North Dakota
North Dakota lawmakers reshape how Legacy Fund will be used
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BISMARCK — A number of payments just lately handed by the North Dakota Legislature will create a brand new authorized blueprint for spending, investing and conserving the state’s $8.8 billion oil tax financial savings account.
Republican leaders mentioned the brand new plans for the Legacy Fund will bankroll quality-of-life enhancements and tax aid for residents whereas sustaining stable stewardship of the voter-approved fund.
However a number of lawmakers from throughout the political spectrum voiced issues concerning the quantity of Legacy Fund earnings used to supply abnormal authorities packages.
The overwhelming majority of the Legacy Fund’s principal originates from oil and gasoline tax income collected since 2011. Investments made by state officers and out of doors corporations generate earnings used for a wide range of functions.
The Home of Representatives and the Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve
Home Invoice 1379,
which revises a
complicated regulation
handed in 2021 that laid out designs for spending Legacy Fund funding earnings. Gov. Doug Burgum has not but acted on the invoice.
The laws sponsored by Home Majority Chief Mike Lefor, R-Dickinson, establishes a number of streams that direct the place Legacy Fund earnings go:
- The primary $102.6 million in earnings can be put towards repaying buyers for
infrastructure bonds.
- The following $225 million would go towards tax aid supplied by way of
an enormous bundle of tax cuts
authorised final month.
- The following $100 million would go to freeway and street funding.
- Any earnings left over can be cut up evenly between the state’s principal working fund (Common Fund) and a reserve fund continuously utilized by lawmakers to backfill the state price range (Strategic Funding and Enhancements Fund).
Senate Majority Chief David Hogue, R-Minot, informed colleagues final week the invoice is “a superb piece of stewardship” that places cash from the Legacy Fund into buckets that “usually profit your complete state of North Dakota.”
Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck, mentioned the invoice doesn’t clearly convey to residents how the Legacy Fund is being spent on game-changing initiatives or grown by way of reinvestment.
“After we are speaking to voters and our constituents about what we’re utilizing their Legacy Fund cash in direction of, this invoice for me doesn’t present lots of readability, and I don’t assume it offers lots of readability for these people both,” Cleary mentioned.
Darren Gibbins / The Bismarck Tribune
A lot of the payments handed this session would use the Legacy Fund for ongoing state bills moderately than “big-picture, legacy-type initiatives,” Cleary mentioned. He sees that as a missed alternative.
A want to tweak an in-state funding program
compelled Assistant Senate Majority Chief Jerry Klein,
R-Fessenden, to convey ahead
Senate Invoice 2330.
Widespread laws
handed in 2021 arrange an goal for the State Funding Board to take a position as much as 20% of the Legacy Fund in North Dakota corporations and native infrastructure.
Klein’s invoice, which Burgum signed into regulation final week, resets this system’s parameters by stating the in-state funding objectives as arduous numbers moderately than percentages. That approach the funding targets don’t hold rising because the fund grows in worth.
The brand new regulation creates an goal to take a position as much as $600 million of the Legacy Fund in shares and different fairness with ties to the state.
One other $400 million is earmarked for low-interest loans to native companies by way of the Financial institution of North Dakota. As much as $150 million from the Legacy Fund may very well be used for infrastructure loans to cities and counties.
Jeremy Turley / Discussion board Information Service
Proponents say the revisions to this system will make it simpler to implement whereas producing higher returns.
Klein’s invoice additionally established an algorithm to put aside 7% of the five-year common steadiness of the Legacy Fund as a baseline for spending earnings throughout every two-year price range cycle.
However on the ultimate day of the four-month session, an
all-Republican panel
of legislative leaders made an modification to the algorithm to permit 8% of five-year common worth of the fund to be spent. The transfer, which appeared within the
Workplace of Administration and Price range’s funding invoice,
freed up an additional $70 million from the Legacy Fund for fast budgeting functions.
When the modification got here earlier than every chamber, Rep. Corey Mock, D-Grand Forks, and Sen. Doug Larsen, R-Mandan, questioned why such an necessary coverage determination was rising within the waning hours of the session.
Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, R-Williston, mentioned GOP leaders determined utilizing extra Legacy Fund earnings within the 2023-2025 state price range was a “affordable strategy to convey some steadiness into the appropriation course of for mandatory funds to proceed the obligations of the state.”
Mock famous taking extra money out of the Legacy Fund for on a regular basis budgeting can have a unfavourable compounding impact since these {dollars} can’t be reinvested. Assistant Home Majority Chief Glenn Bosch, R-Bismarck, mentioned the convention committee that made the change didn’t do any type of fiscal evaluation of the transfer to eight%, however he acknowledged it could “have an effect” on the Legacy Fund.
“These are heavy conversations — vital coverage conversations — and this physique is having to make this alternative on the seventy fifth day (of the session) with none of this stuff coming ahead,” Mock mentioned. “I’m sorry, however that is an irresponsible convention committee report that has penalties far past what any of us are ready to reply to.”
Each chambers authorised the OMB price range, together with the 8% modification, within the early morning hours of Sunday, April 30. Burgum has not but acted on the invoice.
The 2023-2025 price range depends on about $556 million in Legacy Fund earnings, in accordance with state Treasurer Thomas Beadle.
Which means all the “streams” in Home Invoice 1379 will obtain full funding, and the Common Fund and the Strategic Funding and Enhancements Fund will every get about $64 million from the Legacy Fund.
The Legislature additionally handed Mock’s
Home Concurrent Decision 3033,
which locations a measure on the poll in 2024.
Below the state structure, lawmakers might use as much as 15% of the Legacy Fund’s principal every price range cycle. If voters approve the measure subsequent yr, it could limit the Legislature to utilizing not more than 5% of the fund’s principal every biennium.
Lawmakers have solely spent funding earnings from the Legacy Fund and have by no means touched the fund’s principal. Proponents of the measure say it could permit extra of the fund to be invested moderately than sitting in reserves for budgeting functions.
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North Dakota
North Dakota Residents Speak Out: 15 Things To Outlaw Forever
![North Dakota Residents Speak Out: 15 Things To Outlaw Forever](https://townsquare.media/site/505/files/2022/07/attachment-smokinginpuplicplaces1.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural)
There’s really not much I don’t like about North Dakota.
Yeah, the weather can be annoying at times. Mostly the wind, but other than that I personally love the 4 changes of seasons even though sometimes we miss out on one or two of them Some years we don’t get much of a spring or in other years fall is very short and we go right into winter.
Besides the weather what’s not to like right? Well, there are some things according to our listeners that should be “outlawed” in the state of North Dakota.
Wouldn’t be nice if you could make one law in the state of North Dakota?
I recently asked my listeners on our Facebook page, app, and on-air if they could outlaw one thing in North Dakota what would it be? Some of the answers were of course comic genius. Like, “STDs”, “Mothers in Laws”, “White Claw Drinkers”, “South Dakotans” and my favorite “Mondays”. Yes, we should definitely go to a 4-day work week in this country.
Some more serious answers like “Texting and Driving”, “Vaping”, “Smoking”, and “The Enforcement of Littering Fines” were also given.
I had over 1,000 answers to my question to add up.
Those are just some of the honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the top 15 answers to my very scientific poll that encompassed over 1,000 answers. I’m actually starting to get pretty good at math thanks to this job.
So, without further ado, here are “The Top 15 Things We Would Like to Outlaw in North Dakota.” Hopefully, some of these will become illegal in the future.
These Are The 15 Things North Dakotans Would Like To Outlaw
Beautiful North Dakota home found full of dead animals.
Gallery Credit: John Seil
LOOK: Baby names that are illegal around the world
Gallery Credit: Annalise Mantz
North Dakota
Minnesota, North Dakota prep for busy roads this holiday weekend
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FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – According to AAA, nearly 71 million people are expected to travel this week. Chances are, many of you will be if you haven’t already.
It’s all hands on deck for law enforcement in Minnesota. They’re keeping an extra eye out for impaired and distracted drivers.
“We hope when we go out, we don’t find anybody. You know, making those poor choices because we want everybody to hear the conversations here than along the roadside. Really the 4th of July holiday should be about making memories and we don’t want to involve bad crashes or anything like that,” said Sgt. Jesse Grabow with the Minnesota State Patrol.
State Patrol says over the last five years, there have been 25 traffic-related deaths on the 4th. That’s more compared to other holidays including the winter ones like Christmas and New Year’s.
”Clear, sunny days, dry roads, it’s one of those things that again, just because the road conditions are in good conditions doesn’t mean you can get laxed on your behaviors when it comes to traffic safety.”
While different states, safety is also the main goal in North Dakota.
“We have a speeding grant that’s going on right now. So we’ll definitely be enforcing speeding but as always, we definitely do whatever we can to deter DUIs and we will be enforcing DUIs whenever we can,” Sgt. Matt Ysteboe with Fargo Police tells Valley News Live.
In North Dakota, a first-offense DUI is considered a Class B misdemeanor. It can lead to a $500 fine if your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is below .16. The higher the BAC, the higher the penalty. Drinking and driving can be more than a penalty to your wallet.
“Making sure that you have a designated driver. We don’t want to see anybody out there getting hurt or getting involved in with some terrible accident from drinking and driving,” added Ysteboe.
For Minnesota, punishment for one’s first DWI can vary. The Department of Public Safety says a typical penalty for a first-time offender is potential jail time and the loss of a license for a minimum of up to 30 days to a year. When factoring costs and legal fees, you could be looking at a price tag as high as $20,000.
Copyright 2024 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
Recalled microdosing product linked to death in North Dakota, 48 illnesses nationwide • Daily Montanan
![Recalled microdosing product linked to death in North Dakota, 48 illnesses nationwide • Daily Montanan](https://dailymontanan.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Screenshot-2024-07-03-164010.png)
A person in North Dakota died after consuming recalled microdosing candies that are linked to illnesses across the country, the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday.
The death is under investigation by state agencies, the poison control center and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The FDA published a recall on June 28 of some Prophet Premium Blends Diamond Shruumz products. The products include microdosing chocolate bars, infused cones and micro-dose and mega-dose/extreme gummies.
The products are marketed as containing a proprietary blend of mushrooms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of July 1, 48 illnesses, including 27 hospitalizations, have been reported in 24 states, according to the CDC. North Dakota is the only state where a death is being investigated, the agency said. One person has been reported getting sick, according to the CDC.
North Dakota officials are warning the public because the recalled products could still be available for sale online, in stores that sell hemp-derived products, or in smoke and vape shops, said Michelle Dethloff, director of the infectious diseases and epidemiology unit.
The products are not illegal in North Dakota but they are not licensed or regulated by the state, Dethloff said.
Retail locations in Montana, including two places in Yellowstone County, were selling the products, and they’re available online.
State officials would not provide specifics about when or where in North Dakota the death occurred or the person’s age, citing privacy reasons. The person who died is an adult, Dethloff said. The exact cause of death remains under investigation.
The cases of illness reported nationwide have been severe, Dethloff said. Symptoms reported include seizures, loss of consciousness, confusion, sleepiness, abnormal heart rates, high or low blood pressure, nausea and vomiting.
People who suspect poisoning can call the Poison Center at 800-222-1222.
This story was originally produced by the North Dakota Monitor which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network, including the Daily Montanan, supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
Darrell Ehrlick in Montana contributed to this report.
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