A new poll suggests North Dakotans have a desire to invest more of the Legacy Fund earnings in North Dakota projects benefiting taxpayers. Unfortunately, the questions used by the pollsters were misleading, which isn’t unusual in the polling business.
According to the poll, 60% of eligible voters want Legacy Fund investments to be directed to development projects in North Dakota.
But they didn’t let voters know that this is already happening, thanks to legislation from 2021 authored by Rep. Mike Nathe, R-Bismarck. Interest from the Legacy Fund is currently providing massive property tax relief for North Dakotans this biennium alone. This is reflected on our property tax statements as the state buy-down portion. There is also $100 million of property tax relief for bond payments for the Fargo Diversion and another $100 million of property tax relief through a North Dakota Department of Transportation fund to pay for roads/bridges.
“Everything in the recent poll is exactly what we are currently doing with Legacy Fund dollars,” Nathe said. “The interest from the Legacy Fund is currently providing property tax relief for the citizens of this state to the tune of $325 million, plus investing a portion of the fund into North Dakota companies using those Legacy Fund dollars through House Bill 1425 has been a huge success in just a short time. The results speak for themselves.”
Nathe explained that fixed income investments through Legacy Fund dollars give the Bank of North Dakota the authority to lend up to a total of $550 million legacy fund dollars in the “Match Loan Program.” Of that amount there is $350 million loaned out to projects in the state, like the purchase of the Coal Creek coal plant by Rainbow Energy to buy $150 million in power lines.
“Without this program this deal would have fallen through, shuttered the plant and left many central ND communities in dire straits, a great example of oil revenue saving a coal plant,” Nathe added.
Another tenet of the legislation is investing in equity investment opportunities. The State Investment Board has invested around $100 million of Legacy Fund dollars with a venture capital firm called 50 South, a company with over $10 billion of assets under management. They have an office here in North Dakota. 50 South has already invested in 30 companies here in their North Dakota Growth Fund.
We already have one of the largest state investment funds in the country. Yet it seems everybody has “a plan” on how to spend or invest Legacy Fund dollars. Have we forgotten what the voters approved?
“The oil Legacy Fund was designed to ensure future generations will benefit from oil production,” said Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council. “By saving 30% of our oil tax revenues for future generations we can ensure North Dakota will remain a low tax state with tremendous career opportunities even when oil production declines.”
Ness led the committee that successfully advocated for the Legacy Fund measure. Let’s not forget why it is necessary to safeguard these funds. Enough of the efforts to skim dollars from the fund for pet projects.
