Senate Majority Leader David Hogue on The Flag’s What’s On Your Mind
(BISMARCK, ND) – North Dakota’s legislative session is heading to its final weeks.
“It’s a frenetic pace,” Senate Majority Leader David Hogue (R-Minot) said. “We’re trying to schedule things. If cases or bills don’t settle, we try to reschedule them.”
He says the process is unpredictable at times.
NDDOT legislation
Hogue says one of the major pieces of legislation is through the North Dakota Department of Transportation. The agency’s funding comes from the legislature for all of its various projects – including road and bridge construction and rural infrastructure for the county roads in North Dakota.
“There seems a significant divide between the House and the Senate in terms of how that infrastructure gets funded,” he said.
The House wants to increase the gas tax on families and small business owners, while the Senate does not feel it’s necessary to raise the gas tax. Hogue said he hopes a compromise can be reached.
Property Tax
One of the biggest discussions this legislative session has to do with property tax relief and reform. Last week it was announced that the state’s Senate Finance and Taxation Committee is now working on a second bill offering a $1,650 primary residence property tax credit.
The House’s credit remains at $1,550.
“Our version is, if the value on your house is $200,000 more more,” Hogue said. “You’re going to get the full $1,650 regardless of the skin and game amendment.”
He says the House is still resistant to the skin and game concept.
“They don’t like the legislative intent,” Hogue said. “But I think they’ll probably come up to $1,650. Perhaps we’ll get there.”
The skin in the game concept is designed to ‘have some fairness for other classifications of property tax areas’ in rural North Dakota where the tax ‘will be wiped out.’
“They’ll feel it’ll be a lot easier to vote for bond issuances and school mill expansions,” Hogue said.
Regardless of what is spent on tax relief, there has to be cuts elsewhere – which will likely come in the final days of the legislative session.
Ag Tech
Ag tech is the state’s leading industry.
“It’s one of those things where we can leverage what we do well now and export that expertise to other states that are big ag states,” Hogue said.
One of the greatest examples is Grand Farm, where Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins visited Tuesday. The autonomy at Grand Farm plays a role in agriculture.
“One of the things it’s going to do is allow our rank-and-file farmers to be more productive,” Hogue said.
Workforce continues to be a challenge statewide – and ag and tech is no different.
“The ag community is no different in terms of not being able to get as much human capital as they can to be more productive,” Hogue said. “So I, myself, would be interested to see how this autonomous equipment runs.”
Innovations such as Grand Farm in Cass County and Grand Sky in Grand Forks County are bringing some of the top talent to the state.
