Summary — SB 2372 (North Dakota, 2025)
Status (per provided record)
- Introduced: March 12, 2025
- Legislative status shown: Second reading — failed to pass (yeas 0, nays 47)
- Bill text includes: Effective date July 1, 2025, and an emergency clause (would make the act effective immediately on enactment).
Purpose
- Establish a statutory “legacy earnings fund” and set a multi‑year formula for distributing earnings from the state’s Legacy Fund. The bill specifies how those distributions are allocated among debt service, tax relief, transportation, and other state priorities, and reconfigures related fund definitions and transfers.
Key provisions and changes
1. Create a new statutory legacy earnings fund (new section to chapter 54‑27)
- The state treasurer will distribute to the legacy earnings fund on July 1 of each odd‑numbered year an amount equal to 8% of the 5‑year average value of the Legacy Fund (average uses year‑end balances for the five fiscal years ending with the most recent even‑numbered fiscal year).
Prescribed allocation of each distribution
- From that 8% distribution, the state treasurer will allocate 7/8 in this order (each July of odd‑numbered years):
a. First $102,624,000 (or the lesser of that amount and the biennial appropriation from the Legacy Sinking & Interest Fund for debt service) → Legacy Sinking & Interest Fund (section 6‑09.4‑10.1).
b. Next $225,000,000 → General Fund (specifically to support tax relief initiatives).
c. Next $100,000,000 → Legacy Earnings Highway Distribution Fund (for transportation allocations).
d. Remaining amount: 50% → General Fund; remainder → Strategic Investment and Improvements Fund (to be used per ND law §15‑08.1‑08).
- The remaining 1/8 of the original 8% distribution is allocated to the Legacy Earnings Highway Distribution Fund.
Legacy earnings highway distribution fund (amend §54‑27‑19.3)
- Deposits to this fund are allocated as follows:
- 60% → State Highway Fund (Department of Transportation)
- 10% → Legacy Earnings Township Highway Aid Fund
- 1.5% → Public Transportation Fund
- 28.5% → Cities and counties (formula per §54‑27‑19); moneys must be used for roadway purposes per Article X, §11 of the ND Constitution
Amendments to other statutes
- §6‑09.4‑10.1 (Legacy sinking & interest fund) is amended to specify fund composition and authorize the Public Finance Authority to spend moneys on debt service for indebtedness used for Bank of North Dakota allocations to infrastructure.
- Subsection 1 of §21‑10‑06 (funds invested by the State Investment Board) is amended to list the Legacy Fund and Legacy Earnings Fund among funds under board investment authority.
Repeals
- Sections §21‑10‑12 and §21‑10‑13 (prior legacy fund definitions and an earlier legacy earnings fund statute) are repealed.
Who would be affected
- State treasurer, State Investment Board, Public Finance Authority, Bank of North Dakota, Department of Transportation, cities, counties, and townships (transportation funding).
- The General Fund and the Strategic Investment & Improvements Fund would receive significant shares (including a dedicated $225 million for tax‑relief initiatives under the bill’s allocations).
- Taxpayers could be indirectly affected through the specified tax‑relief allocation and infrastructure financing.
Procedural/timing notes
- The bill text sets an effective date of July 1, 2025 and declares an emergency (which, if enacted, would make it effective immediately). However, the provided status indicates the bill failed at second reading (0–47), so as recorded it did not become law. If enacted, distributions are scheduled for July 1 of odd‑numbered years using the five‑year averaging method described in the bill.
