1353 will be heard at 9am on 1/27/2025 in the House Finance and Tax Committee.
HB 1534 is similar to HB 1353 and will be heard by the House Finance and Taxation Committee at 10am on 1/28/2025.
HB 1482 seeks to remedy the abuse of local governments using low-turnout special elections to pass bond measures on the ballot. Requiring all political subdivisions to budget and plan well enough to ask voters to take on debt at a primary or general election will ensure more voters are involved with these decisions. Too often, special elections are used to drive down voter turnout. So long as this concept applies to all political subdivisions, it will be an improvement.
HB 1482 will be heard in the House Finance and Tax Committee at 10:30AM on 1/27/2025.
HB 1559 seeks to change the way that residential property is valued. The valuations would only increase after a sale or transfer or when structural improvements are made that results in more square footage. It removes the “market value change” portion of the current property tax valuation formula. This sounds like a version of California’s Prop 13. This would essentially freeze the value of the residential property in current year. The negatives of this strategy are that as years go by, there is a disincentive to sell a property. While this approach to property tax reform is appealing, many tax experts will say that this is one of the primary causes to California’s lack of affordability.
HB 1559 will be heard in the House Finance and Taxation Committee at 9:30am on 1/28/2025.
SB 2298 seeks to increase the homestead tax credit to zero out the tax liability on the first $200,000 of value and eliminate some exemptions. Senator Tim Mathern is the sponsor and has explained in length what his plan does. You can read his summary by clicking here.
SB 2298 will be heard in the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee at 9:30am on 1/28/2025.
HB 1389 is the legislative fix that allows cities like Bismarck to find ways to remedy their own tax issues, and is specifically related to the Bismarck Special Assessment Task Force plan.
HB 1389 will be heard in the House Finance and Taxation Committee at 9:30am on 1/29/2025.
HB 1476 requires the superintendent of public instruction to regularly assess school buildings and to develop and maintain a system for tracking the assessments and building maintenance. This addresses the issue many local school districts have where they will intentionally neglect buildings in order to make a better case to voters that there is a need for bonded debt to replace buildings due to problems in the structure.
HB 1476 will be heard in the House Education Committee at 2:30pm on 1/29/2025.
Property Rights
HB 1292 and HB 1414 would end the ability for CO2 pipelines to qualify for common carrier status and utilizing eminent domain.
These bills will be heard in the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee at 2:30pm on 1/30/2025.
SB 2322 also ends the ability for CO2 pipelines to qualify for common carrier status and utilizing eminent domain.
This bill will be heard in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee at 9:00am 1/30/2025.
Ethics
HB 1505 seeks to shield legislators from prosecutions for unethical behavior that would otherwise be criminal if “the individual adhered to legislative rules requiring an individual to disclose a personal or private interest to the member's respective chamber of the legislative assembly, legislative committee, the president of the senate, or the speaker of the house.”
This would elevate legislative rules above state law. (Legislative rules apply to either the House or the Senate, or both…but do not require the Governor’s signature, nor are they subject to citizen referral.)
HB 1505 is sponsored by Senate Majority Leader David Hogue (R-Minot) and House Majority Leader Mike Lefor (R-Dickinson).
HB 1505 will be heard in the House Government and Veterans Affairs Committee at 9:30am on 1/31/2025
