GRAND FORKS – Infrastructure funding, more education funding and a new airport runway are among the legislative asks that local officials would like to see their lawmakers prioritize this legislative session.
State lawmakers met with city, county, school, airport and park district officials in a Thursday legislative forum at the Mark Sanford Education Center, the district offices of Grand Forks Public Schools.
The event is an opportunity for local political subdivisions to present their state-funded wishlist to their elected representatives ahead of North Dakota’s biennial legislative session, which begins Jan. 7.
Here’s a sampling of what local officials asked for:
State funding for local projects like bridges, water projects and school construction made the list for several local subdivisions.
Of particular interest to both city and county officials are the funds from Operation Prairie Dog, which redistributes some of the state revenue from oil and gas production in the Bakken to local infrastructure projects.
Both entities would like to see the state prioritize Prairie Dog when it dishes out that oil revenue next year
.
“Though we really love our bucket, our bucket has not been inflated over the last several bienniums,” City Administrator Todd Feland said. “So if we could ask for that, that would be really important, speaking on behalf of cities, counties, airports and townships.”
The city is also asking for the loan cap on the Bank of North Dakota’s Revolving Loan Fund to be raised from $20 million to $30 million.
Grand Forks Public School officials are asking for the state to open its school construction loan program or Coal Development Trust Program to military base schools like Nathan Twining Elementary and Middle School, at Grand Forks Air Force Base.
The school district is hoping to access one of those loan programs to finance its 20% share of the construction cost for a new Twining school.
Grand Forks Public Schools had some of the most expansive policy goals of the five political subdivisions that gathered Thursday, with increases in funding for students leading the district’s concerns.
Superintendent Terry Brenner said the district would like to see the per-pupil payment increase by 4% or greater in the coming fiscal year; the Legislature has allocated between a 1% and 4% increase over the last five years.
The school district is also looking for increases in state aid for multilingual and special education students, with Brenner noting the district has taken on an increasing share of the financial burden for those programs as those students have increased.
The number of multilingual students
has more than doubled in Grand Forks Public Schools
over the last year; special educators, on the other hand,
report chronic understaffing and burnout.
“What we’ve heard most the last several years is the high burnout rate of our special education teachers,” Brenner said. “They’re not asking for more money. More money is nice, but it doesn’t give them quality-of-life and work-life balance. But more people would help, and more people require more resources.”
Outgoing Gov. Doug Burgum’s budget proposal calls for a 2% annual increase in per-pupil spending over the next biennium and does not lay out specific increases for special education or multilingual learning.
He suggested in a Thursday editorial board meeting with the Herald that further support for multilingual students is a local issue, not a state one.
The school district is also looking for more state support for transportation costs, mental and behavioral health services, and teacher retention, and supports initiatives like free pre-K and free breakfast and lunch for all students (a measure that got some momentum last session).
It’s also hoping the Legislature will step in to assist it with a several-million-dollar funding gap for construction of the Career Impact Academy, a Grand Forks project that has been subjected to skyrocketing construction costs since it was first proposed.
This infrastructure project is notable since it’s the only thing the Grand Forks Airport Authority is asking for, and because it’s already been endorsed by the governor.
The airport authority wants $30 million to reconstruct its primary runway, which dates to the early 1960s.
“It’s a good thing it’s aged as well as it has, but the reality is it’s been due for reconstruction for some time,” said Ryan Riesinger, the airport authority’s executive director.
Burgum has said he wants the Legislature to provide $120 million in one-time funding to pay for airport projects. That includes the $30 million for Grand Forks, Burgum confirmed to the Herald on Thursday.
Feland also asked for continued support for funding the state pension plan for public employees, which the Legislature voted to close to new employees beginning in 2025.
Brenner similarly requested continued legislative support for the separate teachers’ pension plan, which remains active.
Grand Forks Park District officials didn’t have specific legislative asks but did reiterate some pension priorities from the state parks association calling for greater flexibility within the plan.