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Newspaper Archive of
Golden Valley News
Beach, North Dakota
February 16, 2012     Golden Valley News
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February 16, 2012
 
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February 16, 2012 Page 3 N.D. Matters By Lloyd Omdahl Wrestling action Troy Steele of Beach wrestles in the regional high school wrestling tournament Saturday in Killdeer. Seven Buccaneers participated and five will be going to state. Going to state are: Talon Nielsen, Troy Steele, Owen Makelky, Mat Gerving and Joe Charleston. The State Tournament is in Bismarck on Feb. 16-18. (Photo Courtesy of Lisa Gerving) Totheedb:x Where is the link to Keystone? To the editor: For months now we have been subjected to report after report from the news media about our public officials and candidates wringing their hands over harm to North Dakota supposedly caused by the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. But even after all this time there is information that is not men- tioned and questions that are not asked. First, how is oil going to get from North Dakota oil fields to the Keystone pipeline'? There are not phms for a pipeline extension from the Bakken to the proposed Keystone XL line. The only connection from North Dakota was the BakkenLink pipeline, which had an application pendim,= before the state Public Service Commission. "['he pipeline was to go from Beaver Lodge in southeast Williams County through Belfield to Fallon, Mont. In June 2011 the route was changed to terminate west of Belfield at a rail facility at Fryburg. Where is the "link" to the Keystone pipeline in North Dakota? The Keystone pipeline is com- ing from the Athabasca Oil Sands located in the Canadian province of Alberta. On Jan. 3. 2012, the Associated Press reported that the company announced it sold the remaining 40 percent of its MacKay River oil sands develop- ment to Petro China tot $673 mil- lion. Is the Keystone pipeline going to carry oil owned by China across the United States to the Gulf? Who is ,,oin,,, to build the pipeline'? The U.S.? Canada? China? In 2005 the Chinese state- owned CNOOC withdrew a $18.5 billion bid to buy U.S. oil and gas producer Unocal Corporation after U.S. lawmakers complained that tile sale would .jeopardize national security. Is national security no longer a concern'? We are told all this oil develop- merit is so we can achieve "energy independence" and "reduce our dependence on tbleign oil." Yet the top export of the United States is now fuel gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. This explains why our gasoline and diesel fuel are so expensive. The more fuel that is sent over seas. the less supply lhcrc is for the United States. In the first 10 months of 2011. the U.S. exported 848 million bar- rels of fuel and imported 751) mil- lion barrels of fuel. Where b, the "energy independ- ence" in those numbers? What happened to "reducing our dependence on foreign oil" ? Pat Hedstrup Fryburg Measure,2 is well thought out To the editor: Have you noticed that most of those people against Measure 2 (property tax elimination) are on the recefve and spend side of prop- erty taxes. As far as 1 can tell, they are the ones that ride in the wagon. The average property taxpayer could be considered the horse that pulls the wagon. People in the wagon do pay property taxes, but a large majority of them feel it's just an irritating incident that occurs on Feb. 15. If someone else in the wagon is upset by their propm;ty tax, they just negotiate more salary forth the property tax to pay their property taxes. Now the horse (average proper- ty taxpayer) is a different story. He has no input into the assessed value of his property. He is also on the outside looking in when the mill levies are established, Paying the tax is a major financial event that may or may not get done. But his job is to pull the wagon, shut up and make no waves. One could fail to observe any local control here. But he is rewarded every now and then with a new harness to help with increasing heavy loads. The tax and spend people are jumping into tile wagon with state- ments like "It's only 5 mills - who can object to that" and " Increased property values is the Americml way." Well the horse is now saying "enough already. It time to drop the harness on the State where money is being stacked in the hall- ways!" If we dofft, every cocka- mamie spending idea under the sun will be funded by the Legislature - like the absolutely necessary North Dakota Horse Racing Commission. Ah. but then what would the people in tile wagon have to do when they' are not riding in tim wagon. The status quo is so comfortable and the ruling chlss like the deck chairs right w'here they are on the Titanic. Some of our seniors who have lived here for decades, are either moving out or being thrown out because property taxes are approaching $300 a month. And don't give me the Homestead Credit speech - all that does is pass the obligation on to the rest of us. Farmers and ranchers are having their hind values raised statewide - about 22 percent for pasture and 32 percent for crop land. Does that equate to higher property tax - no, but we all know what's coming. Read the measure. Ycm will marvel at how well it's thought out. Leon Mallberg Dickinson Great Lakes wolf population delisted The recent decision by the U,S. Fish and Wildlife Service to remove the Great Lakes popula- tion of gray wolves flom federal protection might not seem as important in North Dakota as some of the other states in the Midwest. but it is significant nonetheless. Stephanie Tucker, North Dakota Game and Fish Department furbearer biologist. said this development is important because it means tile Great Lakes population has recovered enough to no longer warrant protection by the Endangered- Species Act. "However, the Great Lakes popu- lation region delisting only includes the portion of North Dakota east of U.S. Highway 83 and the Missouri River. thus com- .plicating their management status in our state," Tucker said. Due to this action, the manage- ment of wolves found roaming through the eastern portion of the state will fall back to the State Game and Fish Department under state management guidelines as a protected furbearer. The complicating aspect of the decision is that wolves moving through western North Dakota (west of Highway 83 and the Missouri River) still remain under federal protection because that area falls between the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountain boundaries. "'Although we do get rare sight- ings in North Dakota, we don't have a resident wolf population in the state, or enough suitable habi- tat to support one: therefore, we have no plans to allow a hunting season on wolves at this point," Tucker said. "The upside is that under state management, we now have the flexibility to deal with any issues that may arise with the occasional transient animals mov- ing through North Dakota." State law provides a provision for landowners to protect their property from depredation by a state-managed furbearer. Therefore, landowners in eastern North Dakota could shoot a wolf posing a threat to livestock. However, west of highway 83 and the Missouri River, wolves are still an endangered species under stricter federal protection. Subsequently, landowners in that part of the state must first contact proper federal authorities before taking action on their own. "'Our hope is that in the near future, additional delisting action by the Fish and Wildlife Service Please support your local merchants will address western North Dakota," Tucker said. "Then tim confusion over split management status in our state will be eliminat- ed." Measure r4o. 2 will confound local gc'.'00rnment finances More and more local officials are becoming alarmed over the impact of Measure #2 on the June ballot that proposes to repeal all property taxes and dump the mess into the laps of tile state legisla- tors. Instead of offering specific solutions to specific problems, tile sponsors of the measure have been offering a variety of spe- cious claims and generalities that are not snpported by the hmguage in the proposed constitutional amendment. Some have suggested that the money can be found by firing 12,000 public employees; others say that the measure will not require replacement revenue for local governments. Neither of these claims is substantiated by the language in the measure. Here is the exact language on the ballot: "'The legislative assembly shall direct a share of sales taxes, indi- vidual and corporate, income taxes, insurance premium taxes, alcoholic beverage taxes, mineral leasing fees, and gaming taxes and any oil and gas production and extraction taxes, tobacco taxes, lottery revenues, and finan- cial institutions taxes not allocat- ed to elementary and secondary schools to counties, cities and other political subdivisions according to a formula devised by the legislative assembly to fully and properly fund the legally- imposed obligations of counties, cities, townships and other politi- cal subdivisions." It is clear that this amendment. if passed, would require the legis- lature to take money ($800 mil- lion annually) from the state treasury and pay local govern- Some have sug- gested that the money can be found by firing 12,000 public employees; others say that the meas- ure will not require replacement rev- enue for local gov- ernments. ments for the money lost by the repeal of the property tax. All we need to do is look at the number and complexity of local governments to understand the problem in developing a payback formula. North Dakota has more local governments per capita than any other state in the Union. We have 53 counties, 350 cities, 1100 townships, over 300 fire districts, around 175 school districts, over 200 park districts, around 50 soil conservation dis- tricts, nearly 75 water resource districts, close to 95 libraries, and scores of ambulance districts. Each of these local governments has a unique financial structure with varying degrees of reliance on property taxation. Take counties, for example. According to the latest posting by the State Tax Department, Bottineau reported an average of 129 mills for the county: Slope reported 152: Grand Forks report- ed 379 mills, and Morton reported 363. All other counties tell in between. What these figures tell us is that county governments across the state have varying needs for property revenue and they also have a wide range in the services they offer their citizens. Consequently, a simple one-size- fits-all solution will not work fbr each and every county govern- ment. We can bet that schools, cities, townships and the hun- dreds of other local governments have unique budgets as well. A single solution, such as flat across-the-board percentage refunds to all, would give huge windfalls to some local govern- ments while short-changing hun- dreds of others. Because each political subdivision is unique, the only fair and rational approach would be for a legisla- tive committee or some state agency to review the budget of each local government and dole out money accordingly. To protect the uniqueness of local governments, representa- tives from our 2200 local govern- ments would have to travel to Bismarck to justify their budgets and convince some state entity or legislative committee that their budget needs are legitimate. This process would certainly threaten local control of local services. The problem of getting money required by the measure back to the local government is only one problem in this simplistic approach to state and local finance offered by Measure #2 . An arbitrary change of this mag- nitude requires the deliberative process of the legislature over a 10-year period. Committee Seeks Applicant for State Boa00'(t c ' Higher Education Dr. Wayne G. Sanstead, chair- man of the nominating committee for appoimment to the State Board of Higher Education, . has announced that the committee is seeking applications from persons interested in serving on the State Board of Higher Education. One position will become vacant July l, 2012. The commit- tee will meet at 3:30p.m. in the Office of the Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court on April 2, 2012 and will forward three nominations for the vacant position to the Governor's Office. Any board member appointed by the governor must be confirmed by tile 2{)13 North Dakota Senate. The SBHE is the governing body for the North Dakota University System, which includes tile state's 11 publicly supported colleges and universities. The board is comprised of seven men> bers who serve four-year terms, one student member, a non-voting faculty advisor and a non-voting staff advisor. The vacancy will be created u;hen the current term of Put Your Money Where Your House Zs/ oca! independent .:- trengthen our businesses are  community your best value end our economy February 17, 18, 19 One For the Money "PG-13" ,. Katherine Heigl and Jason O'Mara /Laundry Hookups V' Income Based V' All Utilities Paid v' 2 Bdrm Apts for rent Rental Assistance Available Immediately board member Michael Haugen, Fargo expires June 30, 2012/ Other current SBHE members are. Terry Hjelmstad. Minot; Kirsten Diederich, Fargo; Claus Lembke. Bismarck: Duaine Espegard, Grand Forks: Ricbie Smith, Wahpeton; Grant Shaft, Grand Forks: Robert Vallie. student mem- ber, NDSU; John Girard. non-vot- ing faculty advisor, Minot; and Janice Hoffarth, non-voting staff advisor, Grand Forks. In addition to Sanstead, who serves as chairman for the nomi- nating committee, other members consist of the President Pro Tempore Senator Ralph Kilzer, Speaker, of the House of Representative David Drovdal, President of the North Dakota Education Association Dakota Draper, and Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, Gerald W. VandeWalle. To obtain an applicatkm for the vacant positions, please contact Dr. Wayne Sanstead, Department of Public Instruction, 600 East Boulevard Ave., Bismarck, ND 58505-0440 or by phone at (701) 328-4572. Along with the applica- tion, applicants must also submit a backgrotmd resume and supporting references. Applications must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on March 21.2012. 1 Being ARED ... is having peace of mind. ] Everyone knows the val ue of being prepared. But few steps, Funeral_ Arrangements Records and p ! I I I I I I I I I I I l-l. 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