Murphy’s Law Blog

Well, it is not directly agricultural, but the House just failed to join the Senate in overriding the Governor’s veto raising driver’s license fees. The link to agriculture is that of course, more funding for our roads and bridges would be beneficial to our producers rather than using the $5.5 million for subsidizing production of our licenses. Also less than ten minutes...

Yesterday was Day 55 of the up to 80 day session. Yesterday the Senate overrode the Governor’s veto of 2244 which was the increase of driver’s license fees from $15 to $30. Proponents of 2244 argued that the revenue raised per biennium (I believe I heard in the neighborhood of $5.5 million) was needed because the DOT was not charging enough to fund the expense of issuing...

A Rather General Discussion: Just as an example of how things are never quite over during a session, take yesterday’s killing of 2275 on the House floor. That is an infrastructure revolving loan fund described as a companion bill to Prairie Dog (1066) which has already passed. Already this morning, language was inserted in 2020 – the State Water Commission budget bill –...

After the fireworks yesterday on the hearing for 2346 (grain inspection and licensing), the Senate Ag Chair stated that they would not work on 1467 (shifting the enforcement of grain inspection and licensing from the PSC to the Ag Dept.) today to let emotions settle down. Then they promptly began to work on it. The upshot is that a) they really want to do the best they can...

Thursday, the 50th day of the session and things are getting heated in some regards as choices get made. People watching the House floor today said legislators were getting rather contentious with each other at one point. And just now in the continued hearing for 2346 – the bill that would affect changes in grain licensing and inspection – some emotions were at the boiling...

There was a residual amount of luck from St. Patty’s Day that landed on 2360 today. It passed 74 to 18 and if nothing tampers with it, North Dakota farmers will have a new farm home exemption formula. Chief sponsors were Senators Dotzenrod, Wanzek, Erbele with Representatives Holman and John Nelson. So now if 66% of your gross income is from the farm, you qualify. It is in...

Looks like I-94 opened up just in time to let the lawmakers go home for the weekend. 1066, the gigantic infrastructure bill coined “Operation Prairie Dog” passed both houses and is heading for the Governor. It will distribute oil tax monies to several funds and eventually end up filling counties and township buckets after some larger cities and everyone else (over one...

The last couple of days have seen a lot of activity with the farm home exemption (2360) as we try to get a feeling for the floor vote by speaking to as many House members as possible. Right now I would say it has a fighting chance. The bill has been held in committee while hoping for a result better than the 7-7 vote we had last week. The House Finance and Tax committee...

This morning was spent listening to the back and forth on 1467 which is about transferring grain licensing duties from the PSC to the Agriculture Department. A frustrated PSC Commissioner Randy Christmann maintains that his agency has been hamstrung when it comes to looking at financial records –a key part of evaluating licensing – even though he has been asking for...

Yesterday, we spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at the Public Service Commission office discussing grain inspection and licensing. I would typify it as an excellent meeting and the Commissioner thanked us for engaging. He also mentioned that he wished other commodity groups would get involved at the same level. Then we hustled down to House Finance and Tax where the...

There is nothing like a Monday drive to Bismarck through alternating whiteouts to make one appreciate being back in the Capitol. These last two days for your legislative crew has centered around the farm home exemption bills which, having passed the Senate, were up for their House hearing Wednesday in Finance and Tax committee. There are two bills appearing back to back in...

Welcome to March 1. This was a short week as the session grinds back into action like a semi-frozen combine in December. Today I spent all morning in House Energy and Natural Resources listening and eventually testifying on 2139 which seeks to reinstate the State Water Commission cost-share for snagging and clearing. That bill is all about roads and bridges and I testified...

Legislative sessions in our state are comprised of two halves and overtime. We just finished the first half on the 33rd day and rather than turnovers, it is Crossover. We will start again Wednesday of next week, probably go another 33 or so and the last possible or 80th day is April 30. How long the Conference Committee (overtime) goes is something many people get into a...

It seems that many are curious about the status of the Spiritwood soybean crush plant and today I was one of a dozen people in the Commerce Department building for an update. There were representatives from Great River Energy (GRE), Jamestown EDC, the Lieutenant Governor, the Bank of ND, MNSP (Minnesota Soybean Processors)/NDSP, three state farmer-legislators comprised of a...

Hey! It is the middle of the week after the Corn and Soybean Expo and I just want to thank the many folks who mentioned that they appreciate the blog. Good to know that it is read. Today we had committee action taken on the farm home exemption bill (2360) that would get rid of the current tests and use the federal IRS definition which is that 66 percent or more of gross...

One of the biggest bills moneywise this session is connected with Agriculture. It is #2297 and has a nearly $152 million total. It includes NDSU’s #1 priority on its capital improvements list (Dunbar Hall) for $51 million as well as a communications and arts building ($32 million) in Valley City State which is on the wrong side of the dike. The big item for Agriculture is...

Warehouse, grain buyer licensing and grain inspection is a hot topic again this session. With a big insolvency issue out there – this time involving a roving grain buyer – there are a couple of bills looking to make some changes. Senator Wanzek is trying to find fixes with 2346 by talking about the indemnity fund taking a small cut from the sale of all grain and oilseed...

On Tuesday bill # 1476 was heard in House Finance and Tax. This would give farmers who are looking at getting out or retiring an incentive through an income tax credit if they sell their land to someone who qualifies as a beginning farmer. It was presented as something that would help the beginning farmer and was looked upon favorably by the committee in that regard, but...

There has been discussion on legislation that would authorize the transfer of APUC, the Agricultural Products Utilization Commission, to the North Dakota Department of Agriculture (NDDA). It is currently under the umbrella of the Department of Commerce where it has resided the past 20 years or so after being taken out of the NDDA. The Ag Commissioner is on the APUC board so...

As usual, Thursday and Friday contained bills that have us hopping the halls, including an energy mitigation bill (2261) from Senator Unruh that would eliminate consideration of indirect impacts when siting an oil well or wind tower. Direct impacts are tangible, such as if you destroy a tree, plant another one. Indirect impacts were portrayed in testimony as being...