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CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) The half-way point in the 2017 Legislative Session is three weeks away and here is District 24 State Senator Larry Robinson of Valley City with his weekly report.

Robinson talked about the proposed repeal of the Sunday Blue Law, the proposed closure of North Dakota DOT maintenance shops in Litchville and Courtenay and a bill to increase the Interstate speed limit in his report.

“We are now in the month of February and the pace in the legislature has clearly picked up. Bill introduction deadlines have passed and now it is a matter of completing committee hearings on all of the bills introduced. We are three weeks away from Crossover, the half way point of the legislative session. We hope to complete  our action on Senate bills by Thursday, February 23rd. We will then be on break until the 28th.

House Bill 1318 proposes to repeal the Regional Education Associations. The REA’s began in 2005 as Joint Powers Agreements. The idea was to bring regional schools together to share resources, and to work in partnership on programs such as mental health, suicide prevention, reading and math strategies. We have heard over and over again that the benefits of the REA’s are many and repealing them would be a  mistake.

Last week the Senate defeated a bill which proposed to refuse all federal funding for education. The bill sponsors failed to realize that even if the bill would have passed, school districts would still be required to provide the federally mandated programs, but they would have to raise local property taxes to pay the bill for those programs. The bill would have cost our school districts millions of dollars.

The bill to increase the speed limits on our roadways has passed the Senate Committee and will be re-referred to the Senate Appropriations Committee. I will be opposing the increase in the speed limit.

The budget for the Department of Transportation is still in our  Senate Appropriations Committee. I would expect the  bill to be voted on sometime in the next two weeks or so. Still included in the bill is the proposal to close several State Highway Shops, including the shops at Litchville and Courtenay. This proposal has created considerable concern from our rural residents in those areas, and understandably so. Having access to plowed roadways in the Winter months is a must. These roads are used to get folks to work, for medical emergencies, for our farmers and ranchers to transport commodities, and  for  our school bus routes. We are working hard to resist this proposal. It was a bad idea yesterday, it is a bad idea today and it will be a bad idea tomorrow.”

There will not be a legislative forum on Saturday February 4th. The next forum will be in Wimbledon, on Saturday, February 11th at the restaurant. The forums begin at 9:00 a.m. and wrap up by 11:00 a.m.

The forum will be in Lisbon on February 18th at the Public schools Commons area. There will be no forum on the 25th of February for Crossover.

A forum will be held in Valley City on Saturday, March 4th the location will be announced at a later date and another will be held in Enderlin on March 11th.