Appropriations division approves judiciary, higher-education and agency budget amendments, adds homelessness and IT funding

The Appropriations — Education and Environment Division unanimously approved a set of budget amendments Tuesday that update the judiciary budget, add a new guardianship and conservatorship program, increase homelessness funding inside the housing incentive program and approve higher-education capital projects and grant increases.

Committee members said the amendments align agency long sheets and statements of purpose with earlier committee decisions and correct technical items before the measures move to full committee. Senators on the panel also directed a small set of further technical amendments — including a $5,100,000 addition for core IT security services, a $910,000 transfer for an employee childcare assistance program placed in the system office and wording clarifications to identify homelessness funding — which the committee approved.

The package contains separate changes for the judiciary, higher education system, the Bank of North Dakota, the Department of Mineral Resources, the State Mill and Elevator, the housing finance agency and the Forest Service. The judiciary section includes creation of a new guardianship and conservatorship division, additional full‑time employees and program funding. Higher education amendments list multiple capital projects and one‑time grants and change allocation rules for portions of the Capital Building Fund. The housing and housing‑incentive changes move $10,000,000 into homeless programs and earmark $150,000 for a Native American homeless liaison, and the committee added $25,000,000 from the Strategic Investment Fund for an advanced oil recovery initiative.

Judiciary: new guardianship program, employees and allocations The committee approved changes that create a guardianship and conservatorship program inside the judiciary appropriation. The long sheets and statement of purpose list four new full‑time employees tied to the new program and two existing employees transferred into the newly created division. Committee members and staff noted these four positions are contingent on related statutory changes: if the enabling bill fails in the other chamber, the committee expected those FTEs to be removed or the House to resolve the discrepancy.

The judiciary package on the long sheet shows a total budget of $151,704,000 — an increase over the prior biennial base and below Governor Armstrong’s recommendation (stated in committee as about $166,000,000). The package also reflects judicial salary adjustments the committee adopted earlier: 7% for district court judges, 9% for the chief justice and 8.5% for other Supreme Court justices; separate 3%/3% adjustments are applied to non‑judicial staff where noted. Specific operating additions include $60,000 for court interpreters, $200,000 estimated for credit‑card processing fees (reduced from a larger governor proposal) and $470,000 added to the guardian ad litem program (the governor had recommended a larger amount). The judiciary long sheet also lists capital and IT project requests such as case‑management cloud migration and clerk filing software with amounts shown on the long sheet.

Higher education: capital projects, challenge grants and program changes The committee advanced the higher education package and approved multiple institution capital projects and one‑time grant funds. The amendments list institution requests and funding sources: for example, the committee recorded the UND STEM building request and local match, NDSU projects, Mayville State completion work funded from the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), and several revenue bond authorizations for campus projects. The committee increased the higher‑education challenge grant pool to $25,000,000 from SIF and left in place previously agreed allocation percentages while adjusting some matching language.

The package also creates a $12,000,000 workforce education innovation grants pool limited in committee discussion to nine participating campuses. The committee directed staff to add explicit wording limiting the workforce innovation grant competition to those nine campuses. The amendments include a $1,500,000 one‑time dual‑credit scholarship transfer from Bank of North Dakota profits and a $1,500,000 one‑time increase for the professional student exchange program.

Committee members discussed and declined to expand tier‑3 Capital Building Fund matching authority to cover new capital projects at this time, instead leaving the matching and tier allocation language as drafted and sending the package forward so the receiving chamber can consider further changes.

Housing, housing incentive fund and Native American passthrough Committee members clarified that the $10,000,000 one‑time appropriation placed in the housing incentive fund is intended for homelessness programs; the bill text will be edited to state that explicitly before full committee. Of that $10,000,000 the committee directed $150,000 to a pass‑through grant for a Native American homeless liaison. The committee also transferred $25,000,000 from SIF into a program identified for advanced oil recovery projects.

Department of Mineral Resources, State Mill and Elevator and other agencies The committee reviewed the Department of Mineral Resources fiscal changes, including a package of one‑time and ongoing funds for abandoned well reclamation, a rare‑earth element study, and funding for archeological work connected to mineral projects. Committee staff noted one technical correction to the Mineral Resources salary/operating reductions (a netting of equity dollars that should increase a stated negative salary adjustment by approximately $250,000); the committee approved making that correction prior to full committee.

State Mill and Elevator items were approved largely from non‑general funds; the committee added two FTE railcar inspectors and one‑time shift overtime funding tied to milling operations. The Bank of North Dakota section includes language preserving certain loan file exemptions from public records and an authorization increasing a program cap by $1,000,000 in limited circumstances, per the bank’s request.

Technical corrections and next steps Committee members and staff said a small number of technical corrections remain: adding explicit homeless‑program language, the Mineral Resources salary netting correction and adding the central IT security funding. The panel voted to approve the amendments as drafted and to further amend the package to add the three technical corrections. The division said the amended bills are likely to be scheduled for the full committee the next morning.

Votes at a glance - Motion to move and adopt amendments to bill identified in the transcript as “02/2002” (amendment number 01001): carried by roll call (unanimous). - Motion to approve bill identified in the transcript as “02/2002” as amended: carried by roll call (unanimous). - Motion to approve the Bank of North Dakota package referenced by session sheet number (referred to in transcript as 2014) as amended: carried by roll call (unanimous). - Motion to approve bill identified in the transcript as “02/2003” (higher education package) as amended: carried by roll call (unanimous). - Motion to further amend the higher‑education package to add $5,100,000 for core IT security, $910,000 for employee childcare assistance in the system office and other technical corrections: carried by roll call (unanimous).

The committee adjourned and said the packages would move to full committee for further consideration and any additional technical edits.