by John Ford

Life is good in ND right now with the oil boom, but if history has taught us anything, it is that it always repeats itself. I did some checking and learned that in ND history the 70’s provided the same good life for ND. Through those good times, the legislature and the governor went into a freefall spending mode much as they have now. In 1983 things went south. Between 1983 and 1989 the sales tax doubled and the income tax rate was raised. Things got so bad that in 1986 we needed a SPECIAL SESSION to raise the sales tax 1% because state revenues were so bad the state couldn’t pay the bills from the previous decade’s free spending ways. Are our state legislators steering us in the same direction today?

We need to be prudent with our good life resources and while we can keep up growth we need to be fiscally responsible so we can sustain it. Keeping prudent monetary reserves is learning from our previous mistakes. At the recent District 7 debate, when asked the question about freefall spending at the state level, Senate candidate Wollenberg stated that we need to “spend the money while we have it”. Rep. Nelson’s spending record clearly shows he has the same attitude. Can we afford to allow our District 7 elected officials to have this attitude or do we need to send folks who can learn from our history to represent us?