Plain Talk

The Fufeng project, a controversial corn milling plant planned for the Grand Forks by the China-based company, is officially defunct now this week. City officials pulled the plug after the Department of the Air Force announced that the plant was a security threat to the nearby Grand Forks Air Force Base.

I've long expressed sympathy for Grand Forks city officials who got caught in the crossfire between the economic interests of their region - it's undeniable that a plant like the one Fufeng planned would be beneficial - and concerns over national security that were far beyond their purview to analyze.

But when I put it that way to Sen. Kevin Cramer who, along with Sen. John Hoeven was responsible for getting an answer on the national security question from the Air Force, he disagreed with me.

He used an analogy about Santa Claus to illustrate his point. "When you're five years old, you believe in Santa because you think he's real. When you're ten you're old, you believe because you want to," he said on this episode of Plain Talk.

"They kept hoping for someone to tell them this was ok," he continued, arguing that city officials should have gotten out of the project earlier.

Cramer did acknowledge that the federal government "let down" local officials by taking so long to answer questions about the national security implications of the plant, but he said the case against it was obvious long before the Air Force finally weighed in.

Asked if he was worried about local officials taking it upon themselves to make decisions about national security threats, Cramer said he fears more "is a federal government making local decisions."

Still, he sees the process Grand Forks went through, as tortured as it was," as a "great gift" to the nation as it comes to terms with how it does business with other countries that are often belligerent to our own. "No one else has sounded the alarm like Grand Forks did," he said.

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Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski said his city first asked officials at the Grand Forks Air Force Base about the potential security risks of a corn milling plant to be built by Fufeng, a Chinese company, some 16 months ago.

The Air Force has finally given an answer, in the form of a letter to North Dakota Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, but should it have taken that long?

Bochenski joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the Air Force's letter, which indicated that Fufeng's project would represent a significant security threat, thus ending the city's participation in the development. He expressed some frustration with how long it took for his community to get an answer. "We expected more out of the federal government," he said.

Mayor Bochenski also spoke about how heated the debate came at times, saying that University of North Dakota President Andrew Armacost had called him to communicate that some of the students and faculty on his campus of Chinese heritage were feeling "uncomfortable" thanks to anti-Chinese blowback against the project.

Also joining this episode of Plain Talk was Dr. Charlie Bahnson, a wildlife veterinarian with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, who addressed legislation that would remove his agency's ability to regulate deer baiting. House Bill 1151, introduced by Rep. Paul Thomas, a Republican from Velva, is the legislation in question. Bahnson said his department needs that authority to protect North Dakota's deer herd for future generations of hunters, and to protect animal agriculture.

"We use restricting that practice as a way to slow down the spread of disease," he said. Deer baiting restrictions are not in any way intended to be a commentary from the department on the practice itself. "We're not in the business of regulating ethics around hunting."

"I'd like nothing more than to never talk about baiting again," he added. "I don't like to stir the pot."

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Minot, N.D. — Drew Wrigley is asking a lot from state lawmakers in his first time before them as Attorney General. He wants a $24 million increase in his office's budget to recruit and retain attorneys, hire more Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents, oversee the exploding growth in North Dakota's charitable gaming industry, and address backlogs at the state crime lab. He wants new mandatory minimum sentencing requirements for gun-related crimes.

One thing he's giving up, though, is his call to re-arrange his office's organization chart and put the crime lab under the administration of law enforcement officials. "You were wrong," Wrigley told me on this episode of Plain Talk, referring to my past reporting on the proposal, "and you won."

In support of his push for new mandatory minimums, Wrigley pushed back against a massive fiscal note attached to the bill prepared by state corrections officials. They're estimating that Wrigley's bill would cost the state an additional $28 million per biennium, something Wrigley said is "completely false and ignoring the situation."

"I'm not going to be backed off on this with some phony fiscal note," he said.

Asked if his office had done a fiscal analysis of the bill's impact, he said no. "Our analysis is this is just a re-prioritization," he said, arguing that state corrections officials can offset the cost of keeping more violent offenders in prison by reducing incarceration rates among non-violent offenders.

Also on this episode, state Senator Sean Cleary, a Republican from Bismarck, weighs in on the competing proposals to address North Dakota's pension fund for public workers. A proposal backed by Gov. Doug Burgum, and House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, seeks to transition the state away from a defined-benefit pension. Cleary argues in favor of keeping the defined-benefit pension.

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For about a century, North Dakota has had a ban on corporate farming. This is to say that if you want to run a farming or ranching business in our state, you can only do it with family members who are no more distant in relation to you than first cousins.

But there has been a push, in recent years, to ease up on the ban, particularly in the area of animal agriculture. The argument is that allowing business structures that aren't just between family members would open up new worlds of capital for investment in agriculture businesses here.

Rep. Paul Thomas, a Republican from Velva who is a fourth-generation farmer, is backing House Bill 1371 in the current legislative session in Bismarck, and it would corporate farming in animal agriculture such as swine, dairy, and poultry.

Yet in 2015, the legislature passed a similar bill. The North Dakota Farmer's Union successfully referred it to the ballot where it died with more than 75 percent of North Dakotans voting it down. What's changed between now and then to make Thomas think his bill has a chance?

"The biggest landscape change is the development of soybean crush plants," he said on this episode of Plain Talk. Thomas says. Soybean plants will be a big source of animal feed, which will increase interest in animal agriculture in our state.

He also argues that the current corporate farming ban isn't doing much to protect farming in North Dakota. "If we want to be a food desert let's keep doing what we're doing," he said.

Responding to criticism of his bill coming from NDFU President Mark Watne, who argues HB1371 would hurt family farms, Thomas says the decline in the number of dairy farms in North Dakota is "the only argument I need to make."

He notes that in 2009 there were 193 dairy farms operating in th e state. Today, he claims, there are only 37.

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Two state officials joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss a couple of the more complicated and political thorny issues North Dakota's legislature is taking up this session.

Rep. Zac Ista, a Democrat from Grand Forks, talked about his opposition to an income tax plan being touted by Gov. Doug Burgum and Republican lawmakers. He said the plan may pull revenues away from needed spending areas, like child care and mental health, and also argued that the cut is a "giveaway" to the wealthy.

It's that last point I wanted to debate with him and my co-host Ben Hanson.

Also, a bill under consideration would start a pilot program aimed at capping prescription drug prices in North Dakota, using prices set in Canada as a reference point. The bill would put this program under the administration of the Insurance Commissioner's office. Jon Godfread, a Republican and our current commissioner, said that would be like trying to "force a square peg into a round hole." He expressed skepticism that this bill would be effective, and he's also concerned about the tax dollars the state would spend defending it in court.

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The Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is an exceeding slim majority. All the more so because, in many ways, the members of that majority are divide against themselves.

Can these House Republicans govern effectively? Congressman Kelly Armstrong joined this episode of Plain Talk to answer that question.

"We all have to talk to one another a lot more," he said. He also pointed out that many of the Republicans in the majority are finding themselves in a position they haven't been in before. "Just about half of the Republican majority has never been in the majority," he said. "They've never seen regular order," he added, referring to the traditional way bills were introduced, worked in committee, and then brought to the floor for a vote in years past.

Armstrong also answered questions about his priorities in the new Congress, how the House can fulfill its oversight role without it getting lost in salacious politics, and his potential committee assignements.

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Should sports betting be legal in North Dakota?

Should a lawmaker who works for a company that also has a huge health insurance contract with the state also be on a board that approves the contract?

And is it a good idea to require that some small school districts share superintendents?

We talk about all those issues on this episode of Plain Talk.

Rep. Matt Ruby, a Republican from Minot, talks about the superintendent issue. It's his bill that would require districts with low enrollments to share superintendents. He says that the small districts make up just 40 percent of total K-12 enrollment, but are paying 90 percent of the superintendent's salaries. In this interview, he responds to some of the common criticisms of the bill.

Also. Rep. Greg Stemen, a Republican from Fargo, talks about his proposal to legalize sports wagering in the state. He says he'd like North Dakotans to weigh on this one way or another - his resolution would lead to a statewide vote - at which point the legislature can, if voters approve, work on implementing it.

Stemen also responds to criticisms he received from Sen. Kyle Davison, another Fargo Republican, over his appointment to the PERS Board. Stemen works for Sanford Health, which also has a contract to provide health insurance to tens of thousands of state employees that's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The PERS Board oversees that contract. Stemen says he's talked to Davison about his concerns, and would recuse himself from any vote concerning Sanford, but has confidence he can serve public employees, and his constituents, well on the board.

Finally, co-host Ben Hanson and I discuss the debate over an income tax proposal that would eliminate the tax for most North Dakotans. Is it a good idea? Or just a handout to the wealthy?

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Tammy Miller went from being the CEO of a major, Fargo-based corporation, to the COO of Governor Doug Burgum's administration, and now to Burgum's Lt. Governor, tasked with presiding over the state senate this legislative session.

She joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss that transition, her past asperations for public office, and how she can serve the state of North Dakota and Burgum's administration.

Also on this episode, co-host Ben Hanson and I discuss Burgum's state of the state address from earlier this week, the early intrigues of the legislative session, and the headaches surrounding the rapid growth of charitable gaming in North Dakota.

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For the first time in decades, the North Dakota Senate has a new chairman of its appropriations committee.

Why does that matter? The chairs of the appropriations committees in the House and the Senate are in charge of reconciling all the spending the legislature is trying to do in the next two-year budget cycle with the amount of revenue the state expects to collect. The two people who hold those positions are probably the most powerful politicians in North Dakota that you've never heard of.

In the Senate, third-term Sen. Brad Bekkedahl, a Republican from the Williston area, is taking over the job from Sen. Ray Holmberg, one of the longest-serving public servants in national history, who opted not to run for re-election this cycle.

On this episode of Plain Talk, Bekkedahl spoke with co-host Ben Hanson and me about taking over that job.

One of the most pressing issues before this session is a choice lawmakers will have between yet another property tax reduction plan, and a big income tax cut - an elimination of the tax for most North Dakotans - that has been touted by Governor Doug Burgum.

Burgum "makes a very compelling case" that his tax plan is "a better way to get relief into the hands of the taxpayers," Bekkedahl said, though he added that most taxpayers probably feel more burdened by their property tax bills than the income tax.

What his committee makes of those proposals will be up to the committee.

Bekkedahl is also taking over this job after voters approved eight-year term limits for state lawmakers. "We'll live through this," Bekkedahl said, though he added t hat he doesn't "think it's going to be good for the state." He praised Holmberg and other long-time lawmakers for the institutional knowledge they brought to the legislature, and he also pointed out that the voters were already doing a pretty good job of sending new people to the legislative chambers every election cycle.

What does Bekkedahl make of North Dakota getting a new lieutenant governor just as a new legislative session is going to begin? "I was surprised by the timing of the announcement," he said, noting that outgoing Lt. Governor Brent Sanford worked well with the legislature, but he was very positive about incoming Lt. Governor Tammy Miller too, noting that she's "proved herself well' both as a member of Burgum's cabinet and a businesswoman.

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Should children in North Dakota have access to surgery and other types of treatment that can change their birth gender?

If a bill that will be introduced in the 2023 session of the legislature is passed, such treatments would be prohibited. State Rep. Brandon Prichard, a Republican from District 8 who is sponsoring that bill, joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss it.

The bill doesn't make these treatments a crime. Rather, it allows civil lawsuits from children or their parents who feel the law was violated. Prichard said a separate bill he hopes to co-sponsor, which he expects will be introduced by Rep. Lori Vanwinkle of District 3, would provide a criminal penalty.

Why both? A criminal penalty is "very reliant on the state's attorney prosecuting it." He said that "bias among prosecutors" may lead to the law not being enforced, so he wanted to provide a civil remedy.

Why the need to prohibit this sort of gender-affirming treatment for children at all? Prichard spoke of a drive to "corrode the innocence of children," though he wasn't clear about how often this sort of thing is happening in North Dakota.

The "ability to access those records is very limited," but said the information is irrelevant to him. "Even if there isn't a single example of the surgeries happening in North Dakota, it wouldn't change my strategy," he said.

Also on this episode, co-host Ben Hanson and I discuss the on-going controversy over the Fufeng corn milling plant in Grand Forks, and the recent efforts (or, more accurately, lack there of) by the federal government to bring clarity to the matter.

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