Can North Dakota compete with this?

Evan Barrett, the chief of Gov. Schweitzer's Office of Economic Development, came to give a presentation and answer questions on the state's favorable tax and regulation economy as well as the possibilities of an oil refinery.

"The presentation was stimulated by concerns that oil production and refining was heavily tilted to Williston more than here," Barrett said.

According to the Wall Street Journal, United Van Lines conducted a study concerning migration patterns.  The study concluded that North Dakota has the second highest out-migration rate in the country, slightly behind Michigan.

Social engineering is the use of law as a manipulation tactic to force a certain behavior from people.  The Declaration of Independence and the Constituion of the United States were written to declare that all humans are created equal and to protect that equality. 

Politicians are experts at using the tax code to manipulate behavior.  Think about ethanol.  The government wants us to use more ethanol, so they give tax breaks to ethanol producers and consumers.

Now those in the radical environmentalist movement seek to use the tax code to limit the size of peoples' houses. 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch had a political cartoon in their newspaper that the Bismarck Tribune picked up and put in their paper.  The idea the picture portrays is that cutting taxes means cuts to transportation spending.  That idea could not be more wrong.

Oil producers are expecting a fresh influx of drilling rigs this summer, drawn by a temporary tax cut on crude from newly drilled wells in western North Dakota's Bakken geologic formation.

In 2006, average personal income dropped in North Dakota.  According to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis,

North Dakota ranked 50th in the nation when it experienced minus 0.1 percent growth in personal income, a contrast from the average 2.2 percent increase across the country.

This is bad news...

The state's personal income growth was the second lowest in the nation, according to reports released Tuesday.

North Dakota's personal income growth in 2006 was 4 percent, ranking just above Michigan's national low of 3.1 percent, according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Local property taxes are levied by local boards and must be reduced by those same local boards if true property tax relief is to come about.

Each of 54 Counties has the statutory responsibility to prepare, collect, and distribute the tax dollars for the respective taxing political subdivisions within their county. During December of each year, property owners receive their property tax statements from their county auditor, detailing the separate property tax levy for of each of the governing bodies of taxing political subdivisions within a county, including City, County, School District, Park District, and others ("others" are usually very small amounts for services such as Fire, Ambulance, Airport, Water Management, County Park, County Library, Recreation, Soil Conservation, Weed and Vector Control that are controlled by a separate local board relating to each). This discussion will consider only the top four local taxing authorities, City, County, School District, and Park District.