Balancing North Dakota’s Budget Doesn’t Make You “Conservative”

April 29, 2019 T. Arthur Mason North Dakota

The seats in North Dakota’s 66th Legislative Assembly have barely had a chance to cool off and the rhetoric has already begun that lawmakers came out of the session with a “conservative” budget. The first to push the narrative appears to be our very own governor. According to KVRR:

“Governor Doug Burgum says North Dakota is making strategic investments in its future, funding priorities and delivering citizens a conservative balanced budget without raising taxes.”

Please, don’t take what I’m about to say wrong. I happen to like our governor. I believe he’s sincere and well-intentioned. But these claims are misguided— at best.

I get it that Governor Burgum is a businessman. But continuing to justify spending more than we should by crafting a narrative behind the word “investments” is problematic. To me, investments are things for Burgum to do with his own money. They involve a level of risk that’s simply not appropriate in government.

When it comes to the people’s (i.e. the taxpayers) money, government should be extremely limited in size and scope in an effort of “funding priorities”. Yet, it is here too that Governor Burgum has a differing opinion of what these priorities should be. Perhaps chief among them is the $50 million endowment for the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum— $35 million of which is borrowed.

A look at the Tentative Final Budget released by Legislative Council shows well over half a billion dollars worth of increases in spending from the General Fund— which totaled about $4.9 Billion. The overall budget is a record— $14.7 Billion. And yes, that’s a “B” in a both figures.

The idea that all of this is “a conservative balanced budget” would be laughable if it weren’t so serious. Let’s not forget, we’re talking about other people’s money here. But in addition to that, the state is constitutionally required to balance the budget. Meaning, whether a Republican or Democrat majority, they have to do it.

And let’s not forget, further analysis of the aforementioned Tentative Final Budget shows a projected ending fund balance for the upcoming biennium of $44.3 million. To put that into perspective, that’s just .009% of the General Fund. In short, they’re virtually spending everything they project to be coming in. I’m not going out on a limb when I say that’s not conservative.

If Democrats were the super-majority and passed such a budget, would the Republicans calling this “a conservative balanced budget” say the same thing about Democrats? I think you know the answer.

Governor Burgum and his counterparts in the Legislature will try to hang their hat on the statement that they balanced the budget “without raising taxes”. But let’s not forget that they sure didn’t do a heck of a lot to lower them either. In fact, when it came to income tax and property tax, they basically did nothing— despite the fact that they could eliminate them both if they wanted to.

The reality we’re facing is that the majority party of RINO’s has made a concerted effort to hijack the meaning of “conservative”. Much like the CATO Institute said about Republicans in Washington, DC a year ago, these establishment Republicans cannot claim to be fiscal conservatives. And the taxpayers of North Dakota shouldn’t allow them to get away with claiming that they are.

UPDATE: It was brought to my attention that Rep. Rick Becker (R – District 7) discussed this same topic in some depth tonight in a Facebook Live. I’ve updated the article to include that video below.

PLEASE LIKE & SHARE!

So, how about that “conservative budget”?

Posted by Rick Becker for North Dakota on Monday, April 29, 2019

 

Sources:

  1. https://www.governor.nd.gov/news/burgum-session-delivers-conservative-budget-funds-priorities-and-makes-strategic-investments
  2. https://www.kvrr.com/2019/04/28/governor-doug-burgum-praises-work-of-66th-legislative-assembly/
  3. https://theminutemanblog.com/2019/04/27/good-or-bad-burgums-legacy-may-be-linked-to-tr-library-museum/
  4. https://www.legis.nd.gov/files/fiscal/2019-21/docs/execsum.pdf
  5. https://kfgo.com/news/articles/2019/apr/27/north-dakota-legislature-wraps-up-after-passing-record-budget/
  6. https://www.legis.nd.gov/constit/a10.pdf
  7. https://theminutemanblog.com/2019/02/15/tax-spend-the-floor-speech-every-north-dakotan-should-hear/
  8. https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/establishment-republicans-can-no-longer-claim-be-fiscal-conservatives
  9. https://www.facebook.com/beckerfornd/videos/459305394817309/

 

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About T. Arthur Mason 883 Articles
T. Arthur Mason is a native North Dakotan who has spent nearly all of his life in the Peace Garden State. As the third of four children in Western North Dakota, Mason grew to appreciate family and the outdoors. Some of his fondest memories are annual deer hunts with family and friends. In his early teenage years, faith became a central part of T. Arthur Mason's life. He and the majority of his family attend church together on a weekly basis and find this a fulfilling aspect of their lives. Through the influence of his father, T. Arthur Mason became intrigued with politics. As a boy, he attended political events with his father and enjoyed the friendships that resulted as a byproduct of those political associations. As Mason grew older, he became convinced that the quote often attributed to Thomas Jefferson was true, "That government is best which governs least." Today, T. Arthur Mason enjoys time with his wife and children, an occasional hunt, and an increasingly active life on the political scene. This blog is the fulfillment of a dream to design a web site in the realm of politics and to advocate for the principles of Liberty and constitutionally limited government. On behalf of all those that contribute to The Minuteman, we hope you enjoy your time on the site and will share the message with others.

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