67th Legislative Assembly has Reached Crossover

The 67th legislative assembly has finished its first leg, reaching crossover, and giving officials, staff and lobbyists a breather from the meticulous work.

EDND followed 61 bills and took a position on 23 of them. EDND opposed HB 1169, defeated by the House, which would have restricted the government from competing with a private enterprise, which had potential repercussions to agencies such as the Department of Commerce and Bank of North Dakota.

Among those supported which passed the originating chamber were

  • SB 2014, the Industrial Commission budget, contains the Bank of North Dakota and North Dakota Housing Finance Agency’s budgets, $15 million for the Housing Incentive Fund, $26 million for PACE, $5 million for Ag PACE, $1 million for Biofuels PACE, and $4.5 million for a lignite marketing study to preserve jobs; SB 2016, the Job Service ND budget
  • SB 2019, the CTE Budget, which was amended to cut the appropriation for TrainND by $100,000 ($2 million to $1.9 million) and add $45 million of one-time funding for career academy grants
  • HB 1231, was amended into a study regarding investing legacy fund money
  • HB 1425, would support Insurance Commissioner Godfread’s in-state Legacy Fund investment plan and give direction to the State Investment Board to invest up to 20 percent of the Legacy Fund in North Dakota in fixed investments (BND CDs and infrastructure) and equity/venture capital
  • HB 1275 is the Democrat’s version of the bonding bill and would provide funding for infrastructure, research, human services, workforce development, arts and culture
  • HB 1141 would provide $15 million to renew the Innovation Technology Loan Fund (LIFT)
  • HB 1452, as amended, would create a clean energy program with $40 million to provide grants and loans to entities researching, developing, or commercializing projects which would reduce the environmental impacts and use the state’s energy sources
  • SB 2272, would continue the Career Builders Scholarship and Loan Repayment program with some changes to the administration, an allowance for staffing and marketing for the program, and provide for carryover funding of the $6 million allocated to the program in 2019.

 

Among those supported that were defeated by the originating chamber were

  • SB 2040, defeated by the Senate, would have used legacy fund earnings to repay bonds for municipal and county infrastructure, school construction assistance, road and bridge infrastructure, and the housing incentive fund

 

EDND will continue to monitor and be an active participating voice for North Dakota economic developers in the second leg of the session. Continue to watch for weekly email updates from us to see the development of the bills.