701-566-9300Murphy’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...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #28
A big part of the whole scheme with making laws is relationships. Lawmaker to Lawmaker, Lobbyist to Lawmaker and Lobbyist to Lobbyist are amongst them. Throw in those from the Executive branch and staff and pretty soon there are a lot of people to know and get along with if one is determined to be […]hi
A big part of the whole scheme with making laws is relationships. Lawmaker to Lawmaker, Lobbyist to Lawmaker and Lobbyist to Lobbyist are amongst them. Throw in those from the Executive branch and staff and pretty soon there are a lot of people to know and get along with if one is determined to be friendly. Not all take that path, but generally it is acknowledged that one gets more with honey...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #27
This is the week leading up to Easter and the Capitol natives are getting restless. It’s horse to the barn kind of stuff about wanting to go home. Everyone wants to know when we are getting out and no one knows. But enough of that and on to the budgets that matter to growers around […]hi
This is the week leading up to Easter and the Capitol natives are getting restless. It’s horse to the barn kind of stuff about wanting to go home. Everyone wants to know when we are getting out and no one knows. But enough of that and on to the budgets that matter to growers around our state.
The DOT budget (2012) had their first conference committee this morning and there are several...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #26
Tiling bills look like they are about to be resolved as the chairman of the House Ag committee has decided to concur with the Senate treatment of HB1390. They will then kill SB2263 on the House floor. Amongst the major differences between 1390 and current law is that Water Resource District board members must undergo […]hi
Tiling bills look like they are about to be resolved as the chairman of the House Ag committee has decided to concur with the Senate treatment of HB1390. They will then kill SB2263 on the House floor. Amongst the major differences between 1390 and current law is that Water Resource District board members must undergo a course on water management each of their 3 year terms, a drainage...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #25
This morning I sat in on the first conference committee of the session. Usually they last half an hour and this one went 10 minutes over before they agreed to try later. ANYWAY, it was a bill (HB1339, which I had not previously followed but probably should have) that came in which would have dropped […]hi
This morning I sat in on the first conference committee of the session. Usually they last half an hour and this one went 10 minutes over before they agreed to try later. ANYWAY, it was a bill (HB1339, which I had not previously followed but probably should have) that came in which would have dropped the threshold percentage to appeal an assessed water project from 25 percent to 0. The House...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #24
Late on Friday afternoon in House Appropriations, a motion was made by Representative Streyle to eliminate any reference to SBARE, (State Board of Agricultural Research and Education) which is chaired by Mike Beltz of Hillsboro. SBARE was established by the Legislature in 1997 to be responsible for policy and budgeting for the ND Ag Experiment […]hi
Late on Friday afternoon in House Appropriations, a motion was made by Representative Streyle to eliminate any reference to SBARE, (State Board of Agricultural Research and Education) which is chaired by Mike Beltz of Hillsboro. SBARE was established by the Legislature in 1997 to be responsible for policy and budgeting for the ND Ag Experiment Station and later for NDSU Extension Service. More...
Murphy’s Law Blog 2017 | #23
You may recall that the last couple of sessions the Legislature “bought back” 12 percent of county budgets to take the pressure off of property taxes. Last session we worked hard to make it a bill that would fund the state mandated part of social services that are delivered by the counties. It failed even […]hi
You may recall that the last couple of sessions the Legislature “bought back” 12 percent of county budgets to take the pressure off of property taxes. Last session we worked hard to make it a bill that would fund the state mandated part of social services that are delivered by the counties. It failed even though the Governor was pushing it, so the buyback continued. This session SB2206...