Politics & Government

North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said he's happy all three members of North Dakota’s Congressional delegation will be involved with the negotiations over a new farm bill.

"I don't know if it has happened in history that our entire North Dakota delegation will be serving in some capacity as conferees," Goehring said. "It's gonna be good."

Goehring said teh delegation brings a lot of knowledge to the table, as well as a perspective from a farm state.

"It covers a lot of things," Goehring said.

A new state revenue forecast will be released in August.

"We call it our preliminary forecast, because it's our first look at the next biennium," said Office of Management and Budget director Joe Morrissette. "We'll use it as a basis to prepare the executive budget."

Morrissette said OMB has been working with Moody’s Analytics, and recently convened a revenue advisory group to look at Moody’s numbers. He said the advisory group didn’t make many changes to Moody's numbers.

The North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled Go. Doug Burgum issued improper line-item vetoes in four of five cases.

But the high court also ruled that the Legislature cannot delegate spending power to its Budget Section.

A Minot REpublican state senator is skeptical about the new GOP leadership infrastructure plan.

That plan – rolled out last week – creates three new “buckets” -- $115 million for cities, $115 million for counties and townships, and $50 million for airports. The money would come from oil tax collections.

"What was rolled out was sort of a 'Here's some money for you -- you're not asking for it or applying for it, we're just going to give it to you,'" said sen. David Hogue (R-Minot). "I have a hard time with that."

The North Dakota House Democratic leader said he’s taking a deep dive into the GOP Leadership plan for funding infrastructure development statewide.

The Republican leaders are proposing three new “buckets” for funding from oil taxes. $115 million would go toward cities’ infrastructure needs, $115 million would go for counties and townships, and $50 million would be set aside for airports.

Republican Legislative leaders have rolled out an “infrastructure” plan for the 2019 Legislature.

The plan affects the entire state, not just the Oil Patch.

"We want our state to grow," said Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner (R-Dickinson) at a Bismarck news conference. "We need to meet the needs of infrastructure across the state."

The proposal creates three new “buckets” funded through oil taxes: a $115 million county/township infrastructure fund; a $115 million municipal infrastructure fund; and a $50 million airport fund.

Members of the Bismarck-Mandan area pastoral community were at the University of Mary (July 24) to talk about Human and Sex Trafficking.

"A lot of people don't realize human trafficking is happening right here in our state," said U-Mary director of the Demand Reduction Program Stacy Schaffer. "And they don't know what to do."

Schaffer said it is very important that individuals are educated, and given tools to allow them to teach their congregations and other people within their communities.