OpEd: Practical ideas for property-tax reform

From the June 1st, 2012 edition of the Grand Forks Herald:

With the vote on Measure 2 coming up on June 12 to abolish property taxes in North Dakota, it is important to look at two key questions:

Why are property taxes so high? What can be done to reduce them?

There are two main reasons property taxes have gotten out of control: The first is voter apathy. Local elections tend to have lower turnout and less interest. Many voters do not seem to understand that it is their local commissioners and council members who control their property taxes by not lowering the mill levy (tax rate) commensurate with the rate of growth in property values (tax base).

Local officials are very good at finding new and creative ways to spend the additional revenue generated by the expanded tax base instead of lowering the mill rate. As a result, the average prop…