During the 2017 North Dakota Legislative Session, HB 1020 was passed passed by a majority of both houses of the Legislative Assembly and presented to the Governor.
ND Gov Doug Burgum chose to arbitrarily veto a portion of HB 1020.
Partial veto must be so exercised that it eliminates or destroys the whole of an item or part and does not distort the legislative intent, and in effect create legislation inconsistent with that enacted by the Legislature, by the careful striking of words, phrases, clauses or sentences.
When Doug “Conflict of Interest” Burgum wielded his veto pen upon Section 5 of HB 1020, he did so with the intent to strip budget oversight and safegaurds from the appropriation.
Section 5 of HB 1020, with the language stricken (in red, underlined, bold italics) by the Governor underlined, provides:
| SECTION 5. STATE WATER COMMISSION PROJECT FUNDING DESIGNATIONS – TRANSFERS – BUDGET SECTION APPROVAL. | |
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| 1. | Of the funds appropriated in the water and atmospheric resources line item in section 1 of this Act from funds available in the resources trust fund and water development trust fund, $298,875.000 is designated as follows: |
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| 2. | The funding designated in this section is for the specific purposes identified; however, the state water commission may transfer funding among these items, subject to budget section approval and upon notification to the legislative management’s water topics overview committee. |
Legislative Intent is the key issue for Senator Ray Holmberg, Chairman, Legislative Management; Representative Al Carlson, House Majority Leader and Vice Chairman, Legislative Management; Senator Rich Wardner, Senate Majority Leader; Senator Joan Heckaman, Senate Minority Leader; and Representative Corey Mock, House Minority Leader – who are suing ND Gov. Doug Burgum over this matter and other filed a Petition for Declatory Judgement on December 8, 2017 (view filing).
ND Gov Doug Burgum’s actions have been brought before the North Dakota Supreme Court. Will that prevent the ND State Water Commission from releasing funding appropriations before the case is resolved? ND State Water Commission documents indicate that FMDA representatives would be submitting a request for $66.5 million in funding on Apr 12, 2018.
We don’t need to delve into the various connections of Fargo’s “golden boy” to Fargo development interests, Excel Energy, Microsoft, Energy Transfer Partners or Goldman Sachs (the only P3 Investor named by the FMDA).
North Dakota Century Code 44-04-22. Conflict of interest law.
A person acting in a legislative or quasi-legislative or judicial or quasi-judicial capacity for a political subdivision of the state who has a direct and substantial personal or pecuniary interest in a matter before that board, council, commission, or other body, must disclose the fact to the body of which that person is a member, and may not participate in or vote on that particular matter without the consent of a majority of the rest of the body.
Should North Dakota taxpayers be concerned that ND Gov. Doug Burgum, as chairman, hand picked seven members to carry out his directives, of the ND State Water Commmission, wherein he vetoed specific legislative language intended for budget oversight?
The mere fact that Goldman Sachs (the only P3 Investor named by the FMDA) handled the “IPO” of Great Plains Software, owned by Doug Burgum ~ owns holdings in Excel Energy, Microsoft, Abbott Labs, Energy Transfer Partners, Whiting Petroleum, Oasis Petroleum, Hess Corp and several others that could directly or indirectly benefit by ND Gov. Doug Burgum (Godfather of the Diversion: read more…) by using his position to remove legislative safeguards involving $66.5 million in diversion funding, is disconcerting.
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