Legislative Update 4-3-19

Governor's Veto on Drivers License Fees Stands

The North Dakota House failed Tuesday to get enough votes to override the Governor's veto on a bill to increase Drivers' License fees. The bill sought to raise the cost of a non-commercial license from $15 to $30. The cost has not increased in 32 years. Currently, the state is subsidizing the cost of driver's license because the fees do not cover the cost of a drivers' license. the DOT has stated that they will be $5 million short of running the program in the 2019-21 biennium. NDACo supported the bill because that $5 million is being taken from road funding to make up the loss. The House's 47-44 vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the Governor's veto. The Senate voted last week to challenge the Governor. 

HB 1534 - DUI Clean Up Receives Final Passage

The Senate approved a bill to clean up the DUI statute and comply with recent Supreme Court cases. HB 1534 does not address penalties but only seeks to modify the procedures officers must undertake during the DUI arrest process. Unfortunately, as there are approximately 6500 DUI arrests each year in North Dakota, the Courts are constantly being asked to interpret our DUI statutes. A prime example of this came in 2017 when the North Dakota Supreme Court determined urine tests fall into the category of tests requiring a warrant. This decision modified our current statute thereby causing confusion for officers on the street.

This bill seeks to take a different approach. As opposed to specifying the procedure by statute which may have to be modified after every court case, this bill simply says officers should comply with the requirements of the State and Federal Constitution as expressed by the Courts. That way if or when a court case changes the procedure we do not have to come back and again rewrite the statue.

This bill also makes some changes which were missed in the last couple of sessions which has caused for confusing with suspects, officers and the courts. It also includes an emergency clause so the changes will take effect as soon as the bill is signed by the Governor. 

Senate debates bill to prohibit sale of E-Cigs to Minors

The Senate debated an amendment to engrossed House bill 1477 prohibiting the sale of flavored e-liquid to minors.  The proposed amendment

would have made sale or furnishing of tobacco in any form to minors a class B misdemeanor.  The bill was ultimately divided and the Senate amendment failed.  The Senators then passed the remaining section of bill which was as received from the House.  As passed, HB 1477 provides for a $500 fine for each e-liquid product or device sold or offered for sale to a minor. 

Appropriations Committees Act on Priority Bills  HB 1004, the ND Department of Health budget, passed out of Senate Appropriations today. No changes were made to Local Public Health funding, meaning the $525,000 reduction in the Governor’s budget which was added back in by the House remains. Senate amendments to the health department budget include $200,000 in general funds for sexual violence primary prevention and intent language to implement electronic access to vital records through web access or kiosk in cooperation with other state agencies. The vital records electronic access was added with regards to the increased fees for obtaining the records. HB 1004 now moves to the Senate Floor. 

The House Appropriations passed out the Social Service Redesign bill, SB 2124 with a vote of 18-2. This includes amendments discussed in a prior blog post from changes made in the House Human Services committee. This bill now moves to the House floor.