Jill Schramm/MDN Sen. Paul Thomas, R-Velva, speaks on House Bill 1572, relating to property taxes, at a legislative forum in Minot Saturday. Rep. Scott Louser, R-Minot, left, also addressed property tax bills at the forum.

North Dakota taxpayers may not know what their property tax relief will look like until the end of the legislative session, Rep. Scott Louser, R-Minot, said at a legislative forum in Minot Saturday.

Local legislators addressed a variety of bills at the Minot Area Chamber EDC forum, including those relating to property taxes – a hot button issue both before and after voters rejected a measure to eliminate them last November.

“A very unique situation happened in the House. We passed three large property tax reform and relief bills over to the Senate,” Louser said. “All three of those bills can pass. I don’t know if they will, but they’re not competing with each other. They can be complementary.”

House Bill 1176, referred to as the governor’s bill, calls for a $1,450 primary residence tax credit and 3% cap on local subdivision spending. It is under consideration by the Senate Appropriations Committee, and an amendment to reduce the credit to $1,250 is on the table, Louser said. There’s also interest in adding legislative intent to increase the credit in future sessions until the property tax on primary residences is eliminated, but legislative intent isn’t binding on future Legislatures, he added.

Louser’s bill, House Bill 1168, includes a levy cap on political subdivisions other than school districts, which instead would see a state buydown in their mandated property tax levies. It remains in committee for amendment consideration.

House Bill 1575 creates a new fund from Legacy Fund earnings, with a portion used to reimburse political subdivisions for reductions in taxable values of properties. A committee hearing has been held but no action taken.

Louser said he believes the House version of HB 1176 could pass the Senate without amendment and go to the governor for his signature. However, he said, “There are flaws in that bill, in my opinion. One of them being keeping the caps on school districts.”

Louser said he hopes the Senate amends and passes HB 1168 to include a 30 mill buydown in the currently mandated 60 mill levy for K-12 education.

“Right now, that bill is at 10 mills – that came out of the House. So, the 60 mills that are being required by the state on your property tax for K-12, the state would buy down 10. My amendment increases that to 30 (mills).”

The state’s cost of picking up the 30 mills would be $360 million, he said.

He added if it passes, he is committed to running again and asking to remove the final 30 mills if reelected.

Louser said hashing out these details likely will be one of the final actions of the session.

“I think it’s going to take until the last week. We kind of knew all along that was going to be the biggest issue coming in and going out,” Louser said.

Sen. Randy Burckhard, R-Minot, said he anticipates possible amendments to HB 1176 because of the interest in adding income tax relief to the bill.

Louser responded a House committee had amended the bill to add income tax relief, but when it came to the full House, the amendment was separated from the bill and failed to pass. For that reason, he said, he doubts the Senate will want to send HB 1176 to a conference committee with an income tax provision.

“It was made pretty clear by the House actions that we weren’t going to provide income tax relief in the property tax bill. So, I don’t think that will happen. But I understand that concern, because we’ve seen it once already,” he said.

Sen. Paul Thomas, R-Velva, said other amendments are expected to be proposed to HB 1176.

“I think the Senate wants to see some changes there,” he said. He noted the Senate Appropriations Committee’s discussion scheduled for today “is going to be pretty telling.”

Thomas also outlined another bill relating to property tax reform, House Bill 1572, which he has co-sponsored. Originally, it had included having the state pick up Extension Service and Garrison Division costs now covered by county property taxes. Among provisions in the bill coming out of the House are the creation of a state property tax data system, changes to property tax statements and studies on tax reform and tax exemption.

Thomas said he is most interested in the study on property tax exemptions of all types, whether due to status such as a church, hospital or farm residence or programs such as a Renaissance Zone or other economic development incentive.

“What this study is requiring is for the State Tax Department to work with the county auditors and come up with that value, so that we can have a better policy discussion next biennium,” Thomas said.

The bill passed the House 76-10, and a Senate committee took testimony last week.