(BISMARCK, ND) – North Dakota’s property tax bill has been signed.
The bill more than triples the state’s existing primary residence property tax credit from $500 per year to $1,600 per year. A dedicated stream of earnings from the state’s $12 billion Legacy Fund will pay for the relief, estimated at $409 million in the 2025-2027 biennium. This earnings stream will grow as the Legacy Fund grows, allowing the size of the tax credit to be increased in future sessions.
A three percent cap on future increases in local property tax budgets also is in the bill.
“It ended up being an unbelievably great and historic package that is going to have real, meaningful results for the citizens of North Dakota, particularly primary residential homeowners,” North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong said during today’s bill signing ceremony at the Capitol. “This was an absolute team effort – both chambers, Governor’s Office, both parties, everybody recognized that property tax relief was the number one priority we had to accomplish this legislative session. And I think we came up with a really, really great package.”
House Majority Leader Mike Lefor calls the bill’s passage ‘a big win’ for North Dakota residents.
“It’s been vetted so many different ways,” he said. “I do think if the people of North Dakota can have the patience to understand what we’ve done here, to watch the caps work and those dollars grow, I think we’ve provided a monumental tax reform and relief package this session.”
Representative Craig Headland, chairman of the Finance and Taxation committee in the House of Representatives, says the passage of the bill ‘is a long time coming.’
“We’ve been working on this bill since the very first day of the session,” he said. “I think we’ve got a bill that’s going to work. I’m really hopeful that the public sees, when they realize the extent of the $1,600 credit, what it’s going to mean to them on their property taxes.”
House Bill 1176 was introduced by Rep. Mike Nathe and co-sponsored by Lefor, Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, Reps. Jared Hagert, Headland, Todd Porter, Greg Stemen, Steve Swiontek and Don Vigesaa, and Sens. Brad Bekkedahl, Mark Weber and Dean Rummel.
“We’ve listened to the people of North Dakota. They wanted property tax relief. We’ve done that with the $1,600 credit,” Nathe said. “We’ve more than tripled the credit from what it was, from the $500, and it’s a sustainable program. And we are investing Legacy Fund dollars back into the people of North Dakota.”
He says this is likely the first step to something bigger.
“The Governor had brought up the path to zero, and a lot of us were for that,” he said. “There was some language in the original bill going down that road, but some people were a little uncomfortable with it.”
