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Opinion: Even Some Republicans Know Talking Points Don’t Fix Problems

By   /   August 5, 2013  /   No Comments

Opinion: Even Some Republicans Know Talking Points Don’t Fix Problems

~by Mac Schneider~

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Touting so-called “great advances in meeting the needs of those affected by oil development,” Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner lauds the work of the GOP supermajority when it comes to addressing oil impacts in western North Dakota in his July 18th op-ed (“Legislature did right by oil patch”).

I would like to share a different view: The legislature did not “properly fund the oil and gas counties so that they will be able to keep up with the drilling activity and repair the damages it causes.”

Those aren’t my words, though I agree with the assessment. That’s the opinion of Representative Skip Drovdal, a Republican from Arnegard, written in Senator Wardner’s hometown newspaper just two days after Wardner’s unduly-rosy assurance of “great advances” in helping western North Dakota.

The truth, as noted by Drovdal and omitted by Wardner, is that the Senate majority voted to cut approximately $350 million from a comprehensive, bipartisan bill to fund needs in hub cities and rural areas in the west. Dem-NPL legislators were proud to stand with pragmatic Republicans and force the majority to restore the bulk of these cuts under public pressure, but the debate should have instead been about how to improve the bill to anticipate future needs.

Dem-NPL legislators have a plan: Allow oil producing areas to retain a substantially greater share of the oil production tax at the local level. In other words, keep more oil revenue where it is generated so that locally-elected leaders can address oil impacts as they arise. Unfortunately, legislation to do just that during the current biennium was defeated in the House along sharply partisan lines.

Now, while an oil-driven $1.6 billion state surplus sits in a sleepy fund in Bismarck until the legislature convenes in 2015, communities in western North Dakota are once again left facing the impacts of development without a full-throated response from the state – a response that not only plays catch up, but also allows for advanced planning.

We have a moral obligation to meet the needs of western North Dakota. The hard working people in that part of the state are literally paying the price for our prosperity. I agree with my friend the majority leader that meeting this obligation is no easy task, but a dose of humility and a candid recognition that much more needs to be done would be a decent start.

~Schneider is the Democratic minority leader in the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 42 of Grand Forks.~

 

~by Mac Schneider~

 

Touting so-called “great advances in meeting the needs of those affected by oil development,” Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner lauds the work of the GOP supermajority when it comes to addressing oil impacts in western North Dakota in his July 18th op-ed (“Legislature did right by oil patch”).

 

I would like to share a different view: The legislature did not “properly fund the oil and gas counties so that they will be able to keep up with the drilling activity and repair the damages it causes.”

 

Those aren’t my words, though I agree with the assessment. That’s the opinion of Representative Skip Drovdal, a Republican from Arnegard, written in Senator Wardner’s hometown newspaper just two days after Wardner’s unduly-rosy assurance of “great advances” in helping western North Dakota.

 

The truth, as noted by Drovdal and omitted by Wardner, is that the Senate majority voted to cut approximately $350 million from a comprehensive, bipartisan bill to fund needs in hub cities and rural areas in the west. Dem-NPL legislators were proud to stand with pragmatic Republicans and force the majority to restore the bulk of these cuts under public pressure, but the debate should have instead been about how to improve the bill to anticipate future needs.

 

Dem-NPL legislators have a plan: Allow oil producing areas to retain a substantially greater share of the oil production tax at the local level. In other words, keep more oil revenue where it is generated so that locally-elected leaders can address oil impacts as they arise. Unfortunately, legislation to do just that during the current biennium was defeated in the House along sharply partisan lines.

 

Now, while an oil-driven $1.6 billion state surplus sits in a sleepy fund in Bismarck until the legislature convenes in 2015, communities in western North Dakota are once again left facing the impacts of development without a full-throated response from the state – a response that not only plays catch up, but also allows for advanced planning.

 

We have a moral obligation to meet the needs of western North Dakota. The hard working people in that part of the state are literally paying the price for our prosperity. I agree with my friend the majority leader that meeting this obligation is no easy task, but a dose of humility and a candid recognition that much more needs to be done would be a decent start.

~Schneider is the Democratic minority leader in the North Dakota State Senate, representing District 42 of Grand Forks.~

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