Appropriations Committee lays out session schedule, two governors' budgets and new briefing process

The North Dakota House Appropriations Committee on day one reviewed its schedule for the coming week, discussed how it will work with two competing executive budgets and outlined changes to the fiscal briefing materials and amendment process.

Chairman Representative Bigas opened the meeting by welcoming new committee members and asking legislative staff to take attendance. He told members the committee will receive two separate executive budget presentations this session — one from Governor Burgum, whose budget the committee already has, and a second from Governor Armstrong, which the committee expects to receive next week for comparison. "So we'll have two budgets to compare," Chairman Bigas said.

Legislative Council and fiscal staff described the session timeline: the Department of Mineral Resources will give an overview of oil development; Health and Human Services and the Department of Public Instruction are scheduled for separate morning briefings; the Department of Water Resources will present an update that includes the FM diversion project; and the committee's first formal hearing with public testimony will be Friday at 8 a.m. on House Bill 1038. Staff also reiterated the policy committee deadline for any bills containing appropriations: Feb. 10.

Alan Knudson of the Legislative Council fiscal staff described changes to the briefing materials committee members will use this session. He said each agency will have three comparative sheets: a blue sheet showing the base budget (the adopted appropriations from the previous biennium), a green sheet showing the Burgum executive recommendation, and a purple sheet to capture Governor Armstrong's recommendations when that book is released. Knudson said the committee will compare changes back to the legislative base rather than using an executive budget as a starting point.

Knudson also explained the fiscal staff role in preparing amendments and the statement-of-purpose-of-amendment (SPA) documents. He said the amendment format will shift away from separate ‘‘A-version’’ instruction pages to marked-up bill text (the red/green marked-up copy) with a separate SPA document that explains numeric changes.

Representative Nelson described a planned Department of Corrections reentry simulation the committee will experience, intended to illustrate the first days after release for one person exiting the state penitentiary. He said the exercise is meant to help appropriators see how multiple agencies and community programs connect in reentry.

Clerks and IT staff also briefed members on operational changes: Sierra Schartz was introduced as the committee clerk, and IT staff previewed a new electronic committee voting option that will publish committee votes and amendments faster to the public website. Chairman Bigas said the full committee will use voice votes initially while clerks record results electronically; section chairs may adopt different workflows for their divisions.

Why it matters: The committee is beginning the work of building the state's spending plan. Committee members will use the revised briefing materials to compare agency requests and two executive proposals, and the new amendment and voting workflows are intended to speed publication and reduce transcription errors as the session proceeds.

Discussion points: Members pressed staff for detail on deadlines and on how to access online materials; staff said the budget status report and weekly fiscal impact report will be distributed each Wednesday. Knudson noted the committee will receive weekly updates on revenues, agency turnbacks and the status of appropriations throughout the session.

Next steps: The committee will take agency overviews this week, receive Governor Armstrong's budget next week, and begin hearings for specific bills and division work thereafter.