Property tax reform on track for November referendum

(The Center Square) – North Carolina voters could get the chance to vote in November on a constitutional amendment that would give the Legislature marching order to put the brakes on rising property taxes.

Dan Ettefagh, the director of the General Assembly’s bill drafting division, presented the proposed constitutional amendment to a committee in the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

It would “impose by a constitutional amendment on the General Assembly the duty to enact legislation that would limit future increases to the property tax levy,” Ettefagh told members of the House Select Committee on Property Tax Reduction and Reform.

Just exactly how the Legislature would do that is not spelled out in the draft of the legislation, Ettefagh said.

“Those parameters or the limit of those parameters would be accomplished by statutor language that would implement this constitutional mandate,” he said.

If passed by the Legislature, the amendment would be on the ballot in November, Ettefagh said.