A moment of accidental levity this afternoon during a heated debate over oil taxes. Rep. Eliot Glassheim (D-Grand Forks), requesting permission to ask a question of Rep. Dave Drovdal (R-Arengard), accidentally brought down the House with laughter. As an observer of the state House, I think Rep. Glassheim may be my favorite member. I think…
House Approves Amendments Paring Down Higher Ed Budget Growth
Earlier this week I posted about a dog fight pending in the House over amendments cutting down Governor Jack Dalrymple’s massive 38.7% budget increase. The reduction in higher ed spending the amendments mandate really doesn’t amount to much of a decrease. Higher education is still getting a windfall: But even a small reduction in the…
SAB's Top Posts For The Last Week, Open Thread
These were the top posts, by page views, on SayAnythingBlog.com for the week that was: Democrat Legislator Jessica Haak Calls Republican Majority Leader A “Nazi” – Rep. Jessica Haak – (D-Jamestown) got caught posting nasty things, untrue things about Republicans on Twitter. When House Majority Leader Al Carlson confronted her about it, she called him…
Video: ND Democrat Says Tax Cuts Might Make The Economy Too Friendly For Business
Yesterday was a very interesting day in the North Dakota House. They were in floor session for something like seven hours, and considered a lot of very controversial bills. I thought I’d highlight a couple of the sillier comments that jumped out at me from all that talking. First, here’s Rep. Corey Mock, arguing against…
ND House Waters Down "Ridiculous" State Smoking Ban
In the last election North Dakotans voted for a statewide smoking ban that, going beyond merely banning smoking, contained a number of provisions for workplaces such as posting signs and removing factory-installed ash trays even in personal vehicles used for work. But today the ND House voted for two laws watering down that ban. North…
ND House Votes Down More Tax Bills
Yesterday the North Dakota House voted down a number of tax bills, most notably one that would have suspended the state income tax for two years, and today another laundry list of tax bills got shot down. Here’s the kill list: HB1396, introduced by Rep. Kim Koppelman, would have required that any property sold in…
ND House Votes Down Two Year Income Tax Moratorium, Passes New Wind Subsidies
When I was in Bismarck last week visiting the legislature a Republican member of the House took me aside and told me that the Republican majority would be voting down a lot of tax relief proposals this week and wondered if I might curtail criticism until we see what kind of tax relief is left…
Video: Democrats Argue In Favor Of Burdening Poor With Tax Hikes For Their Own Good
Yesterday the North Dakota House voted down HB1387 which would have instituted a 127% tax hike on cigarettes. The bill failed on by 19 – 72 vote margin, but the debate was interesting. Rep. Glen Froseth, arguing against the bill, noted that tax hikes on tobacco use disproportionately burden the poor. But Rep. Eliot Glassheim,…
A Tobacco Tax Hike More Likely To Inspire Smuggling Than Quitting
Grand Forks Rep. Eliot Glassheim has introduced a bill, HB1387, which would represent a massive 127% tax hike on cigarette sales. The excise tax would go from $0.44/pack to $1.00/pack. Glassheim says that he expects the tax hike to raise $59 million in new revenue for the state, but that his goal isn’t so much…
Democrat Legislator Not Sure How Much Longer He Can Defend Higher Education
Scott Hennen had a very interesting interview with Rep. Eliot Glassheim on his show today, talking about the story SAB broke earlier this morning regarding Chancellor Hamid Shirvani trying to install a big personal office into a new IT building going in on the University of North Dakota campus. “From what I know it looks…