Raise Property Taxes Or Dip Into ND Legacy Fund?

Have you ever heard of the North Dakota Legacy Fund? It's a fund that the state gets revenue from finite natural resources of oil and natural gas. The current amount in the Legacy Fund is $5,769,093,866.86 and has only had money transferred out in July of 2019 and that amount was $455,263,216.00. If you would like to see the amount in the legacy fund and how much is transferred in each month click here. According to the Williston Herald the Legacy Fund numbers are different. You can click here to see that story.

Recently there were talks of raising property taxes in Bismarck by 30%. That has since been lowered and isn't near that much. A simple question is if the city is short on money instead of raising taxes why don't they dip into the Legacy Fund? The Legacy Fund was designed as a rainy-day fund for the state of North Dakota.

Many people would like to see yearly checks like they do in Alaska. Other people have talked about doing away with property taxes all together in North Dakota. I think it's great that we have this account for the state to access all this money. If the state of North Dakota really got into a bind this would be a great way out to dip into the Legacy Fund.

According to the Office of State Treasurer the Legacy Fund has only had money taken out once in July of 2019 and that money went to the General Fund. Hopefully in the future all property taxes will go down or maybe even sales taxes, and we make the difference up by dipping into the Legacy Fund. What's your thoughts? Should North Dakota dip into the Legacy Fund to get rid of some taxes?