Mark Weber

I am a lifelong resident of District-22 from Casselton & graduating from NDSU with an MS in Economics. I am a life-long partner in our family farm where we took financial risks to expand the operation. I previously served as the Executive Director of the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association and as Director of the Northern Crops Institute located on the NDSU campus. I also previously served on the Board of Directors of Choice Financial Bank.

Response

We need to continue to address our workforce needs. Rural health care is another issue as it has become more difficult for small town hospitals and nursing homes to remain viable and many families and the elderly have to drive considerable distances to get the care that they need. Another challenge will be to meet the tremendous electrical energy demands for our state as additional companies consider relocating to North Dakota. Besides rising property taxes, the legacy fund continues to grow and there is increasing pressures from citizens and interest groups from across the state to spend these monies.

I will continue to support programs that enhance technical training. The career academies are an excellent opportunity for our young students to participate in as they get great exposure to the trades. A four-year degree has become too expensive and is not suitable for all students. Higher Education needs to continue to re-prioritize its mission to meet our workforce needs. Our state needs more farmworkers, metal workers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, etc. We need to continue to also help build on childcare assistance so that more parents are available for the workforce outside the home if they chose to do so.

I supported the legislative change making easier for people to invest in livestock farming without eliminating the corporate farming law. These are tremendous agricultural opportunities here in North Dakota which I will continue to support. I believe we need to first make sure that we are doing enough to support and retain existing businesses that may be struggling to find workers or be profitable in our state. Sometimes I think we may be moving to fast to attract new businesses without finding solutions and fixing the problems for our existing hardworking small and medium family businesses across the state.

Affordable and reliable daycare is a major issue in North Dakota. I support incentives such as providing matching funds or tax credits to businesses that provide daycare. Through more technical training opportunities we can hope to fill the shortage of workers in the homebuilding industry and if we can do more to lower the property tax this may be ways of addressing the affordable housing issue.

The potential for a water shortage is a real possibility if we were to go back to the 1930's when there were many years of drought and the Red River dried up. The legislature has already been supporting the project and I believe will continue to do so.

When the people voted for the ND Legacy Fund in 2011 they said the Legislature could only spend up to 15% of the principle providing there was a 2/3 majority voting yes in the Legislature. This past session the Legislature decided to further restrict access to the principle to only 5% instead of 15% and now the people will get the opportunity to adopt this important protection of the Legacy Fund principle by voting yes on the November 2024 ballot. I support this ballot measure. The idea of the legacy Fund was to put money away for when oil production begins to decline and I still believe that is the right strategy for the long term.

The property tax in ND continues to spiral out of control and is negatively affecting those people living on fixed incomes and I believe the legislature will continue to address the issue. Fixing the property tax is one of my biggest priorities. Having said that, I don't believe we should eliminate the property tax. The property tax provides a stable and predictable base for funding local government. If property taxes are eliminated, the Legislature will need to spend nearly $3 billion in the biennium to make up for the lost funds. Local political subs would also give up considerable local control. Unfortunately, the Legislature to date has written down local property taxes to the tune of over $1.7 billion. With rising assessed valuations many local political subs have failed to lower the mill rate accordingly and thus property taxes continue to rise.