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Commissioners briefed on House Bill 116 changes to local-budget rules and timing
Summary
County staff explained key provisions of House Bill 116 affecting local political subdivisions, including a higher primary-residence credit, a 3% cap on dollars levied with multi-year carryover, three taxing "buckets," and new deadlines for publishing hearing notices and final budgets.
County staff gave Stark County commissioners an overview of changes in state law they said will affect the 2026 local budgeting process. The presentation focused on provisions in House Bill 116 for political subdivisions, deadlines for budget notices and hearings, and how a new cap on dollars levied will be calculated.
Karen, a county staff member who presented slides from the North Dakota Association of Counties (NDACO), said the primary-residence credit was increased to $1,600. She said the bill establishes a 3% cap on the growth in dollars levied — not on a jurisdiction’s overall budget — and allows unused percentage increases to be carried forward for up to five years.
The county’s auditor staff illustrated the difference between overall budget figures and dollars levied by using the general fund as an example: a roughly $12,000,000 general-fund budget with $5,500,000 levied in taxes. The 3% cap, she said, applies to the dollars levied ($5.5 million in the example) and not to the total budget. She also explained that if a jurisdiction uses less than the 3% in one year it can carry the remaining percentage forward, up to five years.
The presenter outlined three taxing “buckets” the county will use for cap worksheets: a county-wide bucket (general fund, county road and bridge, senior mill levies, JDA and similar levies that cover the whole county); an unorganized road-and-bridge bucket (which excludes cities such as Dickinson); and a separate bucket for the airport, library and Weed because those do not include the City of Dickinson in the same way. The staff member emphasized that the 3% cap applies to the dollars levied within each bucket.
She also reviewed new timing requirements from the bill: political subdivisions must submit notice of their public hearing date, time and location to the county auditor by August 10; hearings must be held between Sept. 7 and Oct. 7; and the county’s final budget must be approved by Oct. 10 so the auditor can calculate and send out final levies. The presenter said preliminary budget materials must be viewable by the August 10 date for anyone who wants to review them.
Commissioners asked clarifying questions about how departments should plan for the cap and were reminded that the 3% is an aggregate lever for a taxing district, not a department-level requirement. The presentation was informational; no formal action was taken.
Why this matters: commissioners and department leaders will use the new cap worksheets and hearing deadlines when preparing the county’s preliminary and final budgets.
