Two weeks down and the bills have started to pile up. Some of our old
"friends" including value caps and artificial budget limits for local
government have also showed up again and will require some serious attention on
Wednesday. A new wrinkle was proposed to
restrict government employees from testifying is already creating a
considerable stir. That shows up in
HB1168 and will be heard on Thursday.
Tuesday has a hearing on the proposal to fund the local share of a
statewide interoperable radio network with a 50-cent increase to the 911 fee on
phones. A separate proposal to add an
administrative fee on traffic offenses is expected in the coming weeks.
Still plenty of work on appropriations bills of interest to counties is
schedule for the coming
week, particularly DHS, OMB, and the land board budgets
– not to mention the two separate appropriations bills for new election equipment.
This past week (in addition to the earlier posts) included a solid overview of the proposal to fund county social services with state funds made to the House Appropriations subcommittee addressing the DHS Budget. It gets confusing however as this concept is spread out among three separate bills. The DHS budget (HB1012) has the money, the OMB budget (HB1015) transfers the funds, (both in the house) and a senate bill as yet to be numbered contains the formula for reimbursing counties. Lots of talk and interest in this proposal, particularly after Governor Burgum stated that there needs to be an “off ramp” for the 12% property tax by-down.
Get this report and the hearing schedule for
next week in the weekly reports to the left, or at the link below.
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