Plain Talk: The fight over Bison World, and fake legislative days

MINOT, N.D. — Did you know there’s such a thing as a fake legislative day?

OK, maybe that’s not the official term, but that colloquialism has grown up around a practice at the Legislature in Bismarck, which sees lawmakers protracting their session despite the 80-day limit that’s in Article IV of the state constitution. They’ve done it once or twice in past sessions, but they’ve already done it a half-dozen times this session, with more “fake days” planned for the coming weeks.

You see, if the lawmakers don’t gavel in for a floor session, they can still meet in their various committees, and still get paid, without the day counting against their limit.

Why are they doing this? And should they be allowed to? My co-host Ben Hanson and I discussed it on this episode of Plain Talk.

Also on this episode, Brian Lundeen, a Jamestown resident who is one of the organizers behind the effort to build the Bison World attraction in that city, talks about what the project needs from state lawmakers to make it happen.

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