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Letters to the Editor

School lunch budget reflects values

Rep. Zac Ista, Grand Forks There’s a saying in politics: “Don’t tell me what your values are. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what your values are.” Well, some North Dakota lawmakers value subsidizing private schools and feeding themselves more than they value feeding schoolchildren, because the legislature passed laws to give away $10M per year of public money to private schools and to increase their own meal stipends by nearly $1M. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans defeated a bill to invest $6M per biennium in no-cost school meals for more families. Opponents of ...

Legislators taking citizen rights away with SB1273

Jed Limke, Fargo, ND Q: When is 95 > 30,092? Back in 2015, we had a special election to fill a Fargo City Commission seat that was vacated, indirectly, due to the death of Mayor Walaker. The winner of that election won with four-out-of-every-five Fargo voters not voting for him. The following year at our regular June election, seven-out-of-every-ten Fargo voters didn’t vote for the first-place finisher of that one, either. To address this, a group of Fargo citizens from every walk of life and political creed volunteered to collect signatures for a ballot measure to amend ...

April is National Volunteer Month

Del Carver, District Director, SCORE, Fargo April is National Volunteer Month — a month dedicated to recognizing the importance of volunteering and honoring the significant contributions volunteers make by generously donating their time and talents to worthy causes. For many nonprofits, volunteers are the lifeblood of their organization. Whether they volunteer their time by helping run an event, give you access to their skills by helping run your programs or other activities, or even raise money on your behalf through peer-to-peer campaigns, volunteers are an invaluable resource. ...

Senate bill reflects failings of Legislature

Ross Hausfeld, Minot Well it’s done. Despite receiving a super-majority Do Not Pass vote from the House Transportation Committee of 9 to 5 the House at large voted to pass Senate Bill 2362, foisting upon us the gift of the police’s watchful eye on whether every person in a motor vehicle is wearing a safety belt or not. This despite virtually all these same Legislators voting not one Session ago that it was also our ‘right’ to not wear a mask and spread infectious disease as much as we would like. Endangering other people good, endangering yourself bad. So says the North ...

Closing pension plan would be short-sighted

State Sen. Sean Cleary, Bismarck There has been a push this Legislative session to close the state’s main PERS pension plan for state employees and many local government workers. While our state’s pension liability needs to be addressed, closing the pension plan entirely would be short-sighted. The decision to close the retirement plan would be a bad deal for future public employees and an even worse deal for taxpayers. If the retirement plan closes, the state will be paying more money for employees to have a worse retirement plan. Closing the pension plan is incredibly ...

Let’s set record straight

Matthew Zelinski, Deering Let me clarify for the readers some of Ms. Hendrickson’s comments from her Letter to the Editor on Saturday 01Apr2023. She incorrectly stated that the decisions at North Prairie Rural Water District are concentrated into a select few hands. First, the district’s name is not North Prairie Rural; it is North Prairie REGIONAL. It is named that way because the district encompasses approximately 4800 square miles. Second, the North Dakota Century Code; Chapter 61-35-12, Items 1 through 24, along with NPRWD By-Laws spell out the powers and duties of the ...