What you should know about your ballot: Measure 2

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – As the countdown to the election ticks down, Valley News Live tells you what you need to know about the city of Fargo and North Dakota’s actions.

Last year, Fargo residents said “no” to a $140 million expansion and renovation of the FARGODOME, which included a new convention center. The push to renovate the FARGODOME is now Measure 1 on the ballot, while a new convention center is Measure 2. To make the new convention center a reality, the city would double its lodging tax from 3% to 6%. Those who agree with the measure say the tax will be paid mostly by people staying in local hotels. The aim will also be to create a public-private partnership to develop the center in the hope of bringing more people to the region.

“It’s up to the private developers to find partners and determine what size or type of hotel or other bars, restaurants or amenities they want or think they could include,” said Charley Johnson, Visit’s president and CEO Fargo Moorhead.

Opponents of the bill argue that it doesn’t matter if the tax is paid primarily by out-of-town guests.

“I stay in a few hotels and have friends from North Dakota who stay in the hotels. “Why should they have to pay?” said one Cass County voter.

Another said: “On the lodging tax, I’m not in favor of raising it and I feel like we haven’t heard a really good reason why we should.”

As for the state measure, Measure 2 aims to change the way people can place an initiated measure on the ballot. The constitutional amendment would increase the number of signatures required for a ballot initiative to get on the ballot from 4% to 6% of the state’s population. In the end, around 39,000 signatures are required. The measure also limits the wording of a measure to a single issue, which would have to pass the primary and a general election. Currently, the parliamentary elections only serve constitutional measures.

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