NDACo Legislative Report #12

The hearing schedule is getting short, and tensions are beginning to rise as the Legislature gets ever closer to the end. Some are saying Easter Monday is the day they hope to adjourn, but others think that this is incredibly optimistic.  The issues of casinos gambling, restructuring the NDPERS health plan, taxing internet sales, property tax relief and of course the ending fund balance will undoubtedly be the final issues of the session, and the two bodies seem in disagreement on most of these.

As our previous post indicates, we had well attended (and we believe) successful hearings on the “property tax relief through social service funding “ and “property tax caps” issues.  These are both likely to have very different positions in each of the chambers and will be part of that “property tax relief/reform” discussion in the final days.  We will let you know when it will be necessary to start contacting legislators on the floor, but don’t hesitate to let them know when they come home for forums.

During the last few days however, we have seen plenty of action on our less “political” issues.

This week we saw:

• The governor sign the bill to prevent phone companies from “double-dipping” on the charges to local 9-1-1 programs (HB1027)

• The Senate pass the House Bill (HB1250) to FINALLY clarify the process for disclosing sales prices on real property transfers.

• The Senate to also pass the bill (HB128) to remove the hard mandate about counties buying century code books.

• The House pass two favorable publication bills – clarifying and reducing county costs for bid notices.

• The House also pass a bill allowing the Bank of North Dakota to expand its infrastructure loan fund in a manner that will make it available to county road projects.

In the area of legislation needing local action, we have SB2204, addressing the state costs associated with the Statewide Interoperable Radio System (SIRN).  This bill would put a surcharge on traffic offenses and the revenue would go into the SIRN project.  It was designed to address two important law enforcement goals – making our speeding fines less ridiculous, and helping fund some much needed infrastructure.  The bill was voted out of the House Transportation Committee on Thursday with a 9-5 Do Not Pass recommendation.  It will take every county sheriff, police chief, fire chief, EMS volunteer, and 911 coordinator (and frankly every local government officials) to turn this around on the floor of the House.  We expect this to hit the floor early next week.  The message must be “Vote YES on SB2204” to support public safety.”

As noted and shown below, next week will have only a few “county bill” hearings, but there will be plenty of action in the committees as they debate the tougher issues they have left before them. Don’t hesitate to come to Bismarck and watch them work – it is often quite interesting and will certainly help keep county concerns at the forefront.

	Bill			Comment	Committee	Room
Monday 3/20
9:00	SB 2163		J	Civil action for elder abuse	House Judiciary	Prairie
9:00	HB 1023		E	LC Budget for NDPERS Administration	Senate Appropriations	Harvest
9:00	SB 2015		J **	DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
9:00	HB 1235		J	Certain records of counsel for indigents confidential	Senate Judiciary	Fort Lincoln
9:30	HB 1183		J	Clarifies offenses against minors	Senate Judiciary	Fort Lincoln
9:40	SB 2322		J	New financial exploitation of vulnerable adult crime	House Judiciary	Prairie
10:30	SB 2335		J	Changes to vulnerable adult statute	House Judiciary	Prairie
11:00	HB 1015		S ***	Budget for OMB - public guardianship funds	Senate Appropriations	Harvest
2:00	SB 2190		X	Prime bids to list subcontractors to be used	House Industry, Bus. & Labor	Peace Garden
2:00	SB 2015		J **	DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
2:00	HB 1436		E *	NDPERS Health to be self-insured	House IB&L	Peace Garden
2:00	HB 1015		S ***	Budget for OMB - public guardianship funds	Senate Appropriations	Harvest
3:00	HB 1029		C	Expanded review for state to accept federal funding	Senate Appropriations	Harvest
Tuesday 3/21
8:30	SB 2195	E		Donor to nonprofit-info not public	House Judiciary	Prairie
8:30	SB 2015	J **		DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
9:00	HB 1170	J ***		Limits law enforcement ability to collect civil forfeitures	Senate Judiciary	Fort Lincoln
9:00	HB 1152	C		Some of state share of oil revenues to go to Budget Stabilization Fund	Senate Appropriations	Harvest
9:30	SB 2344	J ***		Medical Marijuana implementation	House Human Services	Fort Union
9:50	SB 2170	J		Enforcement of Canadian Domestic Violence orders	House Judiciary	Prairie
10:00	HB 1221	J *		Restrictions on use of confidential informants	Senate Judiciary	Fort Lincoln
2:00	SB 2015	J **		DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
Wednesday 3/22
8:30	SB 2015	J **		DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
9:00	SCR 4003	J		Study juvenile justice system	House Judiciary	Prairie
9:30	HB 1402	J		Firearm surrender due to domestic violence court order	Senate Judiciary	Fort Lincoln
Thursday 3/23
9:15	HCR 3014	R*		Study cost of public notice publication costs	Senate Political Subdivisions	Red River
9:30	SB 2015	J **		DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea
10:00	HCR 3016	V		Study moving city elections to November	Senate Political Subdivisions	Red River
Friday 3/24
8:30	SB 2015	J **		DOCR Budget	H-Approp. HR	Sakakawea

County Officials Turn Up at Capitol for Important Hearings

There was tremendous turnout of our County Officials from across the state for two priority bill hearings Wednesday. Your presence does make a difference and we hope you had an opportunity to connect with your local legislators to solidify your positions on the legislation.

The House Finance and Tax Committee heard SB 2206 which is transitions the cost of county social services to the state. This in return will mean real, permanent tax relief to the citizens of North Dakota. The 20 mills a county has the authority to levy for social services would be eliminated. Chairman Craig Headland questioned if counties would continue to support the bill if the "hold harmless" payment was removed. This is the portion of the formula that would essentially provide for equal relief to all residents of North Dakota regardless of the social service cost in their county. The bill as it stands today would allow for all taxpayers to realize a 12% property tax savings. This would continue the same level of relief they have been seeing with the 12% property tax buy down currently in place. However, some legislators are concerned that given the current budget climate, the state may have to reduce the level of property tax relief. The committee did not take action on this bill.
Follow this link to hear testimony from today's hearing on SB 2206. Video of SB 2206 in House Tax

Also today, counties joined schools, cities, park districts and townships in opposing HB 1361. This bill says local taxing jurisdictions can not raise their taxes more than 3% in DOLLARS without a vote from it's tax payers. The main argument made during testimony surrounds the fact that this bill would limit local control of those officials elected to make budget decisions. The elected officials testified that they, as a board, do not have intentions of raising property taxes and work to decrease or at least hold even on property taxes. Many officials testified that the current process associated with notice requirements for increases and budget hearings has played a significant role in increasing transparency and holding taxing jurisdictions accountable for their budget actions. Officials brought in examples of prior taxes on properties have looked like over the course of several years. Cass County Auditor Mike Montplaisir pointed out that it would be nearly impossible for a political subdivision to plan and hold an election in the short time frame of the budget process. There are also implications of this bill that would effect bonding for the political subdivisions. Many officials also stated that if this bill passes, many fear those taxing jurisdictions may feel the need to increase their taxes 3% every year to avoid getting caught short of funds when a future need or emergency arises.
Listen to a portion of Morton County Commissioner Bruce Strinden's testimony here:  Video of testimony from HB 1361

We encourage our counties to email members of the House Finance and Tax Committee to encourage a Do Pass recommendation on SB 2206. We would also advise contacting Senate Finance and Tax on HB 1361 urging a Do Not Pass.

NDACo Legislative Report #11

Next week will be HUGE for counties, and we are making a plea for as many officials as possible to attend the Session PARTICULARLY ON WEDNESDAY.  As schedule below will indicate, more than thirty of our “Top 100” county bills will have their final hearing this coming week.

Importantly, the County Social Service funding bill (SB2206) and the 3% Cap on local government taxation (HB1361) will both be heard (back-to-back) on WEDNESDAY morning.  We cannot overstate how important it will be to have a strong showing of local government officials.  The cities, townships, park districts and schools are also being asked to bring their members in on Wednesday, particularly to oppose the cap bill (10:30 am).

Our arguments against caps are the same since this concept was first suggested almost 10 years ago.  Tax limitations can have unexpected consequences, they actually encourage property tax increases each year, they reduce economic growth in communities, and result in greater state spending.  You can check out the NDACo testimony against HB1361 in the House at the “testimony” tab on this blog site.  If you can’t make it in to Bismarck Wednesday (and we hope you can) please let the Senate Finance & Taxation Committee and your local Senators know of your views on this bill.  Committee memberships and contact information can be found at the North Dakota Legislative Branch website tab to the left.

Besides these two bills, we have hearings on the increase in construction bid limits (SB2146) on Monday, the Local Public Safety Radio Funding Bill (HB1178) on Tuesday, two bills (HB1294 & HB1338) impacting county burials on Tuesday, an appropriations rehearing on the “Fat Truck” bill (SB2045) on Tuesday afternoon, a number of overweight truck bills on Thursday, and Public Administrator funding on Friday.

All-in-all a HUGE week ahead.

And this follows a pretty big week as well.  The big news of course was the final revenue projections that indicate $46 million less in State General Funds THIS biennium and $103 million less for the next.  As most of the projected loss of revenue is in Sales Tax, this also has a proportional impact on the projected revenues going into the State Aid Distribution Fund.  While the long term projections suggest some growth and we are projected to be at the “bottom” at this time, government funding will be stressed.

In other news, the following actions were taken this past week on county bills:

HB1027 to prevent telcom companies from double-dipping on 911 fees was passed by the Senate and sent to the Governor,

HB1231, as reported earlier, was passed by the Senate – this bill repeals the county cost for quarterly NDSU extension publications,

HB1345, the omnibus open records/meetings bill was passed unanimously by the Senate – this bill incorporated several changes requested by counties.

HB1424, also reported earlier, was the bill to expand the church property tax exemption to income-producing property – this was defeated by the Senate.

SB2106, amended at the counties’ request, was passed by the Senate.  This bill preserves the population based fees for accessing federal criminal databases.

SB2160, a clean-up bill for county recorders and auditors was passed by the House.

SB2178, the expansion of the Bank of ND Infrastructure loan fund to make it available for county road projects was given a Do Pass in the House.

SB2197, a county-requested clean-up bill for county bidding was given a Do Pass recommendation in the House.

SB2288, to consolidate budget & budget meeting notices was given a Do Pass by the House Finance & Tax Committee

Next week promises to be even more exciting.  Hope you can be there!

The full hearing schedule is available with this report at the link below, or the “Weekly Reports” tab to the left.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4bYba4CUTL1Sm9nRG9kVW5PSEk/view?usp=sharing

Senate Defeats Church Property Exemption Bill and Repeals NDSU Publication Requirement

The Senate defeated HB1424 which related to property owned by a church. The bill looked to expand property allowed that would be exempt from taxation. The bill failed with a vote of 9-38.

Senate members also voted to repeal the publication requirement for Counties and NDSU Extension to publish quarterly ads in county newspapers. Repealing this section of code in HB 1231 would save counties $45,000 a biennium. Senator Kyle Davidson told members, "This law was created 100 years ago and at that time it served a purpose. Today, you can get information regarding NDSU Extention by visiting their website, going to their office, or calling the Extension. This is an example of an unfunded mandate." The bill passed 41-6. It will go to the Governor for his signature.

Also to update you on the progress of SB2288 relating to the uniform tax notice. The House Tax and Finance Committee heard the bill today (Wednesday) and gave the bill a Do Pass recommendation. This bill repeals the current Truth in Taxation notice and replaces multiple notices with one single notice. The committee did amend the bill - changing who is responsible for mailing the notice from auditor to treasurer to mirror code that defines this responsibilty for issuing tax statements. This change was backed by the Auditors and Treasurers Legislative Committee. The bill will now go to the House floor for a vote.

NDACo Legislative Report #10

The legislators came back from their mid-term break ready to dig inand hold hearings – as you will see from the length of next week’s schedule.  What the schedule doesn’t indicate however is the relative shortage of bills this session.  Many of the policy committees are looking at finishing most of their hearings in the next two weeks – well ahead of previous session.  Unfortunately, the Appropriations Committees can’t get their work done that quickly – but, a “short” legislative session seems more like a possibility – at least at this time.

The past short week saw committee action on several county bills.  Some of the highlights:

Ø  A pitch was made to add funds for new voting equipment into the Secretary of State’s Budget

Ø  A Do Pass recommendation was received on the bill (HB1027) to prevent “double-dipping” of fees by phone companies collecting the 9-1-1 surcharge for counties.

Ø  A Do Pass was given to the bill (SB2106) as amended at county request that would preserve the lower, population-based fees that counties pay for accessing federal criminal databases.

Ø  A Do Pass was given to a county requested bill (SB2160) addressing the duties of the county recorder in foreclosure

Ø  Strong testimony was given, largely by emergency responders, for SB2204 to add a “fee” onto the fines levied for traffic violations – with the new revenue for the statewide interoperable radio system.

The important reminder for this week’s report is that the County Officials Academy is NEXT WEEK.  Besides the excellent training, informative presentation, and great food; you will get the Legislative Update and a chance to rub elbows with absolutely every legislator at the social.  This will be your chance to carry the “county message” as well as your own interests and thoughts to them one-on-one.  So we sincerely hope you can attend.

 Check out next week's hearings on the Week #10 Leg Report at the link below, or on the report tab.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4bYba4CUTL1amdLYmMzb0kyUFU/view?usp=sharing