This year Governor Doug Burgum signed into law a bill passed by lawmakers which waters down North Dakota’s corporate farming ban a bit. It’s now legal for you to form a corporation for farming or ranching with your second cousin. In fighting against that change, the traditional defenders of the corporate farming ban mouthed their…
Bill Funding Roosevelt Presidential Library Sure Seems Like It’s Unconstitutional
I support the Legislature funding the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora. It’s been much derided by some who make fiscally conservative arguments against it, but I don’t buy it. The state has a role to play when it comes to preserving history. Roosevelt’s legacy is indelibly tied to our state. He doesn’t already have…
Plain Talk: Burgum Vows Veto Fight With Legislature Isn’t Over, University of Colorado Student Says Kennedy Will Face Protests on Visit
On this episode of Plain Talk, Governor Doug Burgum says a separation of powers fight with the Legislature isn’t over after lawmakers overrode his veto. He stopped short of saying his administration might take the matter back to the courts, but said if it does end up back there “the [state] Supreme Court has been…
Burgum’s Right That the Legislature’s Delegation of Powers to an Interim Committee Is Unconstitutional
Today Governor Doug Burgum announced that he has vetoed SB2055. You can read his veto statement and accompanying letter explaining his decision below. In his letter, Burgum quotes from a state Supreme Court ruling, Legislative Assembly vs. Burgum, settling a dispute between the Legislature and his administration over vetoes (where Burgum mostly lost) and the delegation…
Would a New Governance Structure for North Dakota’s Universities Really Change Anything?
Earlier this week it appeared as though the cause of reforming the North Dakota University System’s governance structure was dead. But then the state House reconsidered a previously defeated bill which would enlarge the State Board of Higher Education, and because it’s an amendment to the state constitution the issue will be in front of…
The House Should Override Burgum’s Veto of License Fee Hike
SB2244 would raise North Dakota’s fee for commercial and noncommercial driver’s licenses from $15 to $30. The Legislature approved the bill and sent it to Governor Doug Burgum for signature, but he vetoed it arguing that the $5.5 million in new revenue the bill generates per biennium “comes directly out of the pockets of state…
Heidi Heitkamp’s New Job Is Working to Ratify a Trade Agreement She Once Described as “Disappointing”
According to this report from National Public Radio’s White House correspondent Tamara Keith, former Senator Heidi Heitkamp has a new gig. She’s joining an advocacy group which is backing the USMCA, the trade deal the Trump administration negotiated with Canada and Mexico to replace the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA): Former Democratic Senator @HeidiHeitkamp…
Holding Political Extremists Accountable for Violence and Vandalism Is Not an Effort to “Chill Speech”
The ACLU opposes SB2044, a bill which clarifies law around tampering with critical infrastructure like power plants or pipelines and ups the penalties for doing so, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. According to the organization the bill is an assault on protected speech. They said, on the occasion of…
William Brotherton: Let’s Build the Teddy Roosevelt Library
This guest post was submitted by William J. Brotherton. He’s a UND graduate (1980), a member of the TR Medora Foundation, a licensed attorney in North Dakota and Texas, and the author of Burlington Northern Adventures: Railroading in the Days of the Caboose (South Platte Press, 2004). He lives in Argyle, Texas. Bravo to Governor…
Governor Burgum Blasts “Disingenuous” Legislators Over Revenue Picture, and He’s Right
Back during the heights of the Bakken boom, when oil activity was driving a tidal wave of revenues into state coffers, the revenue forecasts used by lawmakers and other state officials consistently underestimated those revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars. At that time I heard consistently from lawmakers that this was a good thing.…