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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) District 24 state Senator Larry Robinson of Valley City had provided a weekly report from the state capitol during the 2017 Legislative Session.
“We are now in week Number 6 of the 2017 legislative session. The half way mark of this session will fall on February 24th. That day is what we call crossover here in the legislature.
Crossover is the time when all of the bills from the Senate have to move to the House of representatives and Vica Versa. We will return home on the 24th of February for a two day break. The second half of the session will begin on Tuesday, February 28th.
We remain challenged with the downturn in the state economy and ongoing shortfalls with state revenues. The legislature will receive an up to date revenue forecast in mid- March from Moody’s Econometric s from Pennsylvania. That forecast will provide us a revenue forecast for the 2017-2019 biennium. We will use this forecast to adjust budgets and move toward the end of this legislative session. Needless to say, there is a strong degree of uneasiness over these forecasts given the fact that the projections from Moody’s have been off for the past 12-18 months!
The budget for the Department of Transportation is still in our Senate Appropriations Committee. As I mentioned in previous reports, within the DOT budget is the proposal to close the State Highway Shops at Litchville, Courtenay, and several other rural locations. I have been working hard to resist this proposal. These shops provide important work clearing our roads for our School Buses, Emergency Medical Services, allowing folks to get to town for employment and clearing the roads for our farmers and ranchers to move their commodities. I remain very concerned that we will not have the votes necessary to reverse this proposal. I grew up in a rural area and I also served as a high school principal years ago. I am well aware of how important having a show plow within a reasonable distance is to our rural communities.
There are many other issues yet to be addressed here in the legislature. Our Senate Appropriations Committee has yet to vote on a number of state agency funding bills including the North Dakota University System, The North Dakota Veteran’s Home and the Department of Veteran’s Home, the Department of Corrections, the Industrial Commission, the Department of Commerce, The Judiciary, and several others. Due to a very tight budget, most budgets will be at 85% of current levels. In the case of Higher Education, we are looking at a budget which will be at 80% of current levels. Needless to say, the budget process has been very challenging.
Our next legislative forum will be this coming Saturday, February 11th, at the restaurant in Wimbledon. The forum will begin at 9:00 a.m and wrap up at 11:00 a.m. I will provide an up to date report on the status of the proposed closing of the highway shops in Courtenay and Litchville. We will also discuss the many other issues that are before this session of the legislature. Until then, I can be reached at lrobinson@nd.gov. We will be in Lisbon on February 18th at the Public Schools Community Room. There will be no forum on the 25th of February. We will return to Valley City on March 4th. Hope to see you in Wimbledon.