Official Newspaper of Eddy County since 1883

Legislative Report: March 29, 2021

This was a very busy week in the legislature. In the Appropriations Committee, we heard the agency budgets for the Office of the Adjutant General, Retirement and Investment Office, Public Employees Retirement System, Office of Management and Budget, Department of Public Instruction, Labor and Human Rights, and the State Auditor. Of those budgets, I will serve on the Office of Management and Budget, and the Department of Public Instruction.

We also had revenue updates from Moody’s and IHS Markit, which provided much-welcomed news.

Both Moody’s and HIS Markit foresee an uptick in revenues from the oil patch, sales tax, motor vehicle tax, and corporate income tax. The estimated price per barrel of oil has been increased from $40 per barrel in January, to $50 per barrel in March. If that price continues for the biennium, every dollar increase amounts to about $80 million more per biennium. If this holds true, there would be about $800 million more in oil revenue alone. There is an expectation that there may be a slight decrease in barrels per day, from the current 1.1 million barrels per day down to 1 million barrels per day.

Monday morning, March 22, Senate Appropriations Committee will have a joint meeting with the House Appropriations Committee to finalize the revenue forecast we will use going forward with the 2021-2023 budget.

One bill I will highlight this week is HB 1075, which repeals a section of Century Code that prevented schools from holding school or activities/practices on two days in the fall, which were designated as professional development days. With the passage of this bill, schools can make local decisions on whether they will hold school, take the days off for professional development, and allow activities and practices to be held. This is something I worked on for the past two sessions, and while I was not a sponsor of this bill, I sure supported it.

HCR 3032 was voted on this week. It is a resolution to take sports betting to a vote of the people in the general election in 2022. I voted yes on this; however, the final vote Friday was 22 yes and 24 no, with 1 person absent. As I write this Sunday evening, there may be an effort to bring this back on Monday. It is one of those bills where we have to stay tuned.

On another note, my Senate Minority Caucus held our legislative community project Tuesday evening. Each session, we find a place to volunteer and help the Bismarck/Mandan community. This year, we helped fill to-go boxes at Trinity Lutheran church from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. When we got there, the food was prepared, and we dished it into individual to-go boxes for pick up. We filled 200 boxes, which were then moved to the entrance of the church for people to pick up. No questions asked, just come and get a meal. A few people came in and ate in the fellowship hall, but most meals were take outs. It was a great time to help the church, and give their faithful volunteers a night off. And, it also gave our caucus members an opportunity to open our wallets and help financially. Trinity Lutheran serves meals two nights and two days per week. On Thursdays, they serve 350 meals.

On Thursday afternoon, the Senate and House held their Memorial Service session. These services remember legislators who have passed away since the last session. This year, we remembered nine former senators. The memorial address was delivered by former Senator Tim Flakoll, with former Senator Carolyn Nelson providing the invocation and benediction. I assisted in handing out flowers, memorial certificates, and memorial medallions to the families present. It was a beautiful ceremony with one family member indicating he could not attend his father’s funeral service in Costa Rica, so this provided some closure for him.

On Friday, we received news that North Dakota will be getting $1,885,517,601 from the recently approved American Rescue Plan (ARP). For a deeper dive into the specifics, go to http://www.legis.nd.gov and find the photo of the COVID 19 information. Click on there, and you will find a link a ways down on the page that identifies this funding from H.R. 1319, which is the federal legislation authorizing these funds. Some of these funds have an extended expenditure time, and don’t have to be used until 2024 and 2025. It will be interesting to see how these funds blend into the current budget.

As we begin the next week, some committees are finishing up their committee hearings and will continue to move bills out for the votes of the Senate. The next step after that, is to start holding conference committees on bills that the House and Senate both passed, but which may have had a change in since passage in the first chamber. Conference committees are a time to resolve the differences and compromise before the bill gets its final approval.

Have a great week. You may reach me at [email protected]. or by calling 701-302-0355. Have a great week!