Good news for North Dakotans:

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis credited a sharp jump in crop prices for a 7.6 percent increase in personal income. Other experts added that energy played a role with high oil prices, as well as the state avoiding problems in housing and financial services.

A couple of reactions:

With personal income spiking and with the state already sporting a record-setting treasury balance and projections of massive budget surpluses, isn’t it time for the state political leadership to get behind some income tax cuts in a big way?  C’mon NDGOP, where are you on this?

Also, let’s remember that it’s the oil industry that’s driving a lot of this.  The same oil industry that Senator Byron Dorgan and most of the rest of his fellow Democrats want to saddle with a massive “windfall profits” tax.  A tax that would mean less capital for the oil companies to invest in North Dakota.  Capital that creates jobs and boosts our economy.

Kind of makes you wonder who Dorgan is really representing in Washington DC.  Because on the windfall tax issue, it sure ain’t North Dakotans.