News

Legislators speak on the state’s issues

By Scott Wagar

03/05/2013

The Bottineau County Farm Bureau and Bottineau County Farmers Union co-sponsored a legislative forum on Saturday afternoon at the Agronomy Center with Rep. Richard Anderson–R, Willow City; Rep. Bob Hunskor-D, Newburg and Sen. David O’Connell-D, Lansford of the Sixth District.

Seth Estenson of the North Dakota Farm Bureau mediated the political forum where the district representatives spoke on such issues as taxes, infrastructure, law enforcement, Medicaid, water issues and oil and money for townships.

TAXES:

Property tax was the primary issue for the representatives. Anderson stated that in the House three property tax issues crossed over to Senate, which included limiting the growth of property tax to three percent to each session; changing mills to dollars on tax statement so individuals have a better understanding of what they pay in their taxes and providing tax payers a three year tax history of their assessments on their statements along with what the state buys down on in property tax relief.

“Property tax is not a function of the state, but a function of the county,” Anderson said. “But, the state is getting more involved with it all the time.”

Hunskor added that when it came to property tax and school districts, representatives in Bismarck through House Bill 1319 were attempting to reduce property taxes by 34.9 percent, which includes all properties (residential, commercial, agriculture, etc…)

“The senate and house are really trying to do something with the property tax issues,” Hunskor said. “They are not playing games.”

Anderson also spoke on tax cuts, corporate tax breaks and homestead credits.

“When it comes to personal income tax, the House cut taxes by $200 million. So, our rates will drop if that bill goes through,” Anderson said. “And, we’re looking at a corporate income tax break of $50 million and expanding homestead tax credits to $26 million.

“Total tax relief the house is granting is $1 billion with $740 million going to property tax relief,” Anderson said.

INFRASTRUCTURE

When it came to infrastructure, Anderson pointed out that the House wants to spend $4 billion in the biennium, which is twice as much then from the last legislative session in 2011. Of the $420 billion, $2.3 billion will go to roads and 250 million to water projects.

“Getting federal money for water is becoming difficult, so the state is going to have to take over the water projects.”

O’Connell stated that one of his goals is to make sure townships receive money for infrastructure, and gave the example of road repair which he stated was needed in many townships with oil production.

DUI BILL

Hunskor brought up the issue of the House working on DUI bills in committee. He stated that the House and the governor and attorney general offices each have a bill on the punishment for those who receive DUI’s, which are very similar in nature. However, Hunskor stated that the governor and attorney general’s bill was altered.

The original bill the governor and attorney general was four days in jail for the first offense, but the bill was watered down now to one day. This (jail time) would be when the person is not working.

"The second and third offenses leads to more jail time and higher fees,” Hunskor said. “The two bills will end up in conferences, but I don’t know what is going to happen with the bills.”

O’Connell, who sits on the Senate Correctional Committee, stated the committee is facing difficulties because the committee has already had to add an additional $654,000  to its budget, and that at the present moment there are no cells in city, county and state jails.

WATER ISSUES

Hunskor also dealt with the issues of water and annexation during the forum.

“There are disputes going on across the state about cities that annexes property that is operated by a rural water district, which concerns rural water lost of customers,” Hunskor said. “In House Bill 1340, if a city gets into a water district, they have to give notification, and if the two sides cannot work together, arbitraries take place for both sides. If the two sides cannot agree, neither side will get any money if they don’t come to an agreement.”

Anderson added that with House Bill 1926B that a federal statue states that if you borrow money from the federal government for a water project, and the project isn’t intact if it would go to a federal court, the city would lose every time, and the state might not fund anymore city’s projects.

“Rural water will not lose an acre of land in their district if it goes to court,” Anderson said. “What they are doing here is to give tax payers’ services at the lowest rate.”

MEDICAID

Medicaid expansion was also a discussed topic at Saturday’s forum.

“The House voted for Medicaid expansion. There are about 22,000 without insurance and we are going to try to pick up the funding for that, but most of that is coming from federal government at a round $102 million,” Anderson said. “We have to pick up the administration cost at $272,000, but that amount could be less. If this passes, it will take place for the next two years and then we will see how it is working.

“In 2017, the federal government will start to back away and the state will have to pick up more,” Anderson continued to state. “With the government’s debt, it might be hard for the federal government to cover it, so we might end up with all of it. For now, we decided to let the federal government assist the state.”

OIL AND LANDOWNERS

Hunskor spoke on the oil industry and the Northwest Land Owners Association.

“There are 250 land owners from the Bottineau area all the way to the Montana line who are interest in oil and gas issues in the legislative sessions this year,” Hunskor said. “Myron Hanson is the association’s lobbyist and he has been faithful. He presented six bills with four that passed.”

Hunskor present the four bills which went over to the Senate this past week with crossover. The four bills and their outcome are as follows:

•  Commencement of Operation: This concerns oil companies which set any type of machinery on landowners land and leave the machinery on the landowners without doing any work on the landowner’s property, tying the land up for a long period of time. This bill forces oil companies to prepare the site they are on within 15 days of the expiration of the lease; and, within 45 days of the termination of the lease, a drilling rig on site must be on a single pad or multi-pads if there are more than one in 90 days.
•  Sites: Prior to this bill, a well with its equipment (takes, flares, etc…) could be within 500 feet of an occupied dwelling. Hanson requested that the distant be 1,320 feet (a quarter of a mile) from a homestead. However, the bill was defeated, the land owners association did gain a victory within the bill which states that equipment must be on the side of the well opposite of individuals’ dwellings.
•  Mediation Service between the land owners and oil companies: This process has been added for mediation for a number of issues, including financing.
•  Reclamation: Wells that have been abandon by oil companies which leave pipes, salt water spills, weeds, ect… if there is no bond, and the oil company who is responsible cannot be located, a fund through the House bill will be provided to solve the problems left behind. The money will be provided through fees, fines, forfeitures of bonds, oil impact money, tax and oil, and federal funding into a fund for this. This fund cannot have more than $5 million a year and not over $75 million at any given time. There will also be a data base provided for landowners to see where oil utility lines are located.

Outside of the representatives speaking on issues during the forum, those in the audience where given the opportunity to ask questions, some of which included Measure 5, oil and taxes, and gun concealment.

CROSSOVER

Those in attendance were reminded that the matters spoken about have crossed over to the other houses for their recommendations, and that the issues spoken about could change or be voted down in the second half of the legislative year.