Committee recommends House Bill 1278 to create state cash management board, names governor chair

The Government Operations Division of the Senate Appropriations Committee on the bill advanced House Bill 12-78 as amended, a measure that would create a Cash Management Board to coordinate how the state manages operating cash and to pursue higher returns while preserving liquidity.

Representative Mike Lefor, who represents District 37 (Dickinson) in the North Dakota House of Representatives, introduced the measure and described it as a continuation of work begun during an interim cash-management study. "In the last legislative session, as you know, we did a cash management study, that was completed in the interim," Lefor said, adding the bill "seeks to do is continue that work of analyzing the state's cash and how to better invest it and provide a pathway toward improving the state's return on cash." He told the committee he would like an amendment attached to the bill and formally asked that the committee adopt it.

The bill would direct the state treasurer, in coordination with the Bank of…