Posted on 06/12/2012 5:32:30 PM PDT by raptor22
Energy Boom: One state has found a solution to job and economic growth so successful it may eliminate one of the most onerous of taxes. It turns out that, yes, we can drill our way out of our problems.
On Tuesday in North Dakota, a state flush with revenues from oil produced from the Bakken Shale formation it sits astride, voters were deciding whether theirs will become the first and only state not to have a property tax.
If it passes (polls didn't close until after our press time), it ll be the first time a state has eliminated a major tax since 1980. That was when oil-rich Alaska dropped its state income tax as crude gushed from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope.
If you can see a pattern here, you're way ahead of President Obama. His argument is that we can't drill our way out of high energy prices let alone out of debt and the need for higher taxes. But it's about to be exposed once again as the self-serving falsehood it is.
Shattering the myth of "peak oil," as Professor Mark J. Perry reports at his Carpe Diem blog, North Dakota pumped another record amount of oil during the month of March at a rate of 575,490 barrels per day.
In so doing, it replaced California as the nation's No. 3 oil-producing state, behind Texas and Alaska. At its current rate of production growth, North Dakota will likely top Alaska sometime this year.
Continental Resources, an Oklahoma-based oil company that operates 10% of the drilling rigs in North Dakota, estimates there are more than 900 billion barrels of oil in place.
Only between 27 billion and 45 billion barrels are actually recoverable with today's technology, but that's still a sizable amount that will only get bigger...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
Michigan sits on an ocean of natural gas. I know there’s already an effort to do away with business property taxes but it needs to go to all property taxes.
I hope N. Dakota doesn’t raise the ire of the The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They might find some damn frog to designate as “endangered” and bring it all to a halt. The US.FWS already has its claws in Louisiana over some stupid frog.
Anu K. Mittal, the Government Accountability Office's director of Natural Resources and Environment, testified before Congress that the Green River Formation may have as much as 3 trillion barrels of recoverable oil. "This is an amount about equal to the entire world's proven oil reserves," she noted.
North Dakota is drilling oil fields. Barack Obama would rather drill taxpayers.
The Justice Dept. will find something wrong with this. It will be unlawful to relieve people of property taxes while people with no property get no equivalent relief.
Violators will be incarcerated and have all their assets confiscated.
Drill, Dakota, Drill ping
This is the BIGGEST GOOD NEWS story AMERICA could hope for!
Energy Independence...Jobs Galore!
Our side needs to pound the message home that we don't need to be energy poor and dependent on the A-Hole Arabs!
My God! Why don't I hear fireworks and jubilation.
Let's go to work America. Let's capture our energy resources and embrace GROWTH and PROSPERITY!
If it passes the real estate values will go through the roof. Investors will flock to the state to pick up some no overhead property.
Naw.....We'd rather tax cigarettes.
And NY just keeps on fracking us.
F*** the feds...states should start drilling...this country has PLENTY of oil and natural gas, and we should go get it.
I’m a little tired of 535 bought and paid for punks strangling this country’s potential for real wealth and independence...they have theirs; what about the rest of us? Many would give their right arm just for a decent job...
What I would do for Michigan is open the tap and let the gas be piped directly to manufacturers who can use it at rock bottom wholesale prices. I would eliminate the tax on manufacturing and both business and both private property taxes. I would encourage companies to generate their own electricity and sell excess to the surrounding communities.
Just checked here:
http://results.sos.nd.gov/resultsSW.aspx?text=BQ&type=SW&map=CTY
Looks like ballot measure 2 (the property tax measure) is going down to defeat hard: early results are 21% for, 78% against.
Guess North Dakotans want to keep those property taxes....
When I left North Dakota to be stationed in DC my property taxes in Grand Forks were more than the actual mortgage payments.
Eliminating this would be a great idea.
Killing Property Taxes would be the most horrible of outcomes!!!
As nice as it sounds, eliminating local taxation, eliminates any incentive for a local community to control it’s spending: We can always look to the state to cover our increasing costs.
Need fifty firefighters - no problem: want to be sure that all teachers have no more than 15 students per class - no problem, etc, etc. No local incentive to control a budget!
If North Dakota really wants to help residents of the town and cities: decrease or eliminate the income tax; then lower the sales tax; then after fully funding public sector pensions (which should also be cut); if money is left over then consider assisting local government.
Once a town has no property tax, it will be next to impossible to both control spending or reinstitute a property tax when needed!
Drill baby, drill!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.