Jill Schramm/MDN Rep. Jeff Hoverson speaks at Saturday’s legislative forum in the State Fair Center. At center is Sen. Bob Paulson and at right is Rep. Dan Ruby.

Minot legislators who support a change to the state’s constitutional term limits defended passage of a resolution that asks voters to make revisions during a legislative forum in Minot Saturday. Opposing legislators contended that asking voters to reconsider is disrespectful and unnecessary.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008 asks voters to change the 16-year term limit from the two terms in the House and two terms in the Senate approved by voters in 2022 to four four-year terms in total, whether in one house or two. The ballot measure also states that a term of less than four years would not count toward the limit, and it would repeal the prohibition on the Legislature’s ability to make changes to term limits.

“I’m proud to have voted for it,” Sen. David Hogue said. He said he understands the desire to remove career politicians, but that’s not what he sees at the Legislature.

“I see a lot of citizen legislators who are passionate and want to do right by the people of North Dakota,” he said. However, novice legislators are no match for squadrons of lobbyists and state agencies with agendas that aren’t always consistent with the people’s agenda, he said.

“I feel strongly that we need courageous citizen legislators, and we don’t get that if there’s so much turnover and so many freshmen. So I will support this measure. I’m going to campaign for the measure,” Hogue said.

“You’ve got to have some experience before you hop in and become a committee chairman,” Sen. Randy Burckhard said. “There’s going to be freshmen or sophomores that are going to be committee chairmen, and I think they’ll be much influenced by lobbyists and state agencies.”

“We’ve got to get more experience and institutional knowledge into the Legislature when everybody gets taken out. Yes, I’ve been here a while,” said Rep. Dan Ruby, who was elected in 2001. “When I first got in, the institutional knowledge that people had – I was awestruck on what they knew, the history. It helped me, and I think I’ve been trying to help the new people as much as I can. We’re going to lose that.”

Rep. Scott Louser said the Legislature has had 35% turnover the past two sessions even without term limits. He said he supported the resolution because he generally supports letting people vote on impactful matters.

Rep. Jeff Hoverson said SR 4008 disrespects the will of the people.

“I don’t think it’s defensible,” he said. “These arguments of ‘the agencies are going to run the show’ are just not true.”

He noted the Legislature previously passed a bill that took away deference from state agencies and gave more preference to citizens, levelling the playing field to give citizens more clout before a judge.

“This institutional knowledge is overrated,” Hoverson added. “What counts is the votes at the end of the day because that’s what’s going to change North Dakota politics or culture.”

Rep. Christina Wolff, who was on the term limits sponsoring committee, said the people have voted on term limits and the issue should be dropped. First elected last fall, Wolff said she appreciates the insights of longer term legislators, but her concern is the state’s budget has tripled in 10 years.

“Something has to be done. We have to make some changes to what’s going on. And as far as lobbyists, I feel like the longer you’re there, the more you’re making friends with those lobbyists. I’m not influenced by any lobbyist because I know what the people want. I know what the people in my district want, and I talk to them,” Wolff said.

Instead of going around the people, she said, legislators who feel as if they’ve been wronged in some way can collect signatures to get an initiated measure on the ballot.

Voting for SCR 4008 were Reps. Dan Ruby, Matt Ruby, Jay Fisher and Louser. Minot legislators voting against SCR 4008 were Hoverson, Wolff, Macy Bolinske and Lori Van Winkle. In the Senate, Sens. Hogue and Randy Burckhard voted for the resolution, while Sens. Jose Castaneda and Bob Paulson voted against.

The Senate passed the bill 24-23 and the House, which initially failed to get the necessary majority, reconsidered to pass it 53-39 last week. The measure would go on the November 2026 ballot.

Senate, House differ on State Fair funding

A Senate bill to fund security improvements at the State Fair and a campground restroom/laundry facility east of the grandstand has been trimmed in the House.

The Senate voted 44-3 in March to appropriate $1 million for security upgrades and $900,000 toward a $1.2 million restroom/laundry facility.

The House on Friday amended the amounts to a 50% cost share on both projects, plus $100,000 for facility enhancements, on a 76-15 vote with three absent.

Minot Reps. Scott Louser, Macy Bolinske, Jay Fisher, Dan Ruby and Matt Ruby voted for the House version, which now goes back to the Senate. The Senate can concur with the amendments or send the bill to conference committee to work out the $700,000 difference.

“I am pretty certain that will go to conference committee,” Louser said at the Minot Area Chamber EDC’s legislative forum in Minot Saturday.

Minot representatives voting to kill the bill were Reps. Lori Van Winkle and Christina Wolff. Rep. Jeff Hoverson was absent.

Louser noted the State Fair Center needs a $6 million roof replacement, and the State Fair is taking care of that expense on its own.

“They’re not asking the state to do it,” he said. “They’re handling their money very well. The State Fair has not asked for any funding from the state since 2015, which was asphalt replacement after the flood.”

Sens. Randy Burckhard and David Hogue pointed out the State Fair is a state agency. Hogue said the State Fair has not been treated on par with other state assets used for entertainment and tourism.

“The State Fair perhaps would have been better off just going right into our state Parks and Rec Department,” Hogue said. “They lobby for bathroom improvements across all of our state parks across the state. Obviously, it’s tourism and it’s recreation, and we spend between $25 (million) and $30 million every biennium on upgrading our parks across the state. The State Fair gets substantially more visitors. It’s a state agency, but it doesn’t have a presence in Bismarck and so, I think, sometimes it just gets overlooked.”

The House Appropriations Committee on Education and Environment also is recommending the House restore $12.3 million to the higher education bill to acquire and remodel the downtown Trinity West building in Minot into a Health Sciences Institute for nursing and allied health training. The bill includes a 5% match to be raised by Minot State University.

The Senate had removed the funding so unless it adopts the House version, the bill will go to conference committee, which is the expected outcome, Louser said.