Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #11
Prairie Dog or SIIF

Today saw a hearing for SB 2367 which discusses how the state allocates its share of oil and gas taxes. In 2019, Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI – the authority in transportation research) estimated North Dakota needed $440 million per year for 20 years to maintain our roads and bridges. This year the study says the need per year is $525 million. Our gas and oil dollars flow from the top down into buckets and as expected, when the first bucket fills it goes into the second and so on. Here are how the buckets go in millions of dollars: the first bucket is $230 for the general fund. Next is $230 for tax relief fund, then $75 for budget stabilization fund, $230 into another general fund bucket, $10 for a lignite research fund, $20 into a state disaster relief fund, then a whopping $460 into the SIIF (Strategic Investment and Improvement fund). The SIIF is used as a backstop to balance the budget. Finally, the Prairie Dog -$59,750,000 for infrastructure in non-oil producing counties with half of it for cities, and the other half for county and township infrastructure funds. Last biennium, the downturn in oil prices did not allow this bucket to fill, but in the last few weeks money has finally reached the bucket and some have begun to receive checks. Then another bucket for the same political subdivisions of $170 – not sure why it is a different bucket but we’ll find out. Then the next $20 for airports. Any money left over goes into another SIIF. The testimony for us was to move our bucket ahead of the immediate SIIF above us or hopefully slip $200 or so into our roads and bridges fund.