North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong gives his first State of the State address Jan. 7, 2025, at the Capitol. (Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)
The 69th Legislative Session is in the books. And as with every session, there’s winners and losers. It brings the types of wins and losses that can define a state. First, let’s go over the winners.
First: The North Dakota home owners have certainly come out as winners. Our new Governor Kelly Armstrong promised property tax relief, and he got it in a significant way. Each homeowner will now get $1,600 in property tax relief. And now that it’s been committed to in the session, it’ll be hard to ever repeal or replace it.
Second: North Dakota’s public schools also came out as winners. Aside from significant increases in funding, they were able to keep public dollars going towards public schools. The attempt by the Governor to fund private schools with private dollars failed. In large part, because of you and the emails and calls made. Now the job will be to ensure those public dollars never go to private schools. Because I guarantee you, it’ll show up again.
Third: Another win is for those that wanted a larger government. This Legislature grew North Dakota’s budget by over 3.5%. I don’t know which category you fall into, if it’s less or more government. I just know that if you wanted more, you won this session.
Now let’s take a look at the losers.
First: Political subdivisions came out as losers. They lost control of their own financial independence and no longer control their revenue or spending. For many, this change won’t be noticed. But for those that deal with growth, it certainly will be felt. In the end, local government will matter less to the state.
Second: Ethical government also come out as a loser, and a huge one at that. The request for additional help by the Ethics Commission was ignored. In fact, there was an attempt to go the opposite direction. The Legislature wanted to limit the amount of time a case could be investigated. No doubt that was due to the fact that many legislators are under investigation.
Attempts to look into the Holmberg scandal went completely ignored as well. Efforts to find out what role North Dakota played in this hideous tragedy will remain concealed from the public. And let’s not kid ourselves, this was done specifically to protect the North Dakota GOP. To that, I say it’s our job to continue to ask why.
There’s more losers like school lunch programs, but for now, I think we can celebrate.
Celebrate the fact they’re done.
Good riding with you,
Joel
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