News from headquarters
Yesterday, Superintendent of Public Instruction Wayne Sanstead sent a letter to Gov. John Hoeven calling for the veto of House Bill 1169. As you know, that bill removes the teacher requirement to be superintendent. It’s politically motivated and The Forum agrees.
A news story today states Hoeven plans on signing the bill. You would think our governor wouldn’t buy into cheap political maneuvers. Well, those of us that have been around the Capitol this legislative session know that Hoeven has become extremely partisan. Just look at the last two news conferences he did. No Dems invited to those.
The attorney general has to be a lawyer, right? So, shouldn’t the superintendent of public instruction have to be a teacher? Contact the governor about this bill by email: governor@nd.gov or by phone: (701) 328-2200.
This next portion of today’s news from headquarters is for all those tax policy geeks out there who couldn’t be at yesterday’s hearing for House Bill 1051. The bill is one of the two big Republican property tax bills. The hearing was in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
HB 1051 is a complicated bill that does everything from cap the taxing ability of local governments to giving property tax rebates back to districts.
I listened to two high profile Republicans testify in favor of HB 1051. Sen. Dwight Cook, R-Mandan, said he supports caps and so did Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple. Dalrymple said he spoke on behalf of the governor’s office.
Like I’ve said before, caps are bad because:
1) Why should state government be telling the locals how to do business? The Republicans don’t have plans to make up for lost local funding due to the proposed caps. Republicans say property tax is a local issue, but they want state mandated caps. They are increasing state government control.
2) Property tax caps will tie the hands of local governments. What happens in case of natural disasters, inflationary costs, etc? Schools, cities and counties would have to scramble to find funds to pay their bills.
3) What do caps do for long-term property tax relief? If the caps expire, local governments may have to raise property taxes dramatically again to make up for the effects.
During the hearing Sen. Harvey Tallackson, D-Grafton, said that HB 1051 is a "rather complicated method of giving property tax relief." He pointed out that more state funding for K-12 education should be one of the simple answers to property tax relief. After all, it’s well-known that education funding has a direct effect on property tax rates. The state has lacked in funding for schools. In turn, locals have raised property taxes to make up for it.
The highlight of the hearing was the chairman of the Cass County Commission saying that HB 1051’s administrative costs may exceed $250,000 for his county. He said they may have to hire more workers to help execute the bill. He questioned where the funding would come from. Other county officials have mentioned similar concerns to their legislators as well. This isn’t just an issue for Cass County that’s for sure.
WSI hearings this week
Yesterday, there was a hearing in the House Industry, Business and Labor Committee regarding Worker’s Safety and Insurance, the state’s workers’ compensation agency. The Office of the State Auditor presented a report regarding WSI’s performance audit last October. Tuesday, there was also a hearing in that committee regarding an audit by an independent consultant about WSI.
Isn’t it curious that all of these performance hearings took place after all of the WSI bills were introduced?
A news story today states Hoeven plans on signing the bill. You would think our governor wouldn’t buy into cheap political maneuvers. Well, those of us that have been around the Capitol this legislative session know that Hoeven has become extremely partisan. Just look at the last two news conferences he did. No Dems invited to those.
The attorney general has to be a lawyer, right? So, shouldn’t the superintendent of public instruction have to be a teacher? Contact the governor about this bill by email: governor@nd.gov or by phone: (701) 328-2200.
This next portion of today’s news from headquarters is for all those tax policy geeks out there who couldn’t be at yesterday’s hearing for House Bill 1051. The bill is one of the two big Republican property tax bills. The hearing was in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
HB 1051 is a complicated bill that does everything from cap the taxing ability of local governments to giving property tax rebates back to districts.
I listened to two high profile Republicans testify in favor of HB 1051. Sen. Dwight Cook, R-Mandan, said he supports caps and so did Lt. Gov. Jack Dalrymple. Dalrymple said he spoke on behalf of the governor’s office.
Like I’ve said before, caps are bad because:
1) Why should state government be telling the locals how to do business? The Republicans don’t have plans to make up for lost local funding due to the proposed caps. Republicans say property tax is a local issue, but they want state mandated caps. They are increasing state government control.
2) Property tax caps will tie the hands of local governments. What happens in case of natural disasters, inflationary costs, etc? Schools, cities and counties would have to scramble to find funds to pay their bills.
3) What do caps do for long-term property tax relief? If the caps expire, local governments may have to raise property taxes dramatically again to make up for the effects.
During the hearing Sen. Harvey Tallackson, D-Grafton, said that HB 1051 is a "rather complicated method of giving property tax relief." He pointed out that more state funding for K-12 education should be one of the simple answers to property tax relief. After all, it’s well-known that education funding has a direct effect on property tax rates. The state has lacked in funding for schools. In turn, locals have raised property taxes to make up for it.
The highlight of the hearing was the chairman of the Cass County Commission saying that HB 1051’s administrative costs may exceed $250,000 for his county. He said they may have to hire more workers to help execute the bill. He questioned where the funding would come from. Other county officials have mentioned similar concerns to their legislators as well. This isn’t just an issue for Cass County that’s for sure.
WSI hearings this week
Yesterday, there was a hearing in the House Industry, Business and Labor Committee regarding Worker’s Safety and Insurance, the state’s workers’ compensation agency. The Office of the State Auditor presented a report regarding WSI’s performance audit last October. Tuesday, there was also a hearing in that committee regarding an audit by an independent consultant about WSI.
Isn’t it curious that all of these performance hearings took place after all of the WSI bills were introduced?
posted by Dem-NPL at 9:53 AM
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