Property Tax discussion again

[db-2]

Garbage is part of the water bill in this town. Also includes street ligths, water, some street repair, sewer, monies for sprecial projects and in all it comes to an average of about $120/ month with about $50 of that for water and sewer.
Job authority gets its monies from sale tax. db

 

[sl1000794]

Is garbage pickup included in your property tax in town or do you pay that separate ?

Davey, I misspoke last night. San Jose (and much of Santa Clara County) gets water from a private, independent water company and they bill for usage. Sewer and garbage are in our County tax bill.

 

[SDMF]

Is garbage pickup included in your property tax in town or do you pay that separate ?

Separate in Fargo. Sewer, water, snow-plow, mosquitos, garbage/recycling come monthly. $60-$80/mo.

 

[eyexer]

Paying a flat amount per sq foot makes so much sense it’s crazy. No more human involvement in valuations. Which leads to no fighting about your homes value. No time wasted by the assessors office trying to come up with valuations. They’ll have time to do other things and can actually get by with less people working for the gubment. It makes total sense.

 

[NG3067]

One reason for high taxes is our government is inefficient. Ex. compare a street repair project that is government run to privately run. Govt has a truck, two pickups, trailer and bobcat and 8 to 10 guys, length of project is 2-3 weeks. Private company has 2 to 3 guys, pickup bobcat and trailer, done in a week. When a private company figures out a more efficient way to do things, they streamline, I don’t ever see the government doing that, they just keep hiring more people.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Paying a flat amount per sq foot makes so much sense it’s crazy. No more human involvement in valuations. Which leads to no fighting about your homes value. No time wasted by the assessors office trying to come up with valuations. They’ll have time to do other things and can actually get by with less people working for the gubment. It makes total sense.

In my mind it sounds so crazy that it will never make sense. Take a drive around rural ND and small towns sometime and notice how many of those big old sears and robuck houses you see and other nice big old houses . With your square footage plan those would no longer be feasible to own and you will force older people off their property AKA tax them to death.

 

[eyexer]

In my mind it sounds so crazy that it will never make sense. Take a drive around rural ND and small towns sometime and notice how many of those big old sears and robuck houses you see and other nice big old houses . With your square footage plan those would no longer be feasible to own and you will force older people off their property AKA tax them to death.

They taxed them to death in Williston. Nobody gave a shit. This is why we need to just up and eliminate property taxes and go to a consumption based tax.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Lots of people gave a shit but we had no control , It was your local government that didn't do the right thing. One thing my Dad installed in my mind when I was a youngster is that we should take care of our old people and he led by example.

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They taxed them to death in Williston. Nobody gave a shit. This is why we need to just up and eliminate property taxes and go to a consumption based tax.

I'm on board with elimination but not taxed on square footage.

 

[eyexer]

Lots of people gave a shit but we had no control , It was your local government that didn't do the right thing. One thing my Dad installed in my mind when I was a youngster is that we should take care of our old people and he led by example.

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[/COLOR]

I'm on board with elimination but not taxed on square footage.

a lot of people won’t be because it’ll raise their taxes dramatically.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Be fun to know how many people rent VS own in ND , The renters with no plans of buying would be dead set against I'm sure.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

OK here is what i received from our tax Director in Wells County this morning:


Ok, some things are still the way they used to be, some things have changed.

Outbuildings that are used for farm purposes are automatically exempt from taxation regardless of income as long as they are being used for farming purposes.

For Farm Residence Exemptions there are a couple of things that have changed..

Active Farmer: 67% or more of their GROSS income between them and their spouse have to be from farming purposes.
A statement of gross income must be submitted to my office yearly proving the percentage of income.
Farmstead has to be at least 10 contiguous acres or own/rent the land around them if less than 10 acres.
There is no $40,000 non farm income requirement anymore.

Retired farmer: the farmer has to have been exempt on the property he/she resides as an active farmer and having retired to age or health
The surviving spouse of a retired farmer will remain exempt until he/she moves or passes away.

Farm Laborer: the residence is intended as a farm residence and is used to house farm laborers.
If the person residing in the house is qualified under the farm laborer category due to running the farm under a corporation, when that person retires the residence becomes taxable if they remain living in the residence.

Surviving spouse: the surviving spouse of a farmer, who at the time of death was exempt as an ACTIVE farmer, will remain exempt for 5 years from the date of death. After 5 years,
the property becomes taxable.

Hope this helps!

 

[Brian Renville]

That's how we are taxed in MT, not many fans of it. There are several reasons businesses avoid MT in favor of ND and that is one of them. Every time a person drives down highway 58 along the border it's obvious the aversion to MT.

One reason for high taxes is our government is inefficient. Ex. compare a street repair project that is government run to privately run. Govt has a truck, two pickups, trailer and bobcat and 8 to 10 guys, length of project is 2-3 weeks. Private company has 2 to 3 guys, pickup bobcat and trailer, done in a week. When a private company figures out a more efficient way to do things, they streamline, I don’t ever see the government doing that, they just keep hiring more people.

Bingo. One thing I do like(for lack of a better word) about sales tax is it's incentive based, areas need to make themselves more appealing to attract a healthy business climate hence fair taxable behavior. The better the government does the better it gets funded. As for our current government situation, it's anti-incentive everywhere you look. What happens if someone in the welfare office gets everyone off the dole? They don't have a job anymore. Same scenario with most things government based. Also if I wanted to build a $100,000 shop in my backyard it will cost $100,000. That same structure on public after required architecture and engineering and other required costs it becomes $300,000+. My town is dealing with exactly this scenario now. Government needs to be encouraged to be more efficient, these scenarios shouldn't be the norm.

 

[Allen]

One reason for high taxes is our government is inefficient. Ex. compare a street repair project that is government run to privately run. Govt has a truck, two pickups, trailer and bobcat and 8 to 10 guys, length of project is 2-3 weeks. Private company has 2 to 3 guys, pickup bobcat and trailer, done in a week. When a private company figures out a more efficient way to do things, they streamline, I don’t ever see the government doing that, they just keep hiring more people.

Outside of potholes and crack filling, where do you see the government doing street overlayments, etc without using a private contractor?

Your thesis has been debunked so many times that it is ridiculous that I'd even have to point it out to you. So here's a little story for ya. A number of years ago, an irrigation district in the home area of Dick Cheney pulled some strings to remove the federal government from doing the maintenance and operation of the irrigation district. Yep, the farmers thought for sure they were being billed way too much for the project and they were determined to save a bunch of money by removing the inefficient/lazy/excessive labor force known as the federal employees.

It wasn't even 3 years after the feds relinquished control over the operation and maintenance that the farmers came crawling back asking for the feds to once again take over the water district. Of course, by then those fed employees had transferred, retired, or laid off the vast majority of the employees. One thing that people seem to always forget is that the government does stuff without a need for a profit. Private industry, while being more fleet afoot, is absolutely burdened by the need to generate a profit for its owner(s). Given similar inputs (costs associated with owning the equipment and labor), government often does stuff for a lot less cost than a private company because of the lack of profit. But because of Republican led efforts to put money into the pockets of private business, most major things are now contracted out. There just aren't many government employed heavy equipment operators working on a major project. Instead, you have government employed engineers/scientists/project managers that oversee contracts with private businesses.

This country hasn't actually had much in the way of government run large projects since the Manhattan Project and dam building days of the 30s-60s, instead it contracts everything out to private companies. Think of the space shuttle, yep...it was a private company (Morton-Thiokol) that effed up the booster rockets and cost the country a shuttle full of astronauts.

 

[db-2]

Job Authority was looking to build a building in town. Permit said needed a engineer drawing. Told them we will have Morton or one of those build it and they will have all kinds of drawings with all the needed information for us. They said no we needed an engineer we hire for about $25,000 to submit the plan. Yep, so no building yet.

Broken back they did change the rules mainly with using gross income. db

 

[eyexer]

Job Authority was looking to build a building in town. Permit said needed a engineer drawing. Told them we will have Morton or one of those build it and they will have all kinds of drawings with all the needed information for us. They said no we needed an engineer we hire for about $25,000 to submit the plan. Yep, so no building yet.

Broken back they did change the rules mainly with using gross income. db

I’m really not sure what your saying here. But I’ve been involved in the construction business off and on for many years. Still hold my contractors license and do jobs as a side gig. All new building construction requires an engineer stamp on trusses at the very least. Buildings with sidewalls exceeding a certain height require an engineered plan set. This can be done by any ND licensed engineer that is approved for such work. Which is many. Building depts can’t even legally recommend a firm to you let alone require a certain engineering firm to do it. So someone is being hoodwinked or the truth isn’t being told.

 

[NG3067]

Outside of potholes and crack filling, where do you see the government doing street overlayments, etc without using a private contractor?

Your thesis has been debunked so many times that it is ridiculous that I'd even have to point it out to you. So here's a little story for ya. A number of years ago, an irrigation district in the home area of Dick Cheney pulled some strings to remove the federal government from doing the maintenance and operation of the irrigation district. Yep, the farmers thought for sure they were being billed way too much for the project and they were determined to save a bunch of money by removing the inefficient/lazy/excessive labor force known as the federal employees.

It wasn't even 3 years after the feds relinquished control over the operation and maintenance that the farmers came crawling back asking for the feds to once again take over the water district. Of course, by then those fed employees had transferred, retired, or laid off the vast majority of the employees. One thing that people seem to always forget is that the government does stuff without a need for a profit. Private industry, while being more fleet afoot, is absolutely burdened by the need to generate a profit for its owner(s). Given similar inputs (costs associated with owning the equipment and labor), government often does stuff for a lot less cost than a private company because of the lack of profit. But because of Republican led efforts to put money into the pockets of private business, most major things are now contracted out. There just aren't many government employed heavy equipment operators working on a major project. Instead, you have government employed engineers/scientists/project managers that oversee contracts with private businesses.

This country hasn't actually had much in the way of government run large projects since the Manhattan Project and dam building days of the 30s-60s, instead it contracts everything out to private companies. Think of the space shuttle, yep...it was a private company (Morton-Thiokol) that effed up the booster rockets and cost the country a shuttle full of astronauts.

Well Allen I guess your right, the government is an efficient organization. My bad.

 

[db-2]

Did visit with local tax director who stated Bismarck changed that rule to use gross of farmers and not net this past year. That meant that those farmers who were paying property taxes on their home will no longer and it had a big impact on their property tax income for the coming years.

Some one in Bismarck was a friend of the farmer and rancher and I would bet 95% of us had no ideal this happen.

She also stated if the public knew half of what was going on in this area there would be an uprising. DB

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For me i would of voted to keep property tax as a way to fund things but:

as i learn more and how it works i will vote to elimate this tax if it comes up on the ballot this year. If passed i am sure the new way that comes up to fund all this will be to my disadvance again and to the advance of certain groups. db

 

[eyexer]

That’s the problem with politics it only works to fatten certain people’s pocket books or to push a certain agenda. We need to take the stance as peons to eliminate any tax we can when we can.

 

[db-2]

eyes:
I would of thougth that Morton had the engineer to satify what was needed for the permit and we would not have to hire a seperate engineer to say that building met all codes. db

 

[eyexer]

eyes:
I would of thougth that Morton had the engineer to satify what was needed for the permit and we would not have to hire a seperate engineer to say that building met all codes. db

morton will do they if it’s needed or requested. It’s not hard to get. I’m in the process of putting together things to build a 40’x40’ shop in Williston. It will have 16’ sidewalls. Due to the sidewall height it requires an engineer stamp on the plans. This is essentially due to meeting wind load requirements.