Have you ever wondered about Fargo’s Special Assessment program and who regulates or monitors the application of North Dakota city commission laws? It’s not the attorney general or state auditor, so who monitors the city commission? What’s to stop the city from billing you for an “improvement project” 3 or 4 miles from your home, maybe 7 miles from your home?
Of course, the city will tell you that you “benefit” from the project and here’s your $5,000 bill. What does benefit really mean anyway? The city will give you a great deal and only charge 1% over the great interest rate the city gets for their tax exempt bonds, so you can’t go wrong.
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What about that bill anyway. Is every item in the bill accounted for and does it belong to the project? Was the city frugal while monitoring the project? Why would they? It’s not their bill. The bill is passed right to the property owner into that special love letter I call “special” and the city adds on 28% so why would the city be frugal? The bigger the bill, the more money they collect for other city expenses like salaries. So, I continue to wonder, does anyone care? No one ever fights these bills, so the bill must be correct, right?
The school board, park board, county, state and feds all get those bills and no one ever fights those bills, so it must be legal. Oh, I forgot, the Airport Authority refused to pay a $700,000 bill and the city didn’t force the payment. So maybe, just maybe, those bills are not legal.
