A Williston State Senator and member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said he would like to see a better definition of what earnings from the Legacy Fund could be used for.
This is the first biennium in which the fund’s earnings go to the state’s general fund.
Sen. Brad Bekkedahl (R-Williston) said he was on the original committee that put together the idea for the Legacy Fund.
"It was always my hope that at some point when we started to see the interest dollars dump into the General Fund, that we would have already defined a use or a philosophical use for those monies," Bekkedahl said. "We just haven't done that yet."
Bekkedahl said that's why you see 141 Legislators with 141 ideas how to use that. And he said Gov. Doug Burgum also has ideas.
Bekkedahl said he would like to see a commission or study committee take a look at a policy for use of those Legacy Fund earnings, and propose something for the 2021 Legislative session.
Burgum wants to use $50 million from the earnings to leverage another $100 million in private donations for a Theodore Roosevelt Library and Museum, to be built in Medora. Bekkedahl said he would like to see a Theodore Roosevelt Library and Museum become a reality, but there are other spending priorities that will likely come before that.
However, Bekkedahl said there may be another way to make Burgum's idea work.
"If there was a way to do it without committing to the $50 million being spent all at once, it would make it easier," Bekkedahl said. "Legislative intent for some money now, and some money to come in the future."
Bekkedahl said that would be in the form of an endowment.
"We really don't need to fully fund an endowment on the first day it opens," Bekkedahl said.
Sen. Tim Mathern (D-Fargo) is proposing something similar.
Bekkedahl chairs a subcommittee looking at the Commerce Department budget. Burgum had put the $50 million in that budget. The House took it out.
