A coalition of legislators and state organizations is urging voters to support a Legacy Fund when they go to the polls in November.
Measure 1 is a proposed constitutional amendment to create a fund for the first 30 percent of oil and gas tax revenue. The fund could not be tapped until July 2017 and then only with a two-thirds majority vote of both legislative houses.
The North Dakota Legislature gave the Legacy Fund bipartisan support when it voted to place the measure on the ballot. Sen. David Hogue, R-Minot, and Rep. Lisa Wolf, D-Minot, spoke at a news conference in Minot Tuesday to encourage a "yes" vote on Nov. 2.
"Many speculate about the cause of North Dakota's current prosperity, but now the more important question for North Dakotans is: how can we leverage our current success for the future?" Hogue said in prepared remarks. "Establishing the Legacy Fund is vitally important to North Dakota's long-term financial stability. The Legacy Fund will function much like a savings account that North Dakota families use to save for the future or protect against unforeseen expenses."
Several other states have energy trust funds. Had North Dakota created a fund during the previous oil boom in the 1980s, the fund would be producing earnings of $241 million a biennium, the rough equivalent of three Banks of North Dakota, Hogue said.
Projections for the Legacy Fund indicate there would be $280 million deposited in each of the next two bienniums.
Wolf, a teacher, said the North Dakota Education Association is supporting the measure. It had opposed a previously proposed trust fund but is backing the Legacy Fund because the measure designates a percentage rather than specific amount of oil taxes to the fund and transfers earnings to the general fund after six years.
"It's not putting it in a lock box. It's setting it aside for our future," Wolf said.