701-566-9300Looks 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 thousand in pop.) get their money. If oil prices stay up near where they are now and we keep pumping out about 1.4 million barrels a day as we are now, counties and townships could get their $30 million. As I understand it, that will come later, probably in early 2021. The dust has not settled enough for me with those numbers, but the president of the ND Township Officers said that townships could expect around $9,400 in extra funds at that time. I spent 20 years on a township board and one of those was 1997 when FEMA helped us because so many producers were taking their own equipment out to keep roads open. It kind of looks like that around here now… Anyway, I was hoping that the hearing for 2346 (grain licensing) would have completed their hearing today, but things got dragged out in other bills heard ahead of it so they will reopen it next Thursday. 2360 – Farm home exemption – the other much-discussed bill in this space lately, is finally on the calendar and will probably be up Monday for a vote in the House. It came out of committee on Wednesday 11-2 Do Pass and we have been working the floor.
