North Dakota has made large strides towards using investments of public funds not just as a way to generate revenue for the for the state but also, by making those investments in North Dakota companies, to benefit the state's economy. But these investments are happening in a lot of different ways, and when some investments made through some programs go bad, and make negative headlines, they can sour the public's view of this sort of public investing.
One complicating factor in this is that the state has dozens and dozens of economic development programs, overseen by a patchwork of boards and government entities, and that can make things like transparency and accountability difficult.
"We've just got too many too many programs," Rep. Glenn Bosch, a Republican from Bismarck, said on this episode of Plain Talk. Bosch, along with Rep. Jonathan Warrey, a Republican from Casselton who also joined us, serves on a committee overseeing Legacy Fund investments. They want to make sure the public understands the success the state is having with its in-state investment programs.
But to better communicate that message, it may require consolidating some of what the state is doing.
In South Dakota "they really just have two or three different places that economic development funds flow out of," Bosch said. "It's either type A, type B, or type C. When people come to the state and want to understand what economic development looks like in South Dakota, that's what they offer. When they come here, they're given all these different options, and they're trying to figure it out."
"We just need to consolidate," he continued. "Have a plan and have a framework that people can understand when they want to talk about economic development."
But despite some of the confusion, Warrey and Bosch said North Dakota's investments are going well. North Dakota has the "second largest in-state investment program in the country, really second only to California," Bosch said, noting that relative to the state's gross domestic product, it is the largest.
That program, specifically, uses a portion of the Legacy Fund, and includes investments in private equity, through the North Dakota Growth Fund, real assets, through the North Dakota Real Assets fund, low-interest loans to companies through the Match Program, and in infrastructure projects through the Infrastructure Revolving Loan Fund.
In the three years since the in-state investment program began, "there has been 24 investments made with committed capital of $122 million," Warrey added.
Also on this episode, we discuss a shift in Fargo away from property tax incentives, whether a universal school lunch ballot measure will pass, and whether Gov. Tim Walz ought to resign amid the fraud scandal which has rocked his state.
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