17-02-2025
District 12, 29 lawmakers address issues Legislature is working on
Feb. 17—JAMESTOWN — District 12 and 29 lawmakers addressed several issues the North Dakota Legislature is working on including property taxes, recruiting workforce, school lunches and Legacy Fund transparency.
District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered questions about the legislative session on Saturday, Feb. 15, at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce at the Gladstone Inn & Suites.
Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown, said 1,073 bills and resolutions — 649 in the House and 424 in the Senate — have been introduced during the legislative session. He said 254 bills have been passed in the House and the Senate has passed 129 bills.
Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, said two property tax bills have moved forard that will provide relief and reform to the property tax system.
"One of them is going to provide an increase in the Primary Residence Credit that we put together last session from $500 up to $1,450 for the Primary Residence Credit bill," he said. "The other bill predominantly focuses on a percentage. That bill impacts all classes of property so not only residential but ag and commercial property would see some benefits. ... It's just reducing the percentage within the property tax formula that would simply generate less tax and then the state would turn around and provide the funding to keep the political subdivisions whole."
He said the Legislature is working on improving the income tax system. He said people moving from states with higher income tax are looking at states with lower income tax.
Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, said the state has been dealing with workforce issues for some time. He said the state needs to be proactive and promote its jobs and opportunities.
Rep. Mitch Ostlie, R-Jamestown said a bill was introduced to create a state office of entrepreneurship.
"We are hopeful that if this passes, that the state can take a leadership role in maybe coordinating a lot of things that the colleges are doing," he said. " ... What happens a lot of times is there's a lot of good little pieces that are happening around the state but we don't know about it in every corner of the state. We are hopeful if this is created at the state level, they can disseminate that information to all areas of the state for the entrepreneurship side of things."
Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, said he will be working on the North Dakota Department of Commerce's budget this week.
"There is $10 million in the budget for workforce, technical skills grants and vouchers," he said.
He added that the Legislature created the Office of Legal Immigration within the Commerce Department to help with the workforce issue. He said the Legislature is working on helping immigrants who are in North Dakota legally and want a job and want to participate in the state's economy.
Vigesaa said a couple of bills are in the House related to school meal funding for students. House Bills 1475 and 1553 each have an appropriation of $140 million for the biennium. HB 1475 appropriates funds from the general fund while HB 1553 appropriates funds from the North Dakota Legacy Fund.
"A lot of things are not going to make the cut because of ... how far over we are with the requests," he said. "I don't know where House is going to land on that. It's just going to have to fit into the budget whether or not we would do the full funding of that or do like we did last time and go 200% above the poverty level, we pay all the lunches for that level and below."
Headland said the House Finance and Taxation Committee gave a do-pass recommendation for House Bill 1319, which would require the State Investment Board to maintain a publicly accessible website containing information regarding all Legacy Fund investments.
"We view it as the possibility of having something in regards to what Norway has with their sovereign wealth fund so it will be easy to just go online and ... hopefully you will be able to see where your money is going to be invested," he said.
He said the Legacy Fund earnings will be used for any property tax relief that will be provided.
"That is your Legacy Fund working on your behalf," he said.
Ostlie said the House approved House Bill 1330, which would require Legacy Fund investments to not consist of direct holdings in a Chinese company.
"We worked with the State Investment Board and the Retirement and Investment Office and they made amendments which I supported," he said. "They agreed to divest out of what they could."
Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, said he is surprised with how some legislators aren't curious about the $3.1 billion invested from the Legacy Fund where the underlying investments are hidden from public view.
The Legacy Fund has almost $11.5 billion as of Oct. 31.
The Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce will host another meet-and-greet-session with the District 12 and 29 lawmakers at 9 a.m. on March 22 at the Gladstone Inn & Suites.
