Screenshot Photo Wade Sick with the North Dakota Department of Education testifies regarding inflationary funding for career academies in House Bill 1543 before the joint Appropriations Committee of the state Legislature Monday.

A legislative joint committee advanced a bill Monday that retains funding to cover inflationary costs associated with construction of career and technical centers, including the Minot Workforce Academy.

The North Dakota Legislature is meeting in special session to address an Office of Management and Budget bill that the North Dakota Supreme Court determined was unconstitutional because of the inclusion of a variety of unrelated appropriations. The omnibus bill had included up to $26.5 million in funds to cover inflationary costs associated with construction of 13 career academies.

“This process of using the Office of Management and Budget’s appropriation bill as an omnibus at the end of the session had been in practice for at least three decades,” Gov. Doug Burgum said in an address to legislators Monday. “But as a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling last month, Senate Bill 2015, the OMB budget bill, is now void.”

The Legislature is meeting to reconsider the separate sections of SB 2015, including CTE inflationary funding.

“Regional committees decided to move ahead on these projects with the anticipation that inflationary money was there. If it would go away right now, it would be a boondoggle,” Minot Supt. Mark Vollmer said.

The Minot Workforce Academy received $10 million of the $88.3 million originally appropriated for career and technical education centers, much of it from federal pandemic dollars. Inflationary funds were added during the 2023 legislative session because rising costs were leaving projects short of money. The Minot academy stands to receive about another $3 million.

Also affected are the Bakken Area Skills Center in Watford City and the Williston Basin Career and Technical Education Center in Williston.

Vollmer traveled to Bismarck to support the career academy funding in House Bill 1543 and loan money for school construction projects in Senate Bill 2398. The Senate bill reinstates $2.5 million in loan assistance from the Coal Development Trust fund for unanticipated school construction projects. Although the Minot district is not looking to utilize the loan funds, it is important to districts across the state, Vollmer said of the bill that received joint Policy Committee approval Monday.

With the different school construction projects left hanging until the Legislature can act, Volmer noted, “It’s just a quagmire right now and we have to get it straightened out. Our Legislature is willing to do that, as is our governor, so I think we are in pretty good shape.”

HB 1543, which includes the CTE funding, also has other provisions affecting the North Dakota Behavioral Health Division and Bismarck State College. It passed the joint Appropriations Committee 33-3.