ND Budget Surplus Over Half A Billion

Wow…

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) North Dakota’s budget surplus is soaring.
New revenue projections today show the surplus should be more than 500 (M) million dollars by the time North Dakota’s budget year ends next June.
The state treasury is supposed to have an extra 271 (M) million dollars when the budget year ends on June 30th.
Plus, there’s a rainy-day fund of about 100 (M) million dollars.
And there’s an oil tax trust fund that’s expected to grow to 155 (M) million dollars by the end of June.
When you add it up it’s more than 520 (M) million dollars.
Governor Hoeven announced the new numbers today. They were compiled using data from an economic forecasting firm called Moody’s Economy-Dot-Com.

Suck it, Howard.
Aside from that, a couple of points:
First off, this boom in tax revenues in the state is being driven by the increased economic activity in the western part of North Dakota which is in turn being driven by the oil industry investing in expanding domestic oil supplies. Who wants to stop this reinvestment into developing domestic oil supplies? Something that is both beneficial to North Dakota (as evidenced by the above) and the nation in general (more domestic oil means lower gas prices) by denying the oil industry the profits necessary to make those investments?
Why, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan of course. His windfall profits tax is not only bad for America’s free market economy but is also bad, specifically, for his constituents who are enjoying the fruits of a booming economy.
Aside from Dorgan and his efforts to tax North Dakota’s economy back into the red, what North Dakotans need to be wary of is politicians and government bureaucrats with dollar signs in their eyes. These people have a bad habit of inventing problems that need to be solved when they know there’s money available for the spending. What we citizens need to do is take a step back and look around. Things are pretty good in ND right now. They’re not perfect, but do we really need to allow our government to spend half a billion dollars fixing the few things that perhaps legitimately need fixed?
No. What we need is for someone in our government (anyone from the Governor’s office to the legislature would work for me) to stand up, show a little fiscal restraint, and give most (if not all) of this tax revenue windfall back to North Dakotans in the form of tax rebates and/or tax cuts. Not only would this be a boon for North Dakotans (the $500 million surplus is just about $800 for every man, woman and child living in the state) it would be a tremendous boost to our economy as well when North Dakotans suddenly have more money in their pockets to spend on goods, services or even just to sock away in the bank for college education or a rainy day.
Sadly, though, I’ve yet to even hear one political leader here in North Dakota make any noises that would lead me to believe that they’re interested in giving some of this money back to the people it came from in the first place. I can only hope that when it comes time to start making decisions about what to do with this money someone like that steps forward.