The Real Ideal (2)—North Dakota Property Taxes

One year ago on Round and Square (21 June 2011)—Middles: The Tempest
Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "The Real Ideal."

[a] Proprietary RF

Ideal Estates and Wheeler Realers

I'll bet I know your answer to a basic question about the particular personality and cultural configurations of a distinctive American state. Seriously. I am pretty sure that I know how you'll answer this. Take a breath and consider:

Are North Dakotans realists?

[b] Spring RF

Just hold your thought for a while. North Dakotans live in a big state with three electoral votes. It has three percent unemployment, and is now the second biggest producer of oil in the United States. That's Texas big...almost. Now let's consider another basic fact of North Dakota life. I have mentioned it before on these pages, and it won't go away. It is called:

Forty below zero.

Forty below works with Fahrenheit and Celsius, and my pal Ray Bradbury might well have considered what temperatures like that do for civic behavior. In fact, he might have found that they seem to be quite good for it. Weather that cold keeps the virtues in and the riffraff out. Around the clock and twirling through the calendar, hardy immigrants from Scandinavia slowly ground out an existence on terrain that was frozen practically to the mantle in the winter, but brought forth fruitful bounty come summer and autumn. They came to realize that the thick, black soil of the Red River Valley—awash regularly with enriching flood waters—was the best in the world. They turned their stern, formidable fjord-traversing energies to cutting trees down to the horizon and picking many tons of boulders from the soil. It was smooth and fecund agricultural sailing after, say, a century of tilling and rock picking.

Pretty damned realistic, huh? Sorry. Darned. 

Well, or not... What kind of realist lives in a snowed-in sod hut for six months of the year and creates mammoth boulder piles amidst acres of dark black soil? This is a far cry from nature's bounty—from natural man, as Rousseau might tell it, dipping his ladle into the cornucopial delights of a world swimming with abundance. When you really think about it, really mull it over, that hardy-yet-reserved Norwegian just might be...an idealist. Who'd a thunk it?

[c] Property thrashes RF

I have been thinking a great deal about North Dakota realism and idealism these days, and have had a good chance to consider some actual numbers in these matters. You see, North Dakota had a primary election last Tuesday. Even as senatorial and house candidates received nominations and scores of municipalities held referenda on everything from zoning laws to engine-braking ordinances, a bigger issue—an ideological one making waves far beyond the shores of the Red River—was on the ballot. It had to do with property, and how much, if any, citizens were willing to be taxed.

If any? 

This sounds even more dramatic than Proposition 13. And it is true. North Dakotans last Tuesday had the opportunity to become the first state in the nation's history to abolish the property tax. None, gone, nada. You bought the farm (so to speak); now you really own it. "Government" can't ever take it away just for a little offense like not supporting your neighborhood schools and sanitation facilities in the form of a property tax. In rode Ron Paul on his shining Libertarian stallion, exhorting the voters to start something big that would reverberate throughout the countryside. Grover Norquist, the Thor of taxation Valhalla, weighed in, too. Numerous lesser lights added their voices from near (Bismarck, Dickinson, Wahpeton) and far (Sacramento, Corpus Christi, Trenton). Behind the din was a powerful, tympanic refrain: 

The oil money will take care of it.

[d] Black gold, Texas tea RF

 So there it was on the ballot. You own property and your very vote (combined with several hundred thousand others) could mean that you never pay the government for it again. Ever. They flocked to the polls last Tuesday in near-record numbers for a primary. This was big stuff...

...and now I repeat the question. Are North Dakotans realists? Your answer will go a long way toward understanding what we mean by these thorny little words, real and ideal. I am not sure that everyone will agree, even when I give you the next bit of information. I leave the rest to you. Feel free to comment. We are just getting started on this whole real/ideal business.

North Dakota voters rejected the measure by a 3-1 margin. North Dakotans said, in effect, "keep taxing us on the property we own." It might not be too much of a stretch to interpret the voice of the voters along these lines: "we need a little government out here in these parts."

Realists? Idealists? A little bit of both? Think about it. Fox and MSNBC haven't been very subtle on these matters. That's our job here on Round and Square.

[e] Votin' RF