BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota lawmakers must control spending in the state that is facing “revenue uncertainty,” Gov. Doug Burgum said Tuesday in his first State of the State speech on the Legislature’s opening day.
“Right now is the time to right-size government,” Burgum told a joint session of the state House and Senate at the state Capitol in Bismarck. “While declining revenues are a problem, the root culprit is spending.”
North Dakota state government spending has risen more than $8 billion in the past decade.
Burgum spoke less than two hours after the North Dakota Legislature began its 2017 session at noon Tuesday. The budget will be a major topic during the session, with the state experiencing a sharp downturn in tax revenues due to prolonged slumps in oil and agriculture prices.
Burgum took office in mid-December, just days after former GOP Gov. Jack Dalrymple presented a $13.4 billion spending plan that includes cutting state employee positions and higher education funding.
Dalrymple’s spending plan, which proposes cutting about $1.2 billion in general fund spending was a “great” start “but given the revenue uncertainty, we must dig deeper,” Burgum said during the half-hour-long speech.
Republican and Democratic leaders said they agreed in principal to Burgum’s budget-cutting theme, thought they said the new governor offered no specifics. Burgum said he would not give lawmakers a budgetary starting point for at least a few more weeks.
“He was very general in his remarks,” Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner said. “We need some specifics from him to know what he’s thinking.”
Republicans hold huge majorities in both the House and Senate. There are 38 GOP senators to Democrats’ nine. In the House, the split is Republicans 81, Democrats 13. It’s Democrats’ fewest Senate seats since 1969 and fewest House seats since at least the late 1950s.
House Minority Leader Corey Mock said Democrats generally supported Burgum’s message.
“There were very few specifics but we should be looking at how we can be more efficient,” he said.
Burgum is known in North Dakota as the godfather of software for building Fargo’s Great Plains Software into a billion-dollar business, which he later sold to Microsoft. In his speech, Burgum put special emphasis on technology.
“Harnessing these forces can lead to lower costs and better outcomes in health care, education and infrastructure,” Burgum said. “And these areas are some of the biggest cost drivers of our state budget.”
Burgum addressed the Dakota Access pipeline in southern North Dakota, where nearly 600 people have been arrested protesting the four-state, $3.8 billion project that cross near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The tribe believes threatens sacred sites and the Missouri River that provides drinking water for millions of people.
Burgum said the Standing Rock Sioux tribe raised “legitimate issues” but “those have been hijacked by those with alternative agendas.” He said criminal activity will not be tolerated.
Burgum promised a “fresh start in our relations with all tribal nations who live with and among us.”
Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault and other tribal leaders attended the governor’s address.
Archambualt characterized Burgum’s remarks as “positive” and “hopeful.”
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