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Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
Posted on 02/01/2016 1:26:58 PM PST by Olog-hai
North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday ordered deep cuts to government agencies and a massive raid on state savings to make up for a more than $1 billion budget shortfall due to depressed crude prices and a drop in oil drilling.
The state had more than $2 billion in various reserve accounts just one year ago, but oil prices - a key contributor to the state's wealth - have taken a nosedive in the past year. The Legislature's record-high $14.4 billion budget for the two years that began July 1 was built on oil prices and economic assumptions that have fallen "much greater than anyone would have predicted," the governor said. [...]
Still, North Dakota will have about $875 million in surplus cash in various reserve accounts, according to Pam Sharp, the state's budget director. And that doesn't include the oil tax-funded "Legacy Fund," which holds more than $3.5 billion. The fund was approved by voters in 2010, and receives 30 percent of the state's oil tax collections, though none of the money can be spent until 2017. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
” state savings”
Not many states have that.
I’m trying to figure out just what parts of the state government were growing that need to be cut back.
>> Not many states have [”state savingsâ€]
Yeah, this smells a little bit like “fiscal responsibility”. Good on ND.
Now if they can just do a better job of electing their senators. Kick Heitkamp to the kurb.
I can believe all these oil states are in so much trouble. They just finished five years of windfalls and they have none of those monies saved for days like this. I mean Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota are all Republican states. They should not be laying off people and having money issues. They should have rainy day funds and using that money to keep the state going. If the conservative states aren’t doing it right then we really have zero hope.
I’d say it’s Obama’s foreign policy blunders of late that contribute more to this than the actions of the state governor(s) in question. This is local effects of global games.
Politicians and our other “leaders” just can’t stop spending OPM (other peoples’ money). They can;t help themselves.
This is what happens when you enlarge government immediately upon receiving larger tax receipts.
Live by oil, die by oil.
Probably infrastructure and other items related to the extreme stress put on areas of the state affected by the oil development.
Even with the downturn in the oil development, I would take our economy and state government here in North Dakota over most every other state. We’ll be just fine.
Oh, and the oil is still there ready to be served up. :)
I’m glad for the cuts but I hope they aren’t serious about needing “deep” cuts and a “massive” raid on savings. That would suggest that the state spent like mad during the good years based on an oil boom budget that everyone should have know was going to go bust at some point.
Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
The state spends $10,000 for every man, woman and child in the state every year. Jeez.
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