Monte Reiner

Minot

PreBakken vs. Post Bakken budgets show us where our legacy went and why we face big deficits in more areas than money. Huge investments were made in pavement, higher education, fighting criminal activity, and health insurance and pensions for state employees while 180,000 children live in poverty.

2007-09 budgets vs. 2013-15 numbers tell us a story.

$300 million vs. $1.5 billion for pavement in 2013-15 relates to the subsidy big oil got from our state. Interestingly one mile of two lane highway cost us $2,000,000 per mile vs. $985,000 per mile in 2007-09. You draw your conclusions.

Crime has soared and in 2013-15 $180 million was spent on Dept. of Corrections alone. 1/4 of the prisoners were women and 3/4 men. Hundreds of millions are spent on jails and law enforcement as a sad sign of our times in North Dakota.

State employees earn guaranteed pensions while private industry has ended them. These same employees are receiving very good heath insurance at a price of $982 per employee per month vs. $658 in 2007-09. This might be a pool all state citizens could join if they did not receive health insurance from their employer.

In 2013-15 higher education received $982 million vs. $553 million in 2007-09. Tuition and fees paid by students $686 million and $472 million respectively. The report card on this spending shows students graduating in 3 years at two year institutions was only 27%. In 4 year institutions only 57% graduated after 6 years. With 50% or less success rate maybe the budget should be cut 50%.

At the same time this is all going on 15% of North Dakota children live in poverty which creates irreversible damage to these 180,000 children.

Does it seem possible that some of these budget dollars are not bringing us the results we need? Investment in people vs. pavement and prevention vs. prison and preparation vs. poor performance are better alternatives for our tax dollars. Some stunning numbers indeed.