By: Mary Steurer (ND Monitor)
Gov. Kelly Armstrong announced Thursday that he accidentally vetoed part of a bill that set aside $35 million for a state housing development fund.
Senate Bill 2014 is the budget for the North Dakota Industrial Commission. On Monday, Armstrong announced two line-item vetoes for the bill. His office said a “staff markup error” led to the unintentional veto of $25 million for housing projects and programs and $10 million to combat homelessness.
Staff from the governor’s office met with Legislative Council Thursday to discuss options for correcting the error.
“If necessary, we will call the Legislature back to ensure the appropriate funding is delivered, but we hope to avoid the expense of a special session. This was an honest mistake, and we will fix it,” Armstrong said in a Thursday statement.
According to his veto message, Armstrong had intended to veto a $150,000 one-time grant for a Native American-focused organization to fund a homelessness liaison position. The veto markup also crossed some surrounding language, axing the full $35 million appropriation in the section.
During a Thursday meeting of the Industrial Commission, which Armstrong chairs, he emphasized his “full-throated” endorsement of the Housing Incentive Fund, which supports the construction of affordable housing.
“We are talking to whoever, everybody we can — Legislative Council, lawmakers, everybody — to figure out if there is a legal way we can solve this without calling them back into a special session and costing taxpayer dollars,” Armstrong said. “However, if that is the only alternative, that would be exactly what I will be doing.”
Legislative Council staff will advise on options to fix the error, but it will be up to the governor and legislative leaders to decide how to proceed, said Legislative Council Director John Bjornson. At this point, a special session is the only obvious legal remedy, he said.
“I think we all want the easy solution, but sometimes the easy solution has consequences down the line that you need to consider,” Bjornson said.
Legislators have six days remaining of the 80-day legislative limit. If the governor calls them back into session, it would not count against that limit.
Bjornson estimated it would take about a half day for lawmakers to consider overriding the governor’s veto. But there is no mechanism for lawmakers to consider overriding part of a veto, he said.
Lawmakers could also consider a standalone bill that restores the $35 million in funding. But Legislative Council estimates it typically takes three days to pass a bill.
A special session is estimated to cost $65,000 a day, Bjornson said.
Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, said lawmakers are still looking into how to proceed.
“We’re just going to do the research first and pick the best course of action,” Hogue said.
Dave Flohr, executive director of the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, said during the Industrial Commission meeting that once the state sorts out the issue with the funding, the agency plans to set aside $5 million for single-family home projects and $20 million for multi-family housing.
This story was updated to add comments from Gov. Armstrong, David Hogue and Dave Flohr.
