Analysis: Democrat Proposes Flat Income Tax

Tax reform is a term that sometimes gets used to describe approaches to public policy that really are not reform but just enough to make people think that something is changing.

With North Dakota’s constant tax revenue growth, and the current projected surplus well over $600 million again, the paradigm is shifting away from just nibbling around the edges and playing shell games with tax dollars and towards true reforms.

To illustrate how much things are changing in North Dakota, the Democrat candidate for State Tax Commissioner has proposed a $235 million per year income tax cut that eliminates the top two and bottom two tax brackets, leaves a single 2.52% tax bracket for everyone, and gives single tax filers a $40,000 standard exemption and married tax filers an $80,000 standard exemption.

Under this plan, the exemption is on-top-of the current state t…