Reported: North Dakota's House killed SB 2405, and the Legislature has not posted the vote
Reported: North Dakota's House killed SB 2405, and the Legislature has not posted the vote
2026-09-15 · North Dakota · Legislation · Reported — unconfirmed
North Dakota's September 2026 special session adjourned on September 4. The one bill in it that reached every homeowner in the state passed the Senate, went to the House, and then, according to press accounts, was killed on the final day. The Legislature's own website has not recorded that vote.1
Senate Bill 2405 would have amended N.D.C.C. §§ 57-02-08.9, 57-20-09 and 57-55-03, undoing the ordering between the $1,600 primary residence credit and the five percent early-payment discount that was settled in January. Its title:
“A BILL for an Act to amend and reenact subsection 1 of section 57-02-08.9, section 57-20-09, and subsection 1 of section 57-55-03 of the North Dakota Century Code, relating to the order of application of the primary residence credit and discount for early payment of tax; and to provide an effective date.”
Sponsors: Senators Dean Rummel and Dale Patten, Representatives Jason Dockter and Craig Headland.
What the official record shows
The action history for SB 2405, as published by the Legislature, ends here:
- 09/02 — Senate: introduced, first reading, referred to Joint Policy
- 09/02 — House: committee hearing 10:30 (Joint Policy)
- 09/02 — Senate: reported back without recommendation, 8-0-0
- 09/03 — Senate: second reading, passed, yeas 27 nays 20
- 09/03 — House: received from Senate; introduced, first reading, referred to Joint Policy
- 09/03 — House: reported back without recommendation, 9-1-0
There is no House floor action. No second reading, no passage, no failure. The record simply stops with a committee report.
What the press reports
Two outlets reported that the House killed the bill on Friday, September 4, describing a unanimous House vote that kept the current system in place. That vote does not appear in any journal or roll call this review could locate.
So the honest statement is: reported dead, officially pending. No vote count should be quoted, because none has been published.
What was actually at stake
North Dakota gives owner-occupants a primary residence credit, and gives everyone a five percent discount for paying property tax early. Which one applies first changes what a household pays.
House Bill 1626, enacted in the January 2026 special session — House 93-0, Senate 40-6, signed January 23, 2026, effective January 1, 2026 — settled it with one sentence: “The discount must be applied before a primary residence credit under section 57-02-08.9.”2
SB 2405 would have reversed that. Its third amended section, § 57-55-03(1), is the mobile home tax provision, so the change reached manufactured-home owners too.
If the press accounts are right, HB 1626's ordering stands and nothing changes for the 2026 tax year.
Why the ordering of two tax lines reaches a board
It changes what owners have left. The households most sensitive to a change of this size are the ones closest to the line on assessments. An association forecasting delinquency, or sizing a special assessment, is forecasting against household cash flow, and property tax is the largest single line on most of them.
It lands on the same statement as the improvement district. In many North Dakota subdivisions, paving, lighting and utilities are paid through special assessments billed with property tax. The credit-and-discount arithmetic sits on the same piece of paper.
It is coming back. Senator Rummel indicated the issue will return in the January 2027 regular session — and he sits on the interim subcommittee currently drafting a bill on what a real estate tax statement must contain.
What else was in the September special session
Almost nothing relevant. The session convened September 2 and adjourned September 4, called “for the purpose of considering and enacting a statutory framework to regulate or prohibit” kratom and kratom products. It carried five measures: HB 1628 and SB 2407 on kratom, SB 2405 on the tax credit ordering, SB 2408 on a military museum appropriation, and SB 2406, a data-centre non-disclosure bill that failed the Senate 15-32.
The January 2026 special session, which ran January 21 to 23 for rural health transformation funding, carried twelve measures, of which HB 1626 was the only one reaching homeowners.
Neither 2026 special session touched community-association law in any respect.
How to treat a story the record has not confirmed
This is a live caution rather than a technicality. North Dakota's bill data was refreshed on September 11 and its roll-call data has not moved since September 3. Final-day actions from a special session routinely take time to post, and the session is still flagged as current.
Until the journal appears, the working assumption is that HB 1626's ordering governs the 2026 tax year, no House vote count has been published to quote, and the bill page is where any change would show first. Our North Dakota assessment limits page covers what the association itself may charge, which is unaffected either way.
What to watch next
Watch the SB 2405 action history and the House journal for the final-day vote to be posted, which will convert this from reported to settled. Watch the Tax Reform and Relief Advisory Committee on September 29, 2026. And watch the prefiling deadline of December 18, 2026 for the 2027 version of this fight, which its sponsors have said is coming.
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