Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

N.D. Senate Update- April 1, 2019

The Senate had Sophia Richards from Hope-Page High School serving as the Page for the Day. She assisted the Senate pages in distributing material to the Senators before and during session, attended committee work, and got a deeper look into the workings of the North Dakota Legislature. Thanks, Sophia, for your interest in and help with the Senate.

Tuesday evening, I attended the North Dakota Council on the Arts Governor's Awards event at the Heritage Center. New Rockford-Sheyenne music teacher, Annette Hovey, received the Educator in the Arts Award. It was a well-deserved honor. Her acceptance speech was as lovely as she is and spoke to her love of her career in education and music. Congratulations, Annette!

I attended the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Field hearing at United Tribes Community College in Bismarck Wednesday. Senators Hoeven and Cramer, and Congressman Armstrong were in attendance to take testimony on joint law enforcements efforts to build safe tribal communities and stop dangerous drugs from entering Indian Country. Governor Burgum and Attorney General Stenehjem provided information on current practices and efforts to assist with both law enforcement and drug issues on reservations and across the state

Ms. Jill Sanborn, FBI, Minneapolis; Mr. Richard Salter, Special Agent, DEA, Omaha; and Mr. Charles Addington, Deputy Director, Office of Justice Services, Washington, D.C., presented on the status of initiatives they have completed and are in the process of implementing to assist tribal nations. Also, Chairman Faith from Standing Rock and Chairman Pearson from Spirit Lake were present to talk about the difficulty in hiring and retaining law enforcement employees as well as issues with drug enforcement.

These testimonies will be entered in to the Congressional Record for the United States Indian Affairs Committee work.

At noon Wednesday, I attended the official signing of the Prairie Dog Bill which provides funding across the state for infrastructure development. The bill will not go into effect until after next session as the different buckets of money will need to fill with revenue. It still has the potential to be an integral part of the needs across this state, as continued snowfall impacts roads and the potential for flooding increases. I am currently working with Sen. Grabinger from Jamestown and other rural legislators to see if special funds will be needed for counties and townships to address the increase in snow removal costs.

As we move through the calendar for final votes on bills each day, the floor debates are getting longer and more intense. That is the way it should be. Proponents and opponents for bills need to make sure all of us Senators know about the things a bill does and doesn't do. That information is conveyed to all of us through the Senator who brings the bill to the Senate from his or her committee and from questions or comments during the debate. The Senate has turned the votes around on a few bills from the committee recommendation.

Bills defeated this week include the income tax elimination bill. HB 1530 was defeated on a vote of four yes, and 41 no votes. That speaks to the importance the individual income tax plays in North Dakota's overall revenue stream despite our low income tax assessment.

The Senate overturned a Do Not Pass vote on the elimination of taxing social security. This bill is now in the hands of the Appropriations Committee and will need to return to the Senate floor for a final vote. It will be interesting to see how Appropriations views this bill given the other funding bills they are holding in committee.

The reason Appropriations is holding bills is because there has not been a final determination between the majority parties in the House and Senate as to salary increases for state employees. Our caucus is holding strong on a 3 percent/3 percent raise each year of the biennium with a minimum of $80 for the lowest salaried workers. When those final numbers are settled, the Appropriations Committee will move out about 50 agency bills between the two committees.

I spoke to the House Judiciary Committee Tuesday in favor of HCR 4016. I supported this resolution earlier in the session. This resolution addresses recommended changes in the Constitution about the North Dakota Board of Higher Education. This would add seven more members to the board, address changes in the number of years in a term, and address removing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from the selection committee for board members and replace him with the Attorney General. We are hoping this resolution received a favorable vote from the House and can be placed on the 2020 ballot for the public's vote.

The Governor vetoed a bill to increase the driver's license fees. There is speculation that we will reconsider the bill and try to overturn that veto. More to come on that issue next week.

The Theodore Roosevelt Library continues to be one of the Governor's focuses this session. Our caucus has a plan developed by Senator Mathern to fund core services across the state, including education, long term care, developmental disabilities services , transportation, and many others before we determine if there is funding for the library. he main issue with the library is that the money would be held for the funding of yearly expenses of the library after it is built. We don't even know when that may be, so there does not seem to be a rush to appropriate this money. The push seems to indicate that if we don't appropriate the money, the big donors will not put up funding for construction costs. More to come on that also as the session moves along.

With that, the many bills waiting for votes decreases in number, but the complexity of the bills left is increasing. More to come on this also as the session moves along.

You may reach me at [email protected] or by calling (701) 302-0355.

Have a great week!