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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Property taxes, book bans and resolutions: Three Grand Forks lawmakers discuss recent session
Jun. 6—GRAND FORKS — Through an hour-long conversation looking back on the 2025 legislative session, three Grand Forks state lawmakers found moments of agreement and professed similar opinions on issues more than they disagreed. Rep. Nels Christianson, Rep. Erik Murphy and Rep. Zac Ista, all from Grand Forks, went through some of the topics from the session with different mindsets but familiar answers. For example, on the matter of property tax and Gov. Kelly Armstrong's bill — which expanded the primary tax credit to a maximum $1,600 and capped local-level tax increases to no more than 3% annually — Christianson said they found some common ground. Property tax was one of the several issues discussed during the legislative wrap-up, held at the Grand Forks County office building on Thursday, June 5. All 18 members of districts 17, 18, 19, 20, 42 and 43 were invited, but Ista, Murphy and Christianson were the only ones in attendance. Joel Heitkamp, host of KFGO News and Views and a former state senator, served as moderator. Some issues involved public funding to private schools, Medicaid, the North Dakota Republican Party and what bills the legislators worked on. Property tax was among the most newsworthy issues during the session. Armstrong discussed it prior to his November election and his bill, HB 1176, was not passed until May 2, near the end of the session. "Did we deliver relief? Yes," Christianson said. "Reform? Maybe not so much." Murphy said property taxes are typically something outside of the Legislature's lane, but that he begrudgingly supported Armstrong's property tax bill. "Property tax is part of the reality of living in a nation such as ours," he said. "Property tax, to me, is a local issue." Ista, the only Democrat among the three, said there will be a trade-off. Homeowners will get some tax relief, but political subdivisions will have to figure out how to continue to pay for things. "Now the burden is going to fall on our local, county, city, school districts to see how to live within this new reality. I think it's going to be a challenge going forward for the state and locals to balance it," he said. One issue on which all three agreed was the matter of banning books. Each legislator was against it, though they had different thoughts on the matter. Ista said he has voted against every book censorship bill, and will continue to do so every chance he gets. "The issues in our state that affect our kids are not what books are displayed where in our libraries," he said. "I love taking my kids to Grand Forks Public Library and watch them go down that big pink slide, and I've never once worried about what book they might stumble into." Christianson said that, under no circumstances, should books be banned. Instead, he said, they should be placed in the appropriate area, and that he wants his daughters to be able to go around the children's section of the library and look at any books they would like in that section. "I absolutely do not support taking anything out of the ability for people to check out from the library," he said. "I just want to make sure that ... parents have a chance to be in the loop, just that parents can understand what their children are reading, especially in the younger ages." Murphy said there are better things to do and think about in North Dakota than book bans, and he mentioned Senate Bill 2307, which would have required libraries to make material considered sexually explicit unavailable to minors, and could penalize failure to comply. One issue he took with the bill was the difference between what was said about it versus what it would really do, he said. "What it really did is, opened up every library in the state, whether it's UND's library, it opened up the (North Dakota Museum of Art)," he said. "If there's a nude in there, that could be considered pornography, therefore we need to take that picture down." Two resolutions that failed during the session — House Concurrent Resolution 3013, which requested the U.S. Supreme Court overturn gay marriage, and House Concurrent Resolution 3020, declaring that "Christ is King" of North Dakota — drew disagreement between Christianson, who voted "yes" on both, and the other two legislators, who voted against them. Christianson's thought on HCR 3013 was that issues such as marriage need to be defined at the state level, not through a court decision, referencing Obergefell vs. Hodges, the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling regarding same-sex marriages. Ista said that it was probably the darkest day of the session for him when the resolution came to the floor, and that he was caught "flat-footed" by it. He said he had thought everyone had moved beyond the issue of marriage equality. Murphy said it's not up to him to decide who any individual should love. He also said that during this recent school year, he knew of students who were transgender and transitioning. The resolution sends the wrong message to North Dakota residents and creates a division in the state, he said. As for HCR 3020, Murphy simply said "absolutely not" when Heitkamp asked if he thought North Dakota should be in the business of declaring that Christ is king. Ista said that the faith leaders in his life respected a foundational concept of no official religions in America, and that, while he respects the religion of his colleagues, the state should be accommodating to all religions and not place one above the others. Christianson said the resolution would have no effect on state policies, claiming that he voted for what he believes is the truth. "It was simply a statement, and that's a statement that I will make every day, that Christ is king," he said.
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Competing bills would change how candidates get on North Dakota ballot
Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, introduces a bill during a committee hearing on candidate ballot access on Feb. 7, 2025. (Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor) Two proposals in the North Dakota Legislature seek to reshape how statewide and legislative candidates get on the ballot. The bills follow an election season that saw some legislative incumbents skip their local endorsing conventions and two candidates win primaries without support of the Republican party. North Dakota allows candidates to appear on the ballot for the primary or general election by either receiving a political party endorsement at the district or state level or obtaining a set amount of signatures. House Bill 1446, sponsored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck, would eliminate the option of getting on the ballot through a party endorsement. Instead, all candidates for statewide office would be required to gather at least 2,000 petition signatures while legislative candidates would need 167 signatures, or 1% of their district's population. 3 Bismarck Republican lawmakers skip local endorsing convention 'Why not let the people of your district, let the people of the state decide who should be on the primary ballot versus a small group of political insiders?' Nathe said during a hearing Friday. Nathe, a representative of District 30, skipped his district endorsing convention in 2024 with two other Republican incumbents and instead gathered signatures to get on the June ballot. They cited concerns about the fairness of the district endorsing process, including that a candidate was allowed to run the meeting. The incumbents overwhelmingly won in the primary and went on to win in November. 'By the petitions, we're including everybody, letting everybody have their say versus what's happening now, which is pushing people away, or people are intimidated, or don't want to get involved,' Nathe said. Leaders of the North Dakota Republican Party and former Republican Gov. Ed Schafer opposed Nathe's bill. They said it would allow anyone, Republican or Democrat, to designate themselves as a member of a party with no affirmation from the party itself. 'HB 1446 is not the way to correct the fractures in the process today,' Schafer said. 'It is the party that needs to correct the dishonesty, the inappropriate behavior that has entered into this nominating process.' Schafer said without a party nominating process for its own candidates, the door would be opened for big money interests to flood the election cycle and boost candidates they deem appropriate. 'Government should not be dictating how a private organization presents its candidates' values and character to the public,' he said Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, questioned the candidate vetting process at the party level. He said candidates who don't agree with the party 100% of time get labeled a RINO, or Republican in Name Only. Rep. Vicky Steiner, R-Dickinson, said the vetting process of candidates at the district level is important to make sure Republican candidates are actually Republicans. 'That's a vetting process to make sure that our values are carried to the ballot,' Steiner said. Nathe said many Republicans feel like they are not being heard and questioned why districts get to define who is, and isn't, a Republican. 'Once you are on that ballot, then there is a primary contest and they are getting vetted through the election process,' he said. Secretary of State Michael Howe gave neutral testimony on Nathe's bill. He told lawmakers his office may require more overtime hours or an extra full-time employee to help verify the additional signatures. Another bill would essentially do the opposite. House Bill 1424, sponsored by Rep. Ben Koppelman, R-West Fargo, would eliminate the option of gathering signatures to get on the primary ballot if the party makes an endorsement. If the party does not make an endorsement, candidates could get on the ballot by collecting signatures. Koppelman said North Dakota is unique because it doesn't have party registration requirements for the primary and doesn't have voter registration. 'Really what we have are a bunch of people that aren't members of a political party that weigh in in the primary to pick who that party's nominee is so that they can again weigh in in November,' Koppelman said. At the Republican Party's state convention in 2024, Julie Fedorchak did not receive the party's endorsement for Congress and Kirsten Baesler did not receive a letter of support from the party for superintendent of public instruction. Both obtained signatures to get on the June ballot and overwhelmingly defeated their competitors. Other candidates have skipped the state convention in recent years, including former Gov. Doug Burgum in 2016. NDGOP endorses Balazs for House after Fedorchak withdraws Koppelman's bill would also empower the Secretary of State's Office to investigate complaints about political endorsement conventions. Howe opposed that aspect of his bill. 'Our office is not involved in any of these endorsing meetings or activities as they are a function of the party and in no way overseen by the Office of the Secretary of State,' Howe said. 'This bill seeks to insert a state agency in the Office of Secretary of State into the middle of party politics.' No other people spoke in opposition to the bill. Sandi Sanford, chair of the North Dakota Republican Party, said the party has work to do to address perceptions around the endorsing processes. 'Everything we're dealing with is fixable,' Sanford said. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
