News today is beginning May 1 the North Dakota Department of Transportation will begin issuing so-called “Real ID” cards. They’re a sort of enhanced identification the idea for which came from the 9/11 commission. Back in 2005 Congress passed the Real ID Act, which created criteria for the ID and required that the feds stop…
This Is Why Senator Heitkamp Has to Make Voters Hate Her Opponent
I’ve long predicted that the 2018 U.S. Senate election will be one of the ugliest North Dakota has ever seen. Part of the foundation for that prediction lays in the way the incumbent, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, campaigned in 2012. She ran a vicious campaign that year, brutalizing her opponent Rick Berg with her surrogates painting…
North Dakota Democrats Only Hate Out of State Political Contributions When They’re Made to Republicans
I have been consistently critical of Senator Heidi Heitkamp for collecting well over 90 percent of her itemized, individual contributions from out of state. I mean, the Senator reported in her year-end report to the FEC for 2017 that she received three times more contributions from New Yorkers than she did from North Dakotans. According…
Why Can’t the North Dakota University System Be Satisfied With a 31 Percent Increase in Funding for a 7 Percent Increase in Students?
At a State Board of Higher Education meeting yesterday there was a lot of griping among some board members about Governor Doug Burgum’s suggested budget cut. Board Chair Don Morton sounded a different tone in an interview with me earlier this week (audio here). “Every organization has room to find efficiencies,” Morton told me, adding that…
Senator Heidi Heitkamp Begins Biggest Campaign of Her Political Life…With a Recycled Ad From 2012?
Incumbent Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp’s campaign is out with their first ad of the 2018 election cycle, and I think the (mostly out of state) contributors who have put millions in Heitkamp’s campaign hoping she can stop a Republican takeover of a Senate seat the Democrats have held since the Truman administration. It kinda seems…
North Dakota Democrats Outraged When the Federal Government Does a Rare Thing: Give Back Power
Yesterday a rare thing happened in our federal government. It gave back some power. Specifically, the FCC’s repeal of Obama-era net neutrality regulations began. It’s not very often we see the federal government voluntarily give up regulatory authority like that, and it’s something to be applauded. Not happy about the move, unfortunately, was a group…
It Is Inexcusable That the North Dakota Industrial Commission Is 8 Months Behind on Meeting Minutes
According to the Associated Press the North Dakota Industrial Commission – a powerful triumvirate consisting of the Governor, Attorney General, and Agriculture Commissioner which regulates, among other things, oil and gas development – is eight months behind in approving meeting minutes. This is absurd. The excuse from the commission is that an assistant working for…
The Fight Over Online Sales Taxes Cannot Be About Fairness
“Our view: Put online sellers on equal footing,” is the headline over a Grand Forks Herald editorial today, making the point that the U.S. Supreme Court should back South Dakota’s law instituting a 4.5 percent sales tax on online sales of retailers doing more than $100,000 in annual business. It’s a case with national implications because…
Rep. Cramer Signs Letter Urging End to Federal Contract With Citibank Due to Restrictions on Gun Sales
“Citigroup Inc (C.N) added restrictions on firearms sales for new retail-sector clients, the Wall Street bank said on Thursday, the strongest move to date by a major U.S. lender following last month’s high school shooting in Florida,” Reuters reported last month. Here’s what the bank is doing specifically: In an emailed statement Citi said it…
Democratic Tax Commissioner Candidate Misrepresents Incumbent’s Online Sales Tax Position
Yesterday Kylie Oversen, the North Dakota Democratic Party’s candidate for Tax Commissioner, posted a press release urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the Quill vs. North Dakota precedent which limits states to applying the sales tax only to entities with a physical presence within their borders. Quill was actually litigated by then-Tax Commissioner Heidi…