Plain Talk With Rob Port

The signature turn-in deadline for the committee backing a ballot measure to abolish North Dakota's tax on property value (but not, it's important to note, other types of property taxes) arrives on Saturday, June 29. The committee is expected to turn in the requisite number of signatures, which, if they pass muster, will kick off a repeat of a debate over property taxes voters here have had before. In 2012 a similar proposal to eliminate the tax on property value was put before voters, and it failed spectacularly. A coalition group calling itself Keep It Local ND rallied to persuade more than 70% of voters to cast their ballots against the measure. That coalition is back, and two of its organizers -- Andrea Pfennig from the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce and my co-host Chad Oban, whose day job is with North Dakota United -- were on this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it. Their arguments against the measure? It would eliminate about $2.6 billion in revenues for local governments every budget cycle