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Murphy’s Law Blog 2022 | #4 Tax Committee, Other Issues

On April 6, North Dakota Soybean Growers Association (NDSGA) Executive Director and newly named American Soybean Association (ASA) Leadership Award winner Nancy Johnson showed why she deserves both titles when addressing the interim North Dakota Tax Committee. When this committee last met, I had testified in favor of keeping the soybean crush tax incentive and […]

On April 6, North Dakota Soybean Growers Association (NDSGA) Executive Director and newly named American Soybean Association (ASA) Leadership Award winner Nancy Johnson showed why she deserves both titles when addressing the interim North Dakota Tax Committee. When this committee last met, I had testified in favor of keeping the soybean crush...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2022 | #3 — Waters for Fightin'

On March 22, 2022, attorney Jack Dwyer, the Executive Secretary of the Water Resource Districts Association, testified in front of the Water Topics Interim committee concerning bill number 2208 from last session. This bill failed and became a study for the interim. Mr. Dwyer titled his presentation, “SB 2208 and the Formation of the Water […]

On March 22, 2022, attorney Jack Dwyer, the Executive Secretary of the Water Resource Districts Association, testified in front of the Water Topics Interim committee concerning bill number 2208 from last session. This bill failed and became a study for the interim. Mr. Dwyer titled his presentation, “SB 2208 and the Formation of the Water Drainage Committee – A Result of the Sargent County...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2022 | #2 — Ag and Natural Resources

This committee had met for the first time in October and now for the second time this Tuesday. They have completed most of what they were assigned to do, receiving reports from the Advisory committee on Sustainable Agriculture. Because year after year nothing is done with this topic, they are submitting a draft bill to […]

This committee had met for the first time in October and now for the second time this Tuesday. They have completed most of what they were assigned to do, receiving reports from the Advisory committee on Sustainable Agriculture. Because year after year nothing is done with this topic, they are submitting a draft bill to do away with the annual reporting. The issue is that no one can...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2022 | #1 — Water Drainage Interim Committee Meets

Hey, Happy New Year! The committee came together to discuss blending a couple of Century Code (CC) chapters that contain discrepancies. That portion of the task before them seems to be moving along fine and will probably be a stand-alone bill next year. Then they launched into a wide ranging conversation which some thought went […]

Hey, Happy New Year! The committee came together to discuss blending a couple of Century Code (CC) chapters that contain discrepancies. That portion of the task before them seems to be moving along fine and will probably be a stand-alone bill next year.

Then they launched into a wide ranging conversation which some thought went way “into the weeds,” to quote one of the...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #58 — Irrigation Workshop

The program started out with an explanation of the water permitting process from Chris Bader from the Department of Water Resources. He apologized up front for saying “State Water Commission,”  the agency he has worked for his entire career because, as mentioned in a couple previous blogs, it is now called the Department of Water […]

The program started out with an explanation of the water permitting process from Chris Bader from the Department of Water Resources. He apologized up front for saying “State Water Commission,”  the agency he has worked for his entire career because, as mentioned in a couple previous blogs, it is now called the Department of Water Resources. Anyway, the...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #57 — Water Drainage Interim Committee Meets

This committee first met in the summer and this, their second meeting, took half a day. There were only three outside presenters, the first being Senator Cramer who joined via computer. He spoke of WOTUS issues and was happy that EPA folks had come out to visit North Dakota to learn firsthand what is happening. […]

This committee first met in the summer and this, their second meeting, took half a day. There were only three outside presenters, the first being Senator Cramer who joined via computer. He spoke of WOTUS issues and was happy that EPA folks had come out to visit North Dakota to learn firsthand what is happening. Then the new and first director of the Department of Water Resources (DWR),...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #56 — Water Topics Interim Committee Meets

Today was unique, the Chairman of the Water Topics committee, Rep. Jim Schmidt, had invited all nine of the State Water Commissioners to sit with the 20 legislative committee members for their daylong meeting. While I rarely attend this committee, it made sense to because of so many people present and the agenda’s wide-ranging presentations. […]

Today was unique, the Chairman of the Water Topics committee, Rep. Jim Schmidt, had invited all nine of the State Water Commissioners to sit with the 20 legislative committee members for their daylong meeting. While I rarely attend this committee, it made sense to because of so many people present and the agenda’s wide-ranging presentations. Especially, in the light of it being held the day...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #53 — Special Session

In my father’s opinion, it was nuts to take out a loan to go on vacation. I agree with that and it was the analogy used yesterday when discussing the water budget and funding with the Legislature’s water guru, Representative Jim Schmidt. He would like to build a reserve fund for water so that projects […]

In my father’s opinion, it was nuts to take out a loan to go on vacation. I agree with that and it was the analogy used yesterday when discussing the water budget and funding with the Legislature’s water guru, Representative Jim Schmidt. He would like to build a reserve fund for water so that projects can use cash. If I understood him correctly, he would use unanticipated oil...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #52 — Ag/Energy Summit, Special Session

The first Agriculture and Energy summit was held at the Fargo Radisson on Tuesday, November 9 in the afternoon. Hosted by the Commerce Department, it was taking a stab at getting players together looking for synergies seeing as, and I quote the ND Commerce Dept.’s Josh Teigen – “70% of North Dakota’s GDP is related […]

The first Agriculture and Energy summit was held at the Fargo Radisson on Tuesday, November 9 in the afternoon. Hosted by the Commerce Department, it was taking a stab at getting players together looking for synergies seeing as, and I quote the ND Commerce Dept.’s Josh Teigen – “70% of North Dakota’s GDP is related to oil and soil.” Gotta nice ring to it, does it not?
I have to tell...

Murphy’s Law Blog 2021 | #54 — Infrastructure for Value Added

One could say that any infrastructure improvement is a positive for Agricultural value added projects let alone farming itself. Be it a crush plant, the recently discussed wet corn plant, a livestock facility or whatever, they need some or all of the water, roads, pipelines, rail and power mix. During this special session we have […]

One could say that any infrastructure improvement is a positive for Agricultural value added projects let alone farming itself. Be it a crush plant, the recently discussed wet corn plant, a livestock facility or whatever, they need some or all of the water, roads, pipelines, rail and power mix.
During this special session we have been working to bring many of these factors to new levels....