The best way to assess the effectiveness of the North Dakota Legislature is to compare the piles of good bills with the piles of bad bills at “crossover” time. (Crossover is the point at which all surviving bills must be reported to the second house.)
That would be solid, scientific measurement, except we have such disagreement over what constitutes a good bill and what constitutes a bad bill. Invariably, one legislator’s good bill is another legislator’s bad bill.
Sometimes good bills are treated as bad bills, and bad bills are treated as good bills. It’s really a matter of personal preference, and we concoct some logic to justify our choice.
At any rate, what we have at crossover are the leftovers -some good and some bad, like leftovers in the fridge. Nevertheless, both houses end up with some good bills and some bad bills.
To get rid of all bad bills, it would be necessary to have a three-house Legislature.
Consider good and bad in this: the Legislature refused to increase tobacco taxes to curb cancer, but it outlawed sex trafficking. Both are prosperous businesses. Both create jobs. Both have victims. Both are evil. In 50 words or less, please explain.
Then there are the proposed responses to North Dakota’s binge drinking crisis. One bill would lower the drinking age to 18, and another would extend drinking hours to include Sunday mornings. (If they feel guilty for not being in church, they want to enjoy it.)
Legislators take an oath to defend and protect the North Dakota Constitution before proposing numerous bills to undermine the constitutional authority of the Board of Higher Education. Power corrupts, and a little power gets stretched a long way.
Even prayer caused a rhubarb. No doubt, we will have an interim study on the qualifications of clergy authorized to represent the assembly before God in future sessions. Maybe we will have a prescribed prayer that is all-inclusive. starting with “to whom it may concern.”
Instead of fooling around with the election laws, the Legislature ought to pass a law requiring U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., to tell what she plans to do in 2016, or her name will not be printed on an election ballot ever again.
Then there’s the bill to permit the advanced training of dental hygienists, the idea being to reduce the aching need in rural areas for dental care. The dental association will go along with the bill if there are no teeth in it.
A chorus of approval welcomed the bill requiring passage of a civics test for all high school students before they can graduate. If students flunk the test, they will spend another year in school pursuing a very narrow field of study.
It was news to me that a candidate for public office could use leftover campaign money to buy a new suit, a round at the bar, a new car or whatever. Now that the news is out, some opportunists may start running for the leftover money.
Then there was a bill dictating the location of beehives. It was killed with the argument that jobs were at stake. The worker bees had high hopes of getting a respite, but they didn’t have a lobbyist.
One bill proposes to keep secret the names of persons recruited for high education office. I have a friend who said that he would gladly go public with a declaration to be the chancellor of higher education just for the severance package.
I hope that enhanced driver’s license bill passes. I should go to Canada. It has been widely suggested.
Omdahl is former North Dakota lieutenant governor and retired University of North Dakota political science teacher. Email him at ndmatters@q.com
