We are learning that North Dakota is not immune from the national recession. In the past few months, significant job cuts have been announced at companies like Case New Holland, Microsoft and DMI. Bobcat has extended a labor furlough, and the oil industry in western North Dakota is experiencing a significant slowdown. Add to this, the declining stock market and erosion to North Dakotan's retirement plans, the combination makes it imperative that we invest all of the stimulus dollars made available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and stay with our original budget plan.
Democrats expect that the governor and Republican leaders will follow the true intent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it is evident by their own proposals that they want to use a technicality to store away money rather than stimulate the economy.
The fact that no appropriation of general fund dollars for the 2009-11 biennium has yet to be signed into law by the governor creates the technicality that would allow a slight-of-hand hoarding of dollars.
The governor's office has suggested that consideration be given to use stimulus dollars to replace general fund appropriations from his original budget. The governor refers to this replacement as "Transition dollar.s." While this may be technically allowable, it is in contradiction to the spirit of the ARRA. Stimulus funds are intended to spur the economy by putting these funds to work in one-time investments in our infrastructure, school improvement initiatives, energy conservation and weatherization, construction and renovation of our roads and bridges.
All around the state, the demands are high and the needs are great as demonstrated by the backlog of projects. Instead, it would appear that the governor and Republican leaders want to "transition" approximately 40 percent of this money away in surplus carryover. Although we would hope that this is not the intent, the evidence indicates otherwise.
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The governor has proposed socking away $233 million dollars for the state's next two-year budget cycle. While saving is often a good thing, in these uncertain times of low interest earnings and unstable, even declining security values, a better return is achievable if we invest in our state and its infrastructure like schools, roads and bridges.
We are committed to investing all of the stimulus funds in projects and initiatives that produce a positive return for North Dakota. We oppose putting these needed funds in a sock where buying power will be lost over the next two years.
Failure to invest the stimulus dollars allocated to North Dakota could expose our citizens and communities to the deep recessionary risk that the rest of the country is facing. That is not acceptable.
-- House Minority Leader Merle Boucher
