Port: We created a Legacy Fund without defining what ‘legacy’ means
Former North Dakota Gov. Ed Schafer talks Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, in Fargo about his interim appointment as president of the University of North Dakota in January. Michael Vosburg / Forum Photo Editor
MINOT, N.D. — In what has become a biennial tradition, some of the founders of North Dakota’s Legacy Fund are griping about how that fund’s revenues are being used.
The Legacy Fund, if you didn’t know, was created by a constitutional amendment, initiated by the Legislature and approved by voters, to receive “thirty percent of total revenue derived from taxes on oil and gas production,” as article X, section 26 of the state constitution now puts it .
On average, about $54 million per month is deposited in this fund; as of December 2022, its value stands at over $8.4 billion .
Now the fund creators are chapped because, supposedly, we’ve lost sight of what the fund was intended to be used for.
