The director of the state’s Department of Career and Technical Education is asking the Legislature for loan authority from the Bank of North Dakota, to fund 13 local "career academy" projects that were approved – but still await federal money.
The projects were to receive money from ARPA – the American Rescue Plan Act. And they were approved during a special Legislative session. Each of the projects has a local match requirement. But the federal money has been held up in the federal pipeline.
CTE director Wayde Sick told a House Appropriations Subcommittee that – in addition to a loan fund for the projects – his department is asking for another $40 million in loan authority from the Bank – because of construction inflation.
"In talking with the projects' directors across the state, what they said they were going to deliver in December, 2021, due to inflation, they can't deliver," Sick told the committee. "There's a concern that the private sector match money may go away, if they can't deliver what they said they were going to."
Sick said the $40 million would help those projects come on-line.
The subcommittee didn’t take immediate action.