Supporters Stress Importance of Infrastructure Funding

Counties along with others once again stressed their support for "Operation Prairie Dog" the infrastructure funding bill being proposed this Legislative Session. The Senate Tax and Finance Committee heard HB 1066 Tuesday. This was the first look at the bill for Senators. The bill passed the House in February.
The bill utilizes the state's oil and gas tax revenues to provide infrastructure funding for oil and non-oil cities, counties and townships as well as continuing to flow into several state funds including the general fund, property tax relief fund and the Strategic Investment and Improvements Fund (SIIF). The House did move the SIIF bucket above the non-oil county bucket.

Senate Majority Leader, Rich Wardner, reassured the committee that under the current oil price assumptions; all "buckets" will fill. "This is an investment into North Dakota," said Wardner. "If we want people to move here and to continue to live here, our cities and counties need to have good infrastructure. While this bill isn't intended to be a property tax reduction bill; over time it will reduce property taxes because this will relieve some of the burden of relying on property taxes to fund major road, bridge, water, sewer and other infrastructure projects."

Morton County Commissioner Bruce Strinden stressed the function of certainty that is provided in this bill. "The Legislature has been wise in its past efforts to address local infrastructure needs, and county officials are extremely grateful for those efforts. The way you have addressed gross production tax allocations and the multiple times that you have allocated one-time funding have been significant in addressing the enormous unmet need for local road improvement.  This bill today will improve upon these efforts by bringing a degree of certainty to future funding – allowing counties to more effectively plan and program improvements for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness," said Strinden. 
Mountrail County Commissioner Trudy Ruland and Grand Forks Highway Engineer Nick West also testified in support of the bill on behalf of oil and non-oil counties.