701-566-9300Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #37
A Quick Canadian Trip Monday I drove up to Winnipeg against a north wind for the annual International Legislator’s Forum. This is a gathering which includes select lawmakers from Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Manitoba. Originally it was about managing flood waters but lately has expanded to transportation, sex trafficking, invasive species and other topics. The […]hi
A Quick Canadian Trip
Monday I drove up to Winnipeg against a north wind for the annual International Legislator’s Forum. This is a gathering which includes select lawmakers from Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Manitoba. Originally it was about managing flood waters but lately has expanded to transportation, sex trafficking, invasive species and other topics. The various governments...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #36
Last week we had an hour or so at the Clemens/Ericson farm outside of Wimbledon. The idea was to gather interested growers in the shop and discuss what happened in the ND Legislature concerning agricultural issues. We did have 10 or so producers show up at 8 in the morning and besides a short presentation […]hi
Last week we had an hour or so at the Clemens/Ericson farm outside of Wimbledon. The idea was to gather interested growers in the shop and discuss what happened in the ND Legislature concerning agricultural issues. We did have 10 or so producers show up at 8 in the morning and besides a short presentation from Scott Rising and me, it was mostly answering questions about a variety of issues. By...
Shop Talk
If you are anywhere near enough to Wimbledon to get to the Clemens/Ericson farm at 10020 19th St. SE Wimbledon next Wednesday, June 14 at 8 a.m., there will be a few people gathered to discuss the legislative session which ended last month. Topics will cover transportation, water, PSC elevator regulation and a few other […]hi
If you are anywhere near enough to Wimbledon to get to the Clemens/Ericson farm at 10020 19th St. SE Wimbledon next Wednesday, June 14 at 8 a.m., there will be a few people gathered to discuss the legislative session which ended last month. Topics will cover transportation, water, PSC elevator regulation and a few other issues/controversies including whatever the growers present may wish to...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #35
Okay, here it is one week after the session ended and there has been a change brought on by the Governor. He vetoed the $10,000 that was going to go to every township outside of the oil producing counties. You may recall that it was to arrive August 1st but for one year only and […]hi
Okay, here it is one week after the session ended and there has been a change brought on by the Governor. He vetoed the $10,000 that was going to go to every township outside of the oil producing counties. You may recall that it was to arrive August 1st but for one year only and the money was to have come from the Strategic Investment and Improvements fund as well as the Disaster Relief fund....
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #34
Today is the 77th Legislative Day of this session. There were at least 2 other days that everyone worked but were not counted due to a sleight of hand in technical parliamentary rules. In other words, it would be right up against the 80 day limit were if straightforward. Anyway, this looks like the last […]hi
Today is the 77th Legislative Day of this session. There were at least 2 other days that everyone worked but were not counted due to a sleight of hand in technical parliamentary rules. In other words, it would be right up against the 80 day limit were if straightforward. Anyway, this looks like the last day.
I just walked out on discussion of the last of 19 amendments that had been attached to...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #33
The SWC (State Water Commission budget, HB1020) was pretty much settled Monday in Conference Committee about 5 p.m. They need to approve the settled language after it is typed up by attorneys this morning. Rural Water was put in its own bucket or category of funding which presumably makes them happy. The big deal is […]hi
The SWC (State Water Commission budget, HB1020) was pretty much settled Monday in Conference Committee about 5 p.m. They need to approve the settled language after it is typed up by attorneys this morning. Rural Water was put in its own bucket or category of funding which presumably makes them happy. The big deal is that the Red River Water Supply Project appears to be on its way with $17...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #32
The bill that dealt with NDSU Research and Extension has been contentious in the area of the Extension Service Soil Conservation committee because the House saw an administrative position as too rich for the function. They removed $213,000 for that and the conference committee put back all but $21,788 of that just minutes ago this […]hi
The bill that dealt with NDSU Research and Extension has been contentious in the area of the Extension Service Soil Conservation committee because the House saw an administrative position as too rich for the function. They removed $213,000 for that and the conference committee put back all but $21,788 of that just minutes ago this Friday afternoon. The Senate had taken out over $7 million from...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #31
Township road money is a bone of contention in bill SB2013 which is the budget for Trust Lands. Oil country townships get 3 percent of the oil extraction tax in their county. Another 3 percent of the extraction tax is pooled from the nine biggest oil producing counties and then distributed per township in those […]hi
Township road money is a bone of contention in bill SB2013 which is the budget for Trust Lands. Oil country townships get 3 percent of the oil extraction tax in their county. Another 3 percent of the extraction tax is pooled from the nine biggest oil producing counties and then distributed per township in those counties depending on maintained miles. Of course, most legislators are from the...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #30
Bills and the ideas that spawn them begin to pop up in unlikely places when legislative sessions get to the later stages such as we are now in. These are ideas championed by lawmakers who will not give up, the ones that keep watchers hoping and hopping. There are supposed standards for germane-ness, like that […]hi
Bills and the ideas that spawn them begin to pop up in unlikely places when legislative sessions get to the later stages such as we are now in. These are ideas championed by lawmakers who will not give up, the ones that keep watchers hoping and hopping. There are supposed standards for germane-ness, like that an item introduced as an amendment onto a budget bill should be related to that...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #29
The House killed SB2263 the other day. That was the Senate tiling bill. HB1390 is on the way to the governor and the tiling equipment should be ready to roll. Friday morning in the Conference Committee that deals with the DOT budget, an amendment was approved that deals with the highway maintenance sites that were […]hi
The House killed SB2263 the other day. That was the Senate tiling bill. HB1390 is on the way to the governor and the tiling equipment should be ready to roll.
Friday morning in the Conference Committee that deals with the DOT budget, an amendment was approved that deals with the highway maintenance sites that were to be consolidated. There are eight sections to the amendment which I will not...