District 12, 29 lawmakers update constituents on bills

Mar. 24—JAMESTOWN — District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered several questions about bills that they are working on in the North Dakota Legislature, including property taxes, keeping explicit sexual material out away from areas accessible to minors in libraries, education bills, helping rural communities and a bill related to energy conversion and transmission facility, siting among other issues.
District 12 and 29 lawmakers answered questions about the legislative session on Saturday, March 22, at a meet-and-greet event hosted by the Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce at the Gladstone Inn & Suites. Rep. Don Vigesaa, R-Cooperstown, did not attend the event.
Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, said the House Finance and Taxation Committee has seen almost 60 bills in regard to property tax.
"I think the Senate has settled in pretty much on House Bill 1176, a bill that in some ways I and the House Tax Committee completely rewrote from its original design," said Headland, who chairs the House Finance and Taxation Committee. "The original design had the intent of taking every primary residence to zero. We took that out. We don't know that we believe in that."
HB 1176 would expand the primary residence tax credit from $500 to $1,450 beginning in tax year 2025, Forum News Service reported.
"I've also heard that there's a move to possibly take the $1,450 down to $1,250," Headland said. "I don't know that I agree that we need to do that either. What I do agree with that I've heard that they're thinking about is putting some type of percentage into the equations so no one's primary residence goes to zero today. If we want to take properties to zero in the future, and future legislators have the funding ability to do it, that's a decision they should make."
HB 1176 would also expand eligibility for the Homestead Tax Credit program, which is available to homeowners over 65 years old, Forum News Service reported. The income thresholds for eligibility would be expanded from $40,000 to $50,000 to be eligible for the full credit and from $70,000 to $80,000 to be eligible for half the credit. It also expands the maximum available renter's refund from $400 to $600.
The bill also proposes a 3% cap on property tax levy increases from taxing districts.
"We put in some provisions to help the political subdivisions deal with the restrictions caps," Headland said. "Some of them stayed in the bill. One of them, the opt-out provision where we allowed a county to opt out or a city to opt out of the cap altogether, was stripped out of the bill in House Appropriations, which I didn't really think was appropriate because the policy committee, which I chair, had put it in."
Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, said he would support some of the amendments to HB 1176.
"I think it's not probably prudent to take one class of property down to zero," he said. "In some cases, that's the way it's designed right now would go to zero and there is an amendment that would say that's limited to 75%. You could end up getting a full $1,450 tax credit on your primary home. ... Targeting primary homes does make sense.
"Most of us have a home and a primary home and are paying taxes on it, and it would single out, in my view, more of North Dakota citizens," he said. " ... Some property if we provide a huge property tax decrease, it's going to out-of-state people and it's leaving our state. That's of some concern."
Rep. Bernie Satrom, R-Jamestown, said Senate Bill 2307 is about keeping explicit sexual material away from areas accessible to minors.
"It's about safety of children,"he said.
He said it's illegal to allow children to have explicit sexual material.
"Some of you probably know that sexually explicit information is being used by groomers and sexual abusers, and it's not a positive thing for children to have sexually explicit information, have access to it, particularly at a young age," he said.
SB 2307 would require public libraries and school districts to develop a policy and review process by Jan. 1 for library collections to ensure explicit sexual material is not in an area accessible to minors.
The bill also requires safety policies and technology protection measures for digital or online database resources offered by a school district, state agency or public library to students in grades K-12. If a provider of digital or online library resources fails to comply with having safety policies and technology protection measures, the school district, state agency or public library shall withhold any further payments to the provider pending verification of compliance, the bill says.
The bill also creates an obscenity review procedure where any person may request a local state's attorney's opinion to review if material in a library or school district has explicit sexual material. The state's attorney would need to issue an opinion on the alleged violation within 60 days to the interested person, provider of digital or online library database resources, school district, state agency or public library under review.
If it is determined that a public library, state agency or school district is in violation, funding may be withheld if correction action to comply with the law isn't taken within 10 days.
The state's attorney may prosecute for failure to comply with the law.
Satrom said some librarians didn't comply with a previous bill that was passed during the legislative session in 2023.
Rep. Mitch Ostlie, R-Jamestown, said any concerns with library materials should be handled locally.
"If you have a concern with something in the library, you should go to the librarian," he said. "If you don't like the answer you get there, there is a library board. If you don't like the answer there, they're under control of either city council or county commission. So those are important steps in the process to deal with a lot of issues but sometimes we jump a few levels of governing bodies and go right to the Legislature and we're supposed to fix some of this stuff."
He said local law enforcement and the state's attorney's office brings charges forward to individuals who are breaking the law.
"We're overstepping a whole lot of levels there," Ostlie said.
Wanzek said the Legislature is working on a couple of bills to address economic development in rural North Dakota.
"It's to try to help those small rural communities that mean a lot to the rural people and some fashion," he said.
Wanzek said he sponsored Senate Bill 2097 with Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, and Rep. Mike Brandenburg, R-Edgeley, to create a rural community endowment fund and a committee for the fund. The bill would appropriate $5 million to the rural community endowment fund from the general fund in the state treasury.
"It started out wanting $50 million," Wanzek said, referring to the original bill that included $50 million for the community endowment fund.
He said the endowment fund could provide consistent and sustainable funding for small rural communities in the future.
"We're trying to get it passed and get it in there, and even if it isn't accessible right away," he said. "If our ancestors, 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago, if we'd have done that, we'd have that endowment fund now."
Headland said the Legislature is taking it seriously to put funds aside for infrastructure.
"What we're really talking about is what's holding back economic development in rural areas is lack of infrastructure," he said. "I think we're going to have historic levels of funding for county roads, township roads, transmission, electric transmission, natural gas transmission pipelines."
Sen. Cole Conley, R-Jamestown, said economic development is one of the most important things legislators work on.
"That is the fuel that drives the economy," he said.
Ostlie said a bill in the North Dakota Legislature could provide up to $100,000 for improvements at the Stutsman County Fairgrounds.
HB 1591 — sponsored by Ostlie, Satrom, Wanzek and Conley — would create a one-to-one matching grant program and appropriate $3 million to the agriculture commissioner to provide grants to county agriculture fair associations for the planning, design and construction of infrastructure projects from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2027. No more than $100,000 could be awarded to a county agriculture fair association.
"It's well needed across the state," Ostlie said.
Satrom said agriculture development and diversification is a big deal. He said all local lawmakers sponsored a bill for value-added agriculture.
Wanzek said bills in the Legislature are being pitted as public versus private schools.
"I see this as empowering parents and empowering students to have a choice where in some situations they're limited in their ability to make that choice," he said.
Headland agreed.
"It's more of empowering parents to make the decisions that would they feel would be best for their children and the state being able to help with that," he said. "It doesn't take any money away from public (schools)."
Wanzek said Senate Bill 2400 is an education savings account.
Senate Bill 2400 would provide a $1,000 education savings account payment — it previously was $500 — to an eligible student if that student's household has an annual income less than or equal to 300% of the most recently revised poverty income guidelines.
Headland said there is a misunderstanding of what House Bill 1258 does.
"It doesn't take away local decision making unless that decision is deemed unreasonable," he said.
House Bill 1258 would give the state Public Service Commission the authority to override rules set by local governments that conflict with a state approval for an electric transmission project, The Bismarck Tribune reported.
The bill would apply to all power line siting cases, including the JETx project — a $440 million transmission line project that connects the Otter Tail Power Co. substation north of Jamestown along North Dakota Highway 20 to the Montana-Dakota Utilities Co. substation near Ellendale. The project was requested by the regional power grid operator Midcontinent Independent System Operators (MISO) and is promoted as a way to improve regional power grid reliability. MISO manages the power grid for a 15-state area and parts of the province of Manitoba.
The Stutsman County Commission rejected a proposed zoning ordinance for gas and liquid transmission lines.
The proposed zoning ordinance would have required a setback distance of 2,600 feet between any occupied dwelling and a new high voltage power line or large pipeline.
The current standard is set at 500 feet by the North Dakota Public Service Commission.
The proposed zoning ordinance change originated at the Stutsman County Planning and Zoning Commission, which unanimously approved in July changing the setback distance to 2,600 feet.
The current Stutsman County zoning ordinance does not address setbacks for electrical transmission lines or pipelines.
"You can't allow a small political subdivision to just zone something else because they don't want it," Headland said.
He said all customers of Otter Tail and MDU pay for the cost of transmission line projects.
"They need to be least tried to be kept as reasonably priced as we can," he said. "If you ended up with just nothing but a zigzag across the state, you're not going to have the ability to proceed forward with those projects."
Headland said the last resort is eminent domain.
Eminent domain means the government would have the power to take private property for public use even if the owner doesn't want to sell. The property owner would still be compensated.
"In most cases, there are ways to work around it," Headland said.
Headland said some landowners are unwilling to take a phone call from Otter Tail or MDU.
"My suggestion to any property owner who has not yet talked to Otter Tail in this case with this particular line ... at least take their phone call, sit down with them," he said. "If you can't come to some kind of amenable agreement ... that's a decision you and the company will make. Let's just hope that we can find a route for this very, very critical piece of electric transmission infrastructure that we need."

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Fox News

3 days ago

• Fox News

Key Republican calls for emergency funding to Israel amid worsening Iran conflict

A key House Republican says Congress should consider sending emergency U.S. aid to Israel amid its worsening conflict with Iran. "Yeah, absolutely," Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., said when asked about a supplemental funding package in the event the crisis became a prolonged conflict. "There's very, very, very strong bipartisan support, in particular Republican support, for Israel, and I think again, what we are seeing is Israel doing what they need to do to protect themselves from literally being wiped off the face of the planet." He also commended President Donald Trump as having handled the volatile situation "brilliantly so far." The Florida Republican chairs the House Appropriations Committee panel responsible for overseeing foreign aid and State Department funding. The National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs subcommittee was key to Congress crafting emergency foreign aid packages to Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine last year — all of which passed Congress with varying degrees of bipartisan support. Diaz-Balart said he had not spoken with House leaders about the issue, noting most lawmakers were away in their home districts tending to their constituencies this week. He added, "I've actually had informal conversations with members." He declined to say how those members felt about supplemental Israel funding, however, telling Fox News Digital, "I can't speak for others, but I will tell you that there is a very strong appetite from me to make sure that Israel has all the help that it needs in order to finish the job that it's doing." Meanwhile, he and his fellow subcommittee members have also been crafting their appropriations bill for the next fiscal year coming on Oct. 1. "We're going to do what we've been consistently doing, is just, we're going to be helping Israel. And if there is a need to do more, obviously you're going to see strong support, whether it's in the appropriation… bills, or if we need a supplemental, I think you would see strong bipartisan support," he said. Last year, the House authorized just over $26 billion in emergency U.S. funding for Israel, humanitarian aid in the region, and shore up American military operations. The bill passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan 366 to 58 vote — an increasingly rare occurrence for major legislation in the current political climate. Twenty-one House Republicans and 37 Democrats voted against the measure at the time. But since then, Democrats have continued to grow increasingly critical of Israel's war in Gaza and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative government. At the same time, there's been a growing skepticism of foreign aid among the House GOP — particularly with the national debt climbing toward $37 trillion. Diaz-Balart, however, was still optimistic that a hypothetical aid package could pass if brought up in Congress, when asked about both of those factors. Israeli officials said Iran was dangerously close to having a nuclear weapon when its military launched an attack on Tehran that killed the Islamic regime's top military figures and hit nuclear sites in and around the capital. Since then, both sides have exchanged rocket fire, with fatalities reported on both sides. Fox News Digital reached out to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., for comment on the possibility of supplemental funding to Israel.

Forbes

7 days ago

• Forbes

Mike Levin: ‘I Was Shocked' When Republicans Voted Against Respect America's Constitution Amendment

On "Forbes Newsroom," Rep. Mike Levin (D-CA) spoke about his amendment, the Respect America's Constitution Amendment, which reaffirms that only Congress has the power to spend or not spend taxpayer dollars, and was unanimously voted against in the House Appropriations Committee by Republicans. Watch the full interview above.

Yahoo

10-06-2025

• Yahoo

The Latest: Trump defends National Guard deployment as protests spread to other cities

President Donald Trump is defending his decision to send Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines to Los Angeles, escalating a military presence local officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom don't want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests. Additional protests against immigration raids are expected to continue in other cities Tuesday. Here's the latest: Hegseth refuses to provide lawmakers details on costs of sending Marines to Los Angeles In a back an forth with the defense appropriations subcommittee's top Democrat, Hegseth refused to answer basic questions on the cost of deploying Marines to Los Angeles, instead falling back on political talking points. In a series of questions on the news that Marines would be sent to Los Angeles, House Appropriations defense subcommittee ranking member Rep. Betty McCollum told Hegseth 'this is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in,' she said. 'There's no need for the Marines to be deployed.' McCollum asked what the cost of the deployment would be. Hegseth deflected on the costs, attacked the decisions of the previous Biden administration instead and talked about illegal immigration. 'Could the Secretary please address the budget' McCollum asked him. Hegseth again refused to acknowledge McCollum's question and attacked the politics of the past administration again. McCollum took back her time and Hegseth was instructed by the committee chairman to provide the costs in writing instead. California Democrats accuse Trump of inciting unrest Democratic members of California's congressional delegation are accusing President Donald Trump of creating a 'manufactured crisis' in Los Angeles with his orders to send in thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines. 'It's a deliberate attempt by Trump to incite unrest, test the limits of executive power and distract from the lawlessness of his administration,' said Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who organized a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning. Rep. Jimmy Panetta said that Trump's decision to send in the military was designed to 'give him the image and give him the fight and give him the pictures that he wants.' Panetta said the delegation would stand with peaceful protesters, but those who are not peaceful are going to pay the consequences. Rep. Nancy Pelosi contrasted Trump's actions now with his handling of the Jan. 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol when law enforcement officers were being beaten. 'We begged the president of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,' Pelosi said. Trump links protests in Los Angeles to home rebuilding after wildfires Trump said his decision to 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles spared the city from burning to the ground like thousands of homes after wildfires this year. He wrote on his social media site that people want to rebuild, and that the federal permitting process is 'virtually complete on these houses.' Trump claimed that 'the easy and simple City and State Permits are disastrously bungled up and WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE!' and blamed California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. 'People want to rebuild their houses. Call your incompetent Governor and Mayor, the Federal permitting is DONE!!!' he wrote. Pentagon draws up rules on possible use of force by Marines The Pentagon was scrambling Monday to establish rules to guide U.S. Marines who could be faced with the rare and difficult prospect of using force against citizens on American soil, now that the Trump administration is deploying active duty troops to the immigration raid protests in Los Angeles. The forces have been trained in deescalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force, Northern Command said. But the use of the active duty forces still raises difficult questions. The Marines are highly trained in combat and crisis response. But that is starkly different from the role they will face now: They could potentially be hit by protesters carrying gas canisters and have to quickly decide how to respond or face decisions about protecting an immigration enforcement agent from crowds. According to a U.S. official, troops will be armed with their normal service weapons but will not be carrying tear gas. They also will have protective equipment such as helmets, shields and gas masks. ▶ Read more about the Pentagon's guidelines for the Marines Los Angeles' image is scuffed since ICE raids and protests, with World Cup and Olympics on horizon This isn't the image Los Angeles wanted projected around the globe. Clouds of tear gas wafting over a throng of protesters on a blocked freeway. Federal immigration agents in tactical garb raiding businesses in search of immigrants without legal status. A messy war of words between Trump and Newsom. Photos captured several Waymo robotaxis set on fire and graffiti scrawled on a federal detention center building, while videos recorded the sounds of rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades hitting crowds. In a city still reeling from January's deadly wildfires — and with the World Cup soccer championships and the 2028 Olympics on the horizon — Mayor Karen Bass has been urging residents to come together to revitalize LA's image by sprucing up streets, planting trees and painting murals so LA shows its best face to nations near and far. 'It's about pride,' she's said. 'This is the city of dreams.' ▶ Read more about the impact of the protests Guard deployment is a nearly unprecedented escalation The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. Protesters clasp hands in front of a line of California National Guard, Monday, June 9, 2025, at a Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. (AP Photo Jae Hong) The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' Early protests remained peaceful On Monday, thousands flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta's arrest Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration's crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers. Early protests had a calm and even joyful atmosphere at times, with people dancing to live music and buoyed by Huerta's release. Protesters linked hands in front of a line of police officers outside the downtown federal detention center where Huerta was being held. Religious leaders joined the protesters, working with organizers at times to de-escalate moments of tension. There was a heavy law enforcement presence in the few square blocks, while most in the immense city of some 4 million people went about their normal business on peaceful streets. Trump sends Marines and more National Guard members to Los Angeles Another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines are headed to Los Angeles on orders from President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and Newsom don't want and the police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests. An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests. Monday's demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city. Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help. Newsom called the deployments reckless and 'disrespectful to our troops' in a post on the social platform X. ▶ Read more about the deployment of more National Guard members