BISMARCK – From bonding for infrastructure to support for the coal industry, North Dakota made positive strides in the recently concluded legislative session, Gov. Doug Burgum said Friday.

“Almost everything that we wanted to accomplish was accomplished,” said Burgum, who along with Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford spoke to The Minot Daily News. “We feel really strongly about a lot of positive things that occurred.”

Burgum said they are optimistic in light of a projected budget carryover that will be the largest in state history, in part because of an ability to utilize an influx of federal dollars.

“We never had to touch the budget stabilization fund, and at the end of the day, after all of our concerns last year, our forecast for 2021 is we’re going to come in ahead of original forecast, which is again not something that we would have even thought was possible a year ago,” he said.

He credited the state’s good position to its strong financial standing at the time when oil prices fell and COVID-19 impacts hit in 2020. He noted the state’s strong economic outlook with value-added agriculture and improved oil activity.

“We’re very, very optimistic about what the next decade could be for North Dakota,” Burgum said.

The Legislature put money into a number of water projects, including funding the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project from the Water Resources Trust Fund. Sanford explained the state had under-funded the Western Area Water Supply project. By increasing its support to WAWS this session, the state enabled WAWS to repay its debt to the Water Resources Trust Fund by an amount that covered the $74.5 million for Minot-area flood protection, he said.

Sanford said $2 million in state support for track expansion at the intermodal facility in Minot also was necessary. The matter of reclaiming intermodal assets out of a bankruptcy was too complex to be resolved during the session, but the state continues to have an interest and may have some role in future resolution, he said.

“There’s a lot of enthusiasm about spending money on infrastructure in North Dakota,” Burgum added, calling intermodal loading “a key piece of infrastructure.”

Burgum and Sanford said the state now has more tools to provide for infrastructure needs with the legislative decisions made regarding the Legacy Fund.

The newly created low-interest infrastructure loan fund looks different from the vision in the executive proposal to the Legislature, and research is needed to determine how that program will function, Sanford said.

However, Sanford said, investing equity in North Dakota entities through the Legacy Fund is a good move.The state has hired a manager, 50 South, which will be reviewing a possible first investment by June 1.

Burgum said his administration didn’t get all it wanted with the Legacy Fund bill that passed but he is satisfied with the outcome.

“It creates a framework and it will evolve,” he said. “But this is a great start.”

Burgum said he is concerned about the amount of money transferred to sit in the Strategic Investments Fund, which is a lower interest savings account than the Legacy Fund. He is pleased, though, with the money directed into the various buckets, for uses such as bond payments, highways, tax relief, a Clean Sustainable Energy Fund and shoring up the state employee pension plan.

Through wise use of the Legacy Fund, the state can provide for all the projects supported in those buckets without increasing taxes, Burgum said.

“If we care for and feed the Legacy Fund over time and let it grow,” he said, “then you can end up supporting a big chunk of government services through these earnings streams, and that can end up to be real tax relief.”

Burgum also advocated for taking care of North Dakota’s coal industry.

“If you’re going to be not just environmentally smart but energy smart and economy smart,” he said, “the fastest path to get to the place that people are saying they want to get to is by taking carbon out of the carbon-producing industries as opposed to just eliminating those industries.”

Burgum said combining activities such as carbon sequestration and the use of carbon dioxide in enhanced oil recovery with greenhouse projects and farming practices that absorb carbon dioxide can move North Dakota toward a carbon neutral future. He recently put forth a goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2030 through those practices.

The Legislature approved a five-year coal severance tax holiday, along with $24 million in grants to commercialize new technologies, particularly carbon capture, and a $250 million line of credit for a carbon capture project.

“The utilities are very happy, and, to me, I feel we really put our foot forward for helping the industry,” Sanford said. “What ended up shaking out in the legislation was as much as we could do to help our lignite-generated power industry move forward, and we really believe there’s a bright future.”