As Governor Doug Burgum prepares to leave office, he’s urging state lawmakers to repeal the limits placed on the state’s Emergency Commission, when it comes to accepting federal grants and other unanticipated money coming to the state.
In the wake of millions of dollars in federal funds coming due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Legislature put limits on the Commission’s authority. Those limits are $50 million in federal funds and $20 million for special funds, per biennium. Legislators wanted more oversight of that spending.
"They created more problems than they solved," Burgum said in an interview with Prairie Public. He said some state agencies have had chances to get substantial grants approved quickly, but worried that the grants run into the cap.
"So then they just sit on it," Burgum said. "Then, instead of us delivering a service or an innovation a year earlier, we wait and run it through the Legislature. That's just unnecessary."
And Burgum said the caps themselves are artificially low.
"There isn't a business in the country that runs at the scale of the state of North Dakota, that can budget within one-tenth or two-tenths of one percent over a two-year period," Burgum said.
Burgum said lawmakers do have oversight. Four legislators serve on the Emergency Commission – and the Legislature’s Budget Section has the power to approve or reject some of the Commission's decisions.
"IT is a mechanism that can work for emergency spending that occurs between the sessions, with appropriate level of Legislative oversight," Burgum said. "It's their tool. And I would encourage them to make sure the rules are there to allow the executive branch to keep serving all of our citizens, in the way it's intended."
