Economy, workload affects atmosphere in 2009 session
By JILL SCHRAMM, Staff Writer jschramm@minotdailynews.comArticle Photos
BISMARCK The pace has been a race for North Dakota lawmakers this legislative session.
With just 80 days by law to get the job done, they are sprinting through 1,081 bills and resolutions, or 77 more than last session.
"We have been scrambling to hear the bills because there's a record number of them," Rep. Dan Ruby, R-Minot, said. "We are having a real problem getting through them with the day limitation that we have."
Ruby's name is on 51 bills, including 11 that he is carrying as primary sponsor. That's nothing compared to the 74 bills that Rep. Duane DeKrey, R-Pettibone, has signed onto, including 20 for which he is leading the charge. Several other legislators have their names on 50 or more bills.
"One of the main things is since we have money, everybody has bills to spend it," said Rep. Matt Klein, R-Minot. "It's just amazing how many of the legislators come up with great ideas to spend money."
Klein worries that the falling price of oil could mean less money in North Dakota's future than originally projected. Legislators are awaiting a new forecast Monday.
Klein isn't the only legislator who has turned cautious.
"Everybody is kind of scared," Rep. Lisa Wolf, D-Minot, said. "We may have this surplus but there's some reservations on what's going to happen to it. I just hope we come out of this session giving people something," she said, referring to tax relief.
Rep. Larry Bellew, R-Minot, said the economic uncertainty is delaying decisions in the House Appropriations Committee on which he serves.
"There's a lot of good ideas that we are going to have to go through to see if we can support them or fund them," he said. "At this point, you don't know how it's going to work, but it all comes together in the end."
Rep. Kari Conrad, D-Minot, said legislators are overly concerned about fluctuations in oil revenue. She still believes the estimated oil prices in the governor's budget are accurate for the long term, even though the price of oil has bottomed out in the short term. Much of the state's revenue surplus is from income, sales and corporate taxes, rather than oil, she added.
The House and Senate are killing enough bills to lighten the load for the second half of the session, when the serious spending discussions have to occur.
"So far mine are going out in flames," Wolf said of the bills she's introduced. Three of her bills came out of different committees with 10-3 votes for "do not pass." Wolf got the last word, though, when the U.S. Senate passed a car tax credit similar to her excise tax break that the state House killed.
Wolf's annual sessions bill is considered the "Minot bill" because former Democratic senator Rolland Redlin of Minot used to introduce it every year. Wolf noted the bill appears to be faring not much better for her than it did for Redlin.
In their second sessions, Wolf and Rep. Louis Pinkerton, D-Minot, have taken more active roles.
"I know what's happening better but it's 10 times more work," Pinkerton said. "Now I have agendas. I want to get property-tax relief back to my town."
Pinkerton is championing a bill that would distribute property-tax relief to schools based on student numbers. The bill would be good for Minot and districts that are more heavily weighted in students than in property. A unique feature of the bill is that it gives relief payments not just to property owners but to residential and farm renters.
Pinkerton looks realistically at the chance of the bill's passage but hopes that parts of it gain traction at the end of the session when legislators are trying to forge a workable compromise.
Rather tongue-in-cheek, Pinkerton said he was successful with one of his bills in bringing together labor, cooperatives and investor-owned utilities groups that typically take opposing sides of an issue. The groups were united in opposition to his bill to tax Minnesota users of North Dakota's electrical generation for some of the cost of research into burning coal more cleanly.
Rep. Elwood Thorpe, D-Minot, voted against his own bill limiting loans from payday lenders.
"I am happy I put the bill in because I think we need to occasionally hear from those folks and get some input on what they are doing," said Thorpe, who introduced the bill for constituents. After hearing from the lenders, he said, "I thought they made compelling reasons why we should probably leave it alone."
He said he is more passionate about his other bills, particularly one that would tax mineral owners who don't also own the property. It's not fair that property owners are paying all the tax, said Thorpe, who plans to take his passion to the House floor if necessary to defend it from any opposition.
Ruby is supporting a bill to allow businesses to privately insure for workers' compensation. It's been several years since the Legislature considered the idea, and Ruby said it's due for discussion again. It came out of committee Tuesday with a close 6-5 "do not pass" recommendation.
Ruby said he has been asked more often by colleagues this year to sign onto their bills, which he has done when he can support their ideas. It's not uncommon for legislators to change their minds, though.
A bill that Ruby co-sponsored with Rep. Jim Kasper, R-Fargo, was a case in point. The bill would have prevented a credit-card issuer from raising the interest rate because a cardholder's credit score declined. The industry made a strong case in explaining that credit scores aren't the sole criteria for interest rates but are useful in determining spending habits.
Sitting in committee, Ruby and Kasper got the message.
"I leaned over to him and said 'Have they sold you on killing it?'" Ruby said. "So he made the motion for a 'do not pass' on his own bill, and I voted with him."
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concerned
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02-08-09 10:24 PM
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How about the gas companies that are going to walk away happy with skimming off the gas on top of the oil that is sitting there?
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