BISMARCK – A record high deposit of $112 million will be made into North Dakota’s Legacy Fund this month, pushing the rainy day fund’s balance past $2.2 billion, State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt announced Thursday.
North Dakota voters approved the Legacy Fund in 2010. It receives 30 percent of the revenue generated by state taxes on oil and natural gas production and extraction.
Until this month, monthly deposits have ranged from $32 million to $93 million, according to the treasurer’s office.
The Legacy Fund was recently projected to hit about $2.68 billion by January 2015, though officials predict it will likely beat that projection.
State lawmakers can’t begin to spend the fund’s principal or investment income before July 1, 2017. Spending the principal will require a two-thirds vote of both the House and Senate.
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This month’s deposit of $112 million includes $23 million initially intended for the state’s Strategic Investment and Improvements Fund. By law, if the SIIF’s unobligated balance tops $300 million at the end of any month, 25 percent of the revenues received for deposit must go to the Legacy Fund. That trigger was reached in the 2011-13 biennium, resulting in $148.7 million in additional deposits to the Legacy Fund, and it was reached again this biennium in June, Schmidt reported.
(BND)
