March 6, 2024
Murphy’s Law 2024 | #4 Water Topics Committee
Time was spent at a recent meeting educating this interim committee about water policies which included testimony from the Department of Water Resources (DWR). They heard from the DWR’s Regulatory division, Water Appropriations division, a financial update and then some topics such as aquifer recharge and recovery and finally some details on water-related research. After...
February 14, 2024
Murphy’s Law 2024 | #3 Ag and Natural Resources Meets
The committee opened by welcoming a newly appointed Representative from the Minot area following the resignation of Representative Larry Bellew. Representative Joanne Rademacher said she farms and ranches in the Foxholm area. In trying to get all information relevant to the topic of foreign land ownership, the agenda opened with Chair Paul Thomas who had Senator Kevin...
February 9, 2024
Murphy’s Law 2024 | #2 Tax Relief Advisory Committee Meets
This committee is attempting to find some methods by which they can help their fellow legislators navigate through the next months in the face of a threat (the property tax initiative) which would upend our state’s economy as we know it. They addressed this in two major ways; one is to prevent the passage of the initiative eliminating the property tax by increasing the...
February 8, 2024
Murphy’s Law 2024 | #1 Property Tax Confusion Studied
This year has seen no Interim committee action with direct pertinence to your organization until this second week of February. Both the Taxation Committee and the Tax Relief Advisory Committee are meeting on back-to-back days. The Taxation Committee has to: Study the provision of a property tax exemption for elevators, warehouses, and other farm structures classified as...
January 5, 2024
Murphy’s Law 2023 | #37 Natural Gas and a Township Survey
In their December meeting, the Energy Development and Transmission Committee heard testimony from many quarters on the discussion surrounding natural gas. Their interim study involves getting natural gas to underserved/unserved communities in our state. There has been money set aside for a couple years now incentivizing pipeline companies to build across the northern tier...
December 26, 2023
Murphy’s Law 2023 – #36 Irrigation Update
Dani Quissell, as Executive Director of the North Dakota Irrigation Association (NDIA), recently provided the Legislative Interim Committee called Water Topics with a review of the state of irrigation in our state. We have about 300,000 irrigated acres with the potential for 28,000,000 to be irrigated, according to Quissell. She went on to say that estimate depends on how...
December 3, 2023
Murphy’s Law 2023 #35 – Flood Insurance and Foreign Ownership
In their meeting last week, the ND Interim Agriculture and Natural Resources committee discussed the fact that about 332 political subdivisions – mostly cities and counties- have signed up for National Flood Insurance Program. This makes them eligible for subsidized flood insurance. What was discussed and was new to many is that there are many more polysubs which have not...
October 25, 2023
Murphy’s Law 2023 #34 – Special Session
It took lawmakers two and one-half days to complete their task of passing the contents of one bill which was considered by the ND Supreme Court to be too inclusive of different topics. They broke it into 14 and a few would be of interest to our state’s farmers. One was a confirmation of the emergency snow clearing bill which was amended to allow some political...
October 9, 2023
Murphy’s Law 2023 | #33
Greater North Dakota Chamber Policy Summit
Recently, the GNDC held their day-long discussion on the burning issues affecting our state’s businesses. By far and for the last few years at least, the biggest of these is the workforce shortage. It was the focus of each of the four major panels; Attracting Investment Strategies, Tourism from a Policy Standpoint, Utilizing Immigration as a Workforce Solution and...
August 16, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #32
International Legislator's Forum
Held annually since the early 1990s, the International Legislator’s Forum (ILF) gathers state and provincial legislators from Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Manitoba and for the first time, Saskatchewan to discuss common problems. It is run by the Consensus Council (which is housed in North Dakota) whose mission is as follows from their website, agree.org:...
June 28, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #30
NDLTAP/Northern TTAP
You may not know about the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute (UGPTI), an elite transportation research center we have in our state. As a partner with NDSU, UGPTI provides research, education and outreach across North Dakota.
A division of UGPTI, titled the North Dakota Local Transportation Assistance Program (NDLTAP) partners with the North Dakota Department of...
April 24, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #29
Tax Package Settled?
At this point, the conference committee discussion on how to reduce property tax and income tax appears to have a tentative solution.Senate Tax Committee Chair Jordan Kannianen explained to me this morning (although they do have an afternoon meeting to confirm) that property tax looks to be a $500 deduction for every single home or occupied dwelling. It would affect about...
April 21, 2023
Murphy’s Law Bog 2023 | #28
Hurry Up and Wait.
At this point in the session, it is all conference committees with the House vs. Senate versions of bills. Sometimes they decide the other house amendments were fine and the agreement takes five minutes. Other times they dig in and it takes a lot of meetings. There are three legislators from each side and if they cannot make any headway, leadership may replace some...
April 18, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #27
Conference Committees
This is the time in a session when one is busy and then idle for long stretches. Almost all committees, other than Appropriations, have kicked their bills to the floor or are in conference committees that meet to finalize language into an agreement and enforceable form. I believe this is Day 67, and we have about two weeks left unless it takes three. Unofficial pools for...
April 10, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #26
Two Water Bills
Today saw some action on HB 1391 which specifies that the unofficial minutes of a Water Resource District (WRD) be published in the official newspaper within 10 days of the meeting. It also says that if the WRD has a website, those same minutes be posted there as well. A Conference Committee will settle it.
SB 2326 was also passed this morning. That bill emphasized...
April 4, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #25
Update - NDSU Research and Extension Budget
For obvious reasons, your NDSGA supports the NDSU Research and Extension budgets each and every year. Yesterday, the Senate Appropriations division (there are three) termed Government Operations went through a very large budget for the final time. Today, it appeared before the full Appropriations Committee and sailed through. Overall, I believe it was stated that they cut...
March 31, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #24
Getting Close on Policy Bills
The Senate Ag committee is closing up with some tweaks to a water bill and another on rural grocery stores.
House Ag is going to be extending its work into next week as they wait on information for a foreign adversary land ownership bill. This issue has tentacles that extend into federal laws, so it needs extra care to avoid unintended consequences (SB 2371).
Work will...
March 29, 2023
Murphy’s Law 2023 Blog | #23
Waldron Hall (NDSU Research and Extension)
Also known as the Ag Field Lab, Waldron Hall is the number one priority item identified by SBARE (State Board of Agricultural Research and Education) for this legislative session. The bill it is found within is HB 1020, which contains all manner of funding for Research and Extension efforts. The building would replace four aging structures, I believe, with the central focus...
March 23, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #22
Animal Ag Development Bills
We had good action on two animal ag development bills today. After a positive hearing last week on HB 1437, the Senate Agriculture Committee passed it out with a 6-0 Do Pass recommendation. This bill uses regional planning grants to help counties and townships update their zoning and utilize other technologies and skill sets to choose sites adequate for housing animal ag...
March 20, 2023
Murphy’s Law Blog 2023 | #21
Snow Removal Relief
Got any snow? SB 2183 just passed on the House floor and should be able to become law upon the Governor signing it within a few days. It allows tribal governments, cities, counties and townships to apply to the Adjutant General (of the North Dakota National Guard) for grants to help with the cost of excessive snow removal. Up to 60% of any cost over 150% of your lowest...