A governor’s veto has cut $350,000 in funding to the State Fair Association for sanitation restoration.

Gov. Kelly Armstrong made the line item veto to Senate Bill 2018, a Commerce Department bill that included several appropriations for various purposes. The vetoed section would have provided up to $350,000 for the fair association during the 2025-2027 biennium.

Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said as revisions were made to the fair’s budget in Senate Bill 2009 during the legislative process, the full funding for fair projects didn’t get into the final version. Hogue said he worked with the conference committee to add $350,000 to SB 2018 because state facilities should be a state responsibility.

He said the extra dollars would have helped with a new eastside campground restroom and laundry facility as well as an upgrade to restrooms in the State Fair Center.

State Fair Manager Craig Rudland said he wasn’t aware additional dollars had been added to SB 2018 toward the end of the session.

SB 2009 provided $642,833 for premium payments to exhibitors, $750,000 for a campgrounds rest facility/comfort station and $800,000 for security and safety infrastructure. Premiums will come from the state general fund. The other one-time project funding will come from the Strategic Investment and Improvements Fund.

“The Legislature was very good to us on the security appropriation and that comfort station and our premium dollars. It is very, very much appreciated and will be a real added value to the fair and all of the guests,” Rudland said. “We hope to make sure that people can come here and feel comfortable and safe. Sometimes things in the world aren’t so safe, but we’re really ahead of the curve.”

Sen. Scott Louser, R-Minot, who was involved in discussion on the fair budget on the House side, said he also wasn’t aware of the $350,000 added to SB 2018 in the final days of the Legislature.

Louser said he had proposed $100,000 for the Fair Center for restroom, locker room and concession upgrades, which made it into the House version of SB 2009. The conference committee removed the $100,000 while increasing funding for the campground and security improvements.

The campground funding in SB 2009 is a cost-share of $2 in state funding for each $1 in fair association funds.

Hogue said he would like to see the State Fair treated as other state facilities, which receive their maintenance dollars from the state without needing to come up with a match.

“It troubles me that it’s, in my mind, treated unfairly sometimes,” he said.

Armstrong acknowledged the importance of maintaining and improving facilities at the state fairgrounds, but he noted the appropriation in SB 2018 should have gone into the fair association’s primary budget in SB 2009.

“Adding the appropriation to Senate Bill 2018, which is a bill unrelated to the State Fair Association, at the end of the legislative session is a clear example of logrolling, which undermines transparency, accountability, and the principle of deliberative budgeting,” Armstrong wrote in his veto message.

He added if the fair association’s budget in SB 2009 is insufficient to address sanitation restoration projects, the association has other avenues of recourse, including applying for funds through the state Emergency Commission, seeking grants or requesting a deficiency appropriation during the 2027 legislative session.

“These existing mechanisms provide a more appropriate and orderly way to address emerging needs without circumventing the standard appropriations process,” Armstrong wrote.