There is a lot of concern over North Dakota’s budget picture. And, since we’re in an election year, there are a lot of politically convenient narratives developing around the state’s finances which aren’t necessarily a reflection of the facts. Concern over the state’s budget is warranted, but a lot of people are talking about falling revenue. The real…
North Dakota General Fund Revenues Down $301.5 Million From Last Biennium
The latest general fund revenue report from the North Dakota Office of Management and Budget. In a comparison of the revenues to date in the current 2015-2017 biennium through February to the same time period from the 2013-2015 biennium the OMB is showing a slight 0.7 percent increase (see above). That’s actually a slight improvement…
Doug Burgum Slams "Runaway Government Spending" But Helped Elect Big-Spending Governor
NDGOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Burgum was quick to react to news of new revenue shortfalls coming out of Bismarck today (my previous post here). “Unfortunately, today brings more bad news for families across North Dakota,” Burgum said in an emailed statement this afternoon. “The collapse in energy and commodity prices has created a billion dollar…
Jack Dalrymple Call Your Office: North Dakota May Need Another Round Of Budget Cuts
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post, based on a conversation with a state lawmaker, which raised the possibility of another round of budget cuts being needed. At the time this lawmaker told me there was a “better than 50 percent chance” that more budget cuts would be needed. That possibility was confirmed today…
Can We Calm Down About North Dakota's Spending Cuts?
I get it. I do. North Dakota has been able to increase spending every biennium for a long, long time. For a generation the news about the state has been, for the most part, about low unemployment and steady economic growth supporting ever-larger budgets. When we start getting headlines about falling tax revenues prompting mandatory,…
Governor Jack Dalrymple Misleads On Fee Increases?
During his budget address earlier this month Governor Jack Dalrymple promised that the executive branch would not seek to take more revenue in the form of higher taxes or fees from North Dakotans. “Our budget neither bonds nor borrows, and it imposes no new taxes or fees,” Dalrymple said. Those words make sense. Even with some…
Dalrymple Proposes 12.7 Percent Increase In On-Going Spending
Governor Jack Dalrymple delivered his biennial budget address this morning. You can watch the whole thing above (minus about a minute when my stream glitched for some reason), and read the prepared remarks here. Below are some of the highlights. “The budget plan is ambitious,” Dalrymple said. “We must always be cautious of overexpansion, a…
LegitSlater: Despite Prosperity, ND Shamelessly Asks For Fed Funding It Does Not Really Need
As I was perusing the online dailies today, I came across something pretty interesting which I felt called for a little digging into. Glad I did. Apparently, with all the excitement happening in this state I missed that we had a natural disaster at the end of June of such a magnitude that the President…
James Kerian: The Party Matters
North Dakota conservatives often complain that we don’t get much for the Republicans holding every office in Bismarck that is elected on the state wide ballot and a supermajority in both houses of the state legislature. Spending at the state level has grown astronomically. The crony capitalism of targeted sales and property tax exemptions has…
Ralph Kingsbury: No Way To Run A Budget
Readers of this column are probably aware that I have a blog in which I provide various statistics as they relate to the northern plains. Some are business statistics or other matters of a private nature. Other statistics are various public data. That includes North Dakota revenues and that is what this column is about.…