BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - North Dakota’s Republican-led House ignored the opinion of GOP Gov. Doug Burgum and approved legislation Thursday that would use money from the voter-approved oil tax savings account to help offset income taxes.
Representatives approved the measure 61-31 to use half the earnings from the state’s Legacy Fund, beginning in 2021, to reduce individual and corporate income taxes. Burgum has said he doesn’t like the bill by top GOP House members to tap some earnings from the account for income tax relief. He likened the idea to Robin Hood.
“I don’t think it’s good policy,” the governor told reporters last week. Instead, Burgum wants to use earnings for projects he called “transformative.”
House Majority Leader Chet Pollert and House Appropriations Chairman Jeff Delzer are among the measure’s co-sponsors. Rep. Craig Headland, the bill’s primary sponsor and chairman of the House Finance and Taxation Committee, said the income tax relief would make North Dakota more competitive with other states that don’t have income tax, which would help attract workers in the state that has thousands more jobs than takers.
“This is what we need in North Dakota to bring people to North Dakota,” Headland told fellow lawmakers on the House floor on Thursday.
No Democrat in the House voted for the measure. A few Republicans voted against it.
GOP Rep. David Monson said the idea puts the state at the mercy of “huge fluctuations” in oil prices.
Headland has said the measure also could help repel potential initiated measure attempts to drain the fund that currently holds more than $6 billion.
The Greater North Dakota Chamber, the state’s largest business organization, supported the legislation, as has the North Dakota Watchdog Network, which keeps tabs on how public money is spent.
The measure now moves to the GOP-led Senate, which rarely is in complete lockstep with the House on tax policy and other issues. Burgum has not signaled whether he would veto the legislation if it reaches his desk.
Lawmakers are reviewing several proposals to spend the interest this session, including a plan by Burgum to use $300 million for education loans and grants, and projects that include a $50 million Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in western North Dakota.
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