For years, the state legislature has spent state tax dollars specifically to offset local property taxes. And for years the line has been "we are providing property tax relief while we work on property tax reform".
It appears that the "relief" portion of that equation will soon start being phased out as has long been predicted.
So says the Bismarck Tribune's political reporter, Nick Smith:
Aiming to thwart growing dissonance with what to do with a proposed state takeover of social services, House members looked at a compromise Monday that would enact the program as a two-year pilot project.
[...]
The proposal is estimated to have a $161 million price tag, with the dollars coming from the $300 million set aside in the Tax Relief Fund for property tax relief.
[...]
If SB2206 were passed by the full Legislature, the remaining $139 million would be used to help plug the budget gap that lawmakers are working to reconcile.
“It’s been a real struggle to balance this budget,” said Carlson, explaining the only major pools of money left to tap into outside of agency budgets are the Tax Relief Fund and dollars for oil impact grants, which are still being weighed.
[...]
In its original form, SB2206 also intended to provide savings to residents by making the 12 percent state-paid property tax credit passed in recent sessions permanent.
Lawmakers have said the full 12 percent will be provided for in tax year 2017, but the full 12 percent likely won’t be available after that.
What this means is that roughly half the money that was set aside for property tax relief under the 12% property tax credit will be used to pay for the "pilot program" to start having the state pay for county social services.
The other half will be used to bail-out legislative spending, because they don't want to cut another $139 million from the budget.
The statement about the 2017 property tax credit being funded is irrelevant as that was part of the previous budget.
This essentially means that starting in 2018, the state will pay the county social services portion of the property tax bill - but half the 12% credit will be gone.
That will represent a 6% increase in property taxes, on top of the typical automatic 4-6% property tax increase most people deal with due to valuation increases.
Without any further action to protect property owners, it is very likely that property taxes will increase around 10% for most property owners in 2018.
