Voters in North Dakota have a chance to put an end to property taxes. A ballot measure in North Dakota will give voters a choice to end property taxes in the Peace Garden State. Steve Moen, one of the many voices calling for property taxes to be abolished, shared, “The way our taxes are going, if this doesn’t pass, there’s going to be a lot of elderly citizens losing their homes.” Rick Becker, the chair of the organization, that helped put the measure on North Dakota’s state ballot, shared, “property taxes are the most egregious and least moral of all the taxes.” North Dakota voters could end property taxes — and intensify a tax revolt https://t.co/jn1TsNlkmg — MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) October 21, 2024 Per North Dakota Monitor: Supporters and opponents of a measure to abolish assessment-based property taxes in North Dakota are at loggerheads over how the proposal would affect the state’s retired population. The ballot measure, which will go before North Dakota voters on Nov. 5, would fundamentally overhaul the state’s property tax system, which funds schools, emergency services, parks and other essential government functions. If the proposal is approved by voters, the state would have to reimburse local governments every year by an amount no less than the property taxes those entities levy for the 2024 tax year. Steve Moen, a retiree and Grand Forks resident, has been involved in the push to repeal assessment-based property taxes in North Dakota for about a decade. He was on the sponsoring committee that helped put the measure on the ballot. “The way our taxes are going, if this doesn’t pass, there’s going to be a lot of elderly citizens losing their homes,” Moen said, referring to both tax and cost-of-living increases. The Social Security Administration recently announced a 2.5% cost of living increase for 2025. The estimated average Social Security retirement benefit will increase by about $50 a month. Moen said his property taxes have nearly doubled in the past dozen years. Back in 2012, he paid a little over $2,000 in property taxes, he said. By comparison, his property tax bill for 2023 was more than $3,500. My take on the efforts to eliminate property taxes in North Dakota at @MarketWatch! “Vance Ginn, an economist in Texas, said state and local governments should find a way to move past property taxes, which he views as an “immoral form of taxation.” Spending guardrails and… pic.twitter.com/eB9faCxjAD — Vance Ginn (@VanceGinn) October 21, 2024 Here’s what Market Watch reported: Many homeowners across the U.S. aren’t happy with property-tax bills that have climbed alongside a pricier real-estate market. But voters in North Dakota have a chance to act on that discontent next month by repealing property taxes and barring counties, towns and other local governments from levying them. If the ballot measure passes, North Dakota would become the first U.S. state to end property taxes. Its passage could also add muscle to the push to eliminate the tax elsewhere, property-tax skeptics say. The idea has been floated in states like Texas, Nebraska and Michigan, while lawmakers in the Great Plains and Mountain West states say big reforms are needed quickly. Property taxes are the “most egregious and least moral of all the taxes,” according to Rick Becker, chair of the organization that put Measure 4 on the North Dakota state ballot. The ballot measure would repeal residential, commercial and agricultural property taxes, he noted. These taxes uses opaque formulas to make homeowners keep paying for property they already own, he said. They’re also based on the “unrealized” paper value of a home, he added. For Becker, a “yes” vote is a win inside the state and beyond. “Once that happens, the light turns on for so many people. As soon as a state steps outside that box, the other states see how possible that is,” Becker said. “The sky didn’t fall, and maybe we should give it a try.”

Leaked documents reveal the Pentagon is conducting an information war on American citizens, developing advanced AI to create fake online personas that are virtually indistinguishable from real users, according to a procurement document recently reviewed [...] The post Pentagon Using AI Deepfake Internet Users in Military-Grade Psy-Op to ‘Brainwash Americans’ appeared first on The People's Voice.

The death of former Iron Maiden frontman Paul Di'Anno at 66 was confirmed yesterday

Are the media reporting with the same compassion when the locals are the victims of these uninvited Muslim migrants? The Irish didn’t struggle for centuries against the English only to have to turn around and give it up to Muslim invaders. 

Tim Walz lied on The View and claimed Kamala Harris worked at McDonald’s even though they found no evidence she did. Tampon Tim also said that Trump going to work at McDonald’s and was disrespectful to McDonald’s workers. “Vice President Harris and I grew up middle class, we understand that. She actually worked at a […] The post Walz Very Disrespectfully Let Rioters Burn McDonald’s Down appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

On Monday, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) served up a sizzling response to how the media covered former President Donald Trump‘s visit to a McDonald’s restaurant in the swing state of Pennsylvania over the weekend. The Washington Post dubbed it “stage-managed campaign stop” — a particular description which Trump’s VP pick rebuked. “The fact that these people are accusing him of a ‘stage-managed’ thing — of course, the president has to have security because there have been two attempts on his life in the last eight weeks,” Vance said during a Fox News interview. “He can’t just walk into a McDonald’s and sign a W-9 and actually go on the payroll. That’s just not how this works, especially given the security threats on his life.” President Trump showed how to connect with voters in Pennsylvania yesterday better than anyone else could – from the french fry station at McDonald's to the Steelers game on Sunday night. pic.twitter.com/lKlLKlEvk8 — JD Vance (@JDVance) October 21, 2024 While in the McDonald’s in Feasterville, Bucks County, near Philadelphia, Trump put on an apron, worked the fry cooker, and even handed out food at the drive-thru window. He also talked with people, including journalists and employees. Trump was doing what “I think what he does best, which is just being among the people, talking to them about what they care about,” Vance said. “He showed I think genuine interest in the employees and their lives and where they came from and what they were actually doing in their job, and that’s something you can’t stage, and you can’t fake. That is just a genuine person that Donald Trump is.” Vance stressed that these interactions are “why I think a lot of working people, even though, of course, he’s a successful real estate billionaire, have this emotional connection to Donald Trump. You can’t make up that kind of connection.” Also during his visit to McDonald’s, Trump took jabs at his 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, over her saying that she held a job at McDonald’s while she was a college student in the 1980s. The Washington Free Beacon and others have raised questions about the claim, noting a lack of documentation to back it up. RELATED: Tim Walz Says Trump ‘Disrespected’ McDonald’s Employees By Serving Fries There Vance said he and Trump find it to be “weird” that Harris has “been able to produce no evidence that she worked at McDonald’s, and she didn’t even talk about it until 2019” — when she ran her first campaign for the presidency. “I don’t know what’s ultimately true here,” Vance added, “but it’s interesting where the media will try to nitpick and micromanage every single thing that me or Donald Trump has said. And yet they just buy into this narrative” from Harris.

Liam Payne’s partial autopsy reportedly shows that the singer had a mix of drugs in his system at the time of his fatal fall from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Oct. 16. He was 31. Sources told ABC News that the former member of One Direction had “multiple substances in his system” including something called “pink cocaine” when he fell three stories at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel where his body was found dead in the hotel courtyard.  Pink cocaine is described as a mix of several drugs including methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA and others. The toxicology report also reportedly found crack, cocaine, and benzodiazepine, along with drug paraphernalia used to ingest drugs, the source said. Payne’s body will remain in the country until the complete autopsy is finished. Liam Payne Had ‘Pink Cocaine’ in System When He Died, Autopsy Reveals | Click to read more ? https://t.co/ZhMYXS3W0K — TMZ (@TMZ) October 21, 2024 Details have recently been released about multiple 911 calls made by the hotel staff minutes before the singer’s shocking fatal fall. Local reports revealed that staff was very worried about Payne’s mental state after reportedly noticing the English singer appeared to be under the influence before emergency crews responded to his fall, People magazine noted. According to a translation of La Nacion of the transcript of the call, the staff made it clear they needed help “urgently” — though they didn’t use his name in the call. The Associated Press reported that the hotel manager told the 911 operator about “a guest who is overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol. … He’s destroying the entire room and, well, we need you to send someone, please.” A BBC transcript stated that the staff said the person had been “trashing the entire room” before his death. In a second call, a member of the hotel staff said they worried the guest’s “life may be in danger” because he was “in a room with a balcony. We’re a little afraid that he …” the BBC reported. The 911 operator assured the manager that emergency crews were on the way, per the outlet.  The cause of death is currently listed as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding,” the Associated Press reported.  The British celebrity got his break in the music industry after appearing on “The X Factor” in 2008. He returned to the reality competition show two years later along with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik, the singers who would become the popular band One Direction. The band split up in 2016, with members deciding to take off on solo careers.  If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or go to SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources. Related: Details Of 911 Call Before Liam Payne’s Shocking Death Revealed