Appropriations panel reviews NDSU long sheets; Langdon seed plant funding dropped under Armstrong plan, deferred maintenance added

Chairman Wanzek opened a committee review of the long‑sheet budget comparisons for North Dakota State University’s experiment stations and extension service, focusing on differences between the Burgum and Armstrong executive recommendations.

The committee examined omnibus “long sheets” that show the Burgum recommendation, the Armstrong recommendation and a column comparing the two. Grant, a budget staff member, told the panel, “the long sheets just show a comparison between the Burgum and Armstrong budgets.”

Why it matters: the session’s executive recommendations will guide the committee’s appropriation work and potential amendments. The panel discussed several capital and one‑time requests that differ between the two executive proposals and flagged items that would require committee action to carry forward, reauthorize or fund from other sources.

Major differences on seed conditioning and deferred maintenance

Dr. Lardy, the agency representative for the experiment station/extension system, told the committee that the SBARE request included $2,600,000 for a new Langdon seed conditioning plant. “The SBARE request was for the $2,600,000 for the Langdon seed conditioning plant,” Dr. Lardy said. Under the Armstrong recommendation, that funding for a new Langdon plant is not included; the Burgum recommendation had recommended special‑fund authority (CIF/special funds) for the project.

Separately, Armstrong would add $1,500,000 in one‑time deferred maintenance across the system to fully fund the extension service’s deferred‑maintenance request; Burgum had recommended $1,000,000. Dr. Lardy emphasized the two requests are unrelated: the deferred maintenance money was not intended to be used to build or refurbish the…