Letter: North Dakota property taxpayers need protection

With the failure of Measure 2, what will it take to see real property tax relief?

Do property taxpayers even have enough to make a majority vote on the local level or the state level? Are homeowners who pay property tax now a minority?

Has government outgrown our right to have a voice, and if so, who will protect the most vulnerable of the property taxpayers? Who will stand with the adults over age 50, the young families with children, the disabled but not 100 percent disabled, the widow, the ones who are not eligible for property tax exemptions, the ones who cannot bring a majority vote to their local or state government?

In Mandan, it appears 50 people showing up at the local City Commission, 50 other people writing letters of protest, and almost 300 taxpayers in all protesting a special assessment district was not enough!

Imagine your neighbor taking a loan out for $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 using your home for collateral for the next 15 years just for you to continue to drive on the street in front of your home; in essence what the city has done is similar; a loan without the homeowners consent. Would you protest? What would you do? Who do you call when it is your local government doing this and your state government allowing it?

In Mandan, we not only have high property tax, we have high special assessments and it appears no one is listening to the problems it brings to Mandan families. What will it take for a responsive government? Thirty percent is not enough. Will you be part of the solution or allow the problem to continue until it reaches your property line?

I am starting a group in Mandan to look for solutions, I will call it MMTLC, Mandan Morton Taxpayers Local Coalition, if M2 was not the answer, what are your ideas for solutions?

Susan Beehler, Mandan

Tags: measure 2, opinion, letter, letters