BISMARCK — North Dakota lawmakers who make budget decisions between legislative sessions will consider a spending transfer that would eliminate the state's poet laureate program.
The 42-member Budget Section will meet Wednesday, June 26, for its first business after the 2019 legislative session adjourned. Among its budget requests is one from the North Dakota Council on the Arts to transfer $10,000 in grant money that provides for the poet laureate program to increase a temporary administrative employee's weekly hours.
The poet laureate program covers a variety of classes and workshops often held at high schools and conventions, planned by North Dakota Poet Laureate Larry Woiwode, according to council Executive Director Kim Konikow. The budget request, which isn't new, would answer a longtime need for increased staffing, she said.
Konikow expects the poet laureate program would be restored in the future. The council is conducting a strategic plan looking at how to expand or reorganize arts programming. The council has other poetry offerings through its grantees' programs and with Humanities North Dakota, she added. Woiwode would remain the poet laureate, but it's unclear if he would still be paid, Konikow said.
"I think we might want to retool some things, working with Larry, so that there is maybe more focused outcomes and maybe just more people reached," Konikow said. "Again, I think that that could be a good thing if more staff was involved, because we would be able to promote things better."
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Woiwode did not immediately respond to an email and a phone message seeking comment.
The council's request must come before the Budget Section due to a statutory requirement on transfers that would eliminate a program, according to Legislative Budget Analyst and Auditor Allen Knudson. The request has already been approved by the Emergency Commission, which, among its duties, considers certain transfers in agency budgets.
Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, who chairs the Budget Section, said he's not sure what to expect in the group's discussion of the council's request. He added he has visited with Konikow but hasn't yet talked to other lawmakers.
"I don't see this as a huge issue, a controversial issue," Wanzek said.
The Budget Section was embroiled in a North Dakota Supreme Court lawsuit between the Legislature and Gov. Doug Burgum over executive authority in vetoes and spending provisions in several 2017 budget bills.
The high court found in 2018 that four of Burgum's five partial vetoes to the bills were ineffective but left unclear the powers of the Budget Section, which Burgum has called a "mini Legislature" and the court said "unconstitutionally encroached" on executive authority.
Republican majority leaders this session brought a bill to outline Budget Section criteria for its decision-making. Burgum vetoed the bill but both chambers overrode his veto.
Lawmakers have said they need the Budget Section to make certain spending decisions, such as state agencies accepting federal funds, in their two-year interim to avoid calling special or annual sessions. North Dakota's Legislature meets for up to 80 days every two years to write new policy and budgets.
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In a statement after his veto, Burgum urged lawmakers to "work collaboratively with the executive branch to avoid further litigation and develop commonsense policy that benefits the taxpayers of North Dakota.
