FARGO, N.D. – Cass County Finance Director Brandy Madrigga says if North Dakota Governor Kelly Armstrong’s bill to cap county and city spending becomes to bring property tax relief law, the county will be in a $4 million deficit.
She adds that is if no additional staff are hired.
“A large factor of this is stemming from the county’s absorption of the 2025 opening of the jail pod expansion. In the 2025 budget, the $5.8 million deficiency was by design,” Madrigga explained.
“If some of these bills were successful, or at least one of these bills with the three percent cap, that we would need to probably cut resources. I believe that would probably be resources that would be needed to staff the new jail pod. I don’t think that’s an option. We’ve struggled the last three years with a number of people that been turned away during arrests because of our over capacity issues and I don’t think the public is aware of what these tax proposals would potentially do to our staffing,” Sheriff Jesse Jahner said.
Cass County Commission Chair Tony Grindberg said he met with Armstrong about his bill and the information of a potential deficit for the county.
“If we need to balance the books by finding $4 million, we have to go to the big budgets and that’s public safety. I don’t want to do that,” Grindberg said.
