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Property-tax measure appears headed for 2006 ballot.
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FarkRAPID CITY — It appears as if state Sen. Bill Napoli’s plan to cap property tax assessments is headed for a public vote in 2006.
Napoli said Tuesday that his Committee to Stabilize Tax On Property, or STOP, has gathered more than enough signatures to get an amendment placed on the November 2006 general election ballot.
“Things are going to land where we thought they would,” he said, referring to the number of signatures on petitions that have been circulating since early spring.
The deadline to file petitions for proposed constitutional amendments that would appear on the 2006 ballot is 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, at the South Dakota Secretary of State’s office, but Napoli will present them Nov. 3. The deadline for a proposed change in state law is May 2.
The goal of the STOP group was to get thousands more than the minimum 33,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot because of potential challenges and errors.
“We just needed to make sure we wouldn’t get tossed,” Napoli said. Petitions are still coming in, but it appears that they have more than 40,000 signatures.
“I have no doubt we would have gotten 50,000 had we started earlier. We’ve only been at this for seven months,” he said.
If approved by the voters, 2003 would be set as the base year for property assessments. Assessments could then increase each year by no more than 3 percent, or no more than the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. When a property is sold, the sale price would be the new assessment.
The aim, Napoli said, is to stabilize taxes and make them predictable by getting away from using market value as a basis for assessments.
“People are starting to get it,” Napoli said. “Now, the debate begins, and we’ll separate the rhetoric and the just flat lies. … People need to understand that this is a very simple measure. When you really boil it down, it’s really just a philosophical difference on how to assess property.”
Napoli is inviting interested members of the public to attend a news conference next Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 9:30 a.m. at Howard Johnson, 950 North St. in Rapid City.
Contact Celeste Calvitto at 394-8438 or celeste.calvitto@rapidcityjournal.com
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