North Dakota Ponders Spending Legacy Fund Earnings Many Ideas on the Table, No Agreement in Sight

By: Geoff Simon |

Executive Director Western Dakota Energy Association

Thanks to the foresight of North Dakota voters who established an oil tax trust fund, the state now has hundreds of millions of dollars of interest income available to meet the needs of the state’s citizens. Establishing the fund was the easy part. The tough part is coming up with an agreement among policy makers about how, or even if, the money should be spent.

A ballot issue approved by voters in 2010 established the Legacy Fund to capture a portion of the state’s oil tax revenue for use by future generations. Thirty perc...