Same week. Same basic ask. Wildly different result.
While LA County's Measure ER squeaked across the finish line by roughly 13,000 votes and Contra Costa County voters flatly rejected a sales tax increase, Fargo, North Dakota did something that looks almost old-fashioned by comparison.
Fargo residents approved a one-cent sales tax extension on June 9 — with 72.9% of voters in favor, extending the tax through 2048. The measure required at least 60% approval to pass.
Not a squeaker. Not a coin flip. A landslide — for a sales tax measure that asks voters to keep paying a tax they've been paying for 18 years, for another 20.
What did Fargo do differently? The answer is genuinely instructive for any city government — and for any business trying to understand why some local sales tax measures sail through while others barely survive or fail outright.
Fargo's infrastructure sales tax was first approved in 2006, with collections starting in 2009. The 20-year tax was set to expire at the end of 2028. The June 9 vote extends it through 2048.
The tax helps fund street, water, wastewater, flood protection, and drought improvement projects throughout the city of Fargo.
Fargo's total sales tax is 2.25%, including 1% for flood control that expires in 2084 and a quarter-cent tax that pays for public safety operations and projects.
This wasn't a new tax. It wasn't even technically an increase. "This is not a new sales tax," City Commissioner Denise Kopack said. "It is the extension of an old sales tax." Voters were being asked to keep the status quo — not to add anything new to their bill.
The Fargo Forward Coalition says the 1% tax has generated $34 million annually since its 2008 inception — more than $600 million total.
But the number that probably mattered more to voters wasn't the total revenue. It was the personal savings.
City Engineer Tom Knakmuhs said residents would pay $4,000 per property for street mill and overlay projects without the sales tax. The tax cuts that cost in half. For street reconstruction projects, the tax reduces costs for property owners by 86%.
That's an extraordinarily concrete number to put in front of voters. Not "this funds infrastructure" — but "this saves you 86% on the bill you'd otherwise get for your street being rebuilt." When a tax measure translates directly into a number a homeowner can compare against their own potential out-of-pocket cost, the math becomes very easy.
One argument shows up again and again in successful local sales tax campaigns — and Fargo leaned into it heavily.
"This is really about residents, businesses and nonresidents all supporting our infrastructure together," said Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig. The tax lowers utility bills and special assessments while sharing the cost of infrastructure projects with nonresidents who shop in Fargo.
The Fargo Forward Coalition put it simply on its campaign website: "With just one penny — visitors, commuters and shoppers help pay for the streets and utilities they use."
This is the core appeal of sales tax as a local funding mechanism, and it's a message that travels well: a sales tax spreads the cost of infrastructure across everyone who uses it — not just the property owners who live there year-round. Fargo, as a regional retail and commercial hub for a much larger area of North Dakota and Minnesota, has a particularly strong version of this argument. People drive in from surrounding towns to shop, eat, and do business in Fargo — and every one of those purchases now contributes another 20 years to the city's infrastructure fund.
Here's an argument that emerged closer to the vote — and it significantly raised the stakes beyond Fargo's city limits.
A failure to extend the tax would have affected more than just Fargo. Communities like West Fargo and Horace buy water from Fargo. Without an extension, water bills in each city could have gone up by $20 a month, according to Fargo Forward Coalition co-chair Tami Norgard.
This transformed the vote from a purely local question into a regional one. Fargo voters weren't just deciding their own infrastructure funding — they were effectively deciding whether neighboring cities' residents would see their water bills increase. That's a powerful frame, and it likely contributed to turnout and support beyond Fargo's immediate boundaries of self-interest.
There's a structural detail here that's worth understanding for any government considering a similar measure.
North Dakota law bars local governments from promoting ballot measures, meaning the city of Fargo could not advocate for the sales tax renewal itself.
So a separate group did it instead. The Fargo Forward Coalition — a group of Fargo businesses and residents — formed specifically to promote the June 9 measure, holding public events and building grassroots support.
This is a common workaround in states with similar restrictions: city staff can explain the facts (what the tax funds, what happens if it expires), but a private coalition does the actual persuading. Fargo's coalition clearly did its job — 73% approval doesn't happen by accident.
Local media weighed in too — an editorial board urged voters to "selfishly vote yes," framing the extension as something that would directly reduce their own costs.
The most effective argument in any tax renewal campaign is often the simplest: what happens if it fails?
"If this expires, the funding goes away, but the work does not stop," said Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig.
Streets still need to be repaired. Water systems still need maintenance. Flood protection infrastructure — critical in a city that sits on the Red River and has experienced serious flood events — doesn't become less necessary because a funding source disappears. The choice voters faced wasn't "tax vs. no tax." It was "shared sales tax vs. higher property taxes and utility bills falling entirely on residents."
As City Commissioner Brenda Derrig put it during deliberations: "This is a choice between shared sales tax or a burden on local residents and businesses. We are managing multigenerational assets, and stability is key."
With the extension approved, city engineers are already looking ahead to two more decades of projects.
City of Fargo Engineer Tom Knakmuhs said future infrastructure priorities include road and infrastructure improvements from 32nd Avenue in south Fargo to Main Avenue near downtown. The tax is primarily used for existing infrastructure — new developments will not receive funding from it. It's up to the discretion of the city how the tax revenue is split between roads, water, or sewer projects each year.
The 20-year runway gives Fargo's infrastructure planners something most cities don't have: long-term funding certainty for the basics — roads, water, sewer, flood control — without needing to revisit the question again until 2048.
Put side by side, the contrast between this week's results is striking.
LA County's Measure ER — a new half-cent increase, for a specific new purpose (healthcare), with a non-binding spending plan, in a county where combined rates are already approaching or exceeding 10%. Result: passed by roughly 13,000 votes out of nearly 1.9 million cast — essentially a coin flip.
Contra Costa's Measure B — a new sales tax increase, with contested ballot language that a judge had to order rewritten, for anticipated future costs that hadn't yet materialized. Result: rejected, 41% to 59%.
Fargo's measure — an extension of an existing tax that's been in place for 18 years, with concrete, verifiable savings numbers (86% cost reduction on street projects), framed around regional fairness (visitors and neighboring cities benefit too), with specific, named projects voters could picture. Result: approved, 72.9% to 27.1%.
The pattern across all three: voters respond to specificity, track record, and tangible personal benefit. They respond less well to "trust us, we'll figure out the spending plan later" — even when the underlying need (healthcare funding, infrastructure funding) is legitimate in every case.
For any city, county, or district weighing a sales tax ballot measure, Fargo's result offers a template:
1. Extensions outperform new taxes. Voters who have lived with a tax for years and can see what it built are far more receptive than voters being asked to take on something new.
2. Concrete numbers beat abstract framing. "86% cost reduction on your street's reconstruction" is more persuasive than "funds infrastructure improvements."
3. Regional spillover arguments work. If your tax affects neighboring jurisdictions, say so explicitly — it broadens the coalition of people with a stake in the outcome.
4. A dedicated, binding purpose matters. Fargo's tax has a clear, narrow purpose — infrastructure. It's not a general fund tax that could theoretically be spent on anything. Voters trust dedicated funds more than general ones.
5. Build a coalition early. Fargo Forward Coalition started months before the vote, with public events and a clear campaign. Measures that show up on the ballot without organized advocacy tend to underperform.
For businesses in Fargo, the practical impact is simple: nothing changes. The 2.25% combined sales tax rate — including the 1% infrastructure tax — continues uninterrupted through 2048. No system updates needed. No new rate to configure.
But the broader lesson applies everywhere: local sales tax measures are not going away, and the ones that pass tend to share specific characteristics. If you operate in a jurisdiction where a sales tax measure is on an upcoming ballot, understanding whether it looks more like "Fargo" (extension, dedicated purpose, concrete numbers, regional framing) or more like "Contra Costa" (new tax, contested language, abstract future costs) can help you anticipate whether a rate change is actually coming — or whether voters are likely to say no.
Operating a business in a jurisdiction with an upcoming sales tax measure and want to understand what a potential rate change would mean for your compliance? Book a free consultation with our team at sales.tax. We'll help you stay ahead of local rate changes — whether they're extensions, new measures, or anything in between.