BISMARCK -- Legislative sessions often make some history with new laws or initiatives. With the help of natural disasters, a nationwide recession and a tobacco program controversy, the 61st Legislative Assembly, which adjourned just after midnight Tuesday morning, made more than most.
It is the longest in state history, 79 days, only one day shy of lawmakers' constitutional limit every two years. This is the second session in two years to break a record; the 2007 session's 78 days was previously the longest. The Legislature has not ended in fewer than 71 days since 1997.
It was the first ever to extend into May, and that was because of another first--the first session ever interrupted by a flood.
Lawmakers lost four working days because of statewide record floods and blizzards in late March. With more and more members rushing home to deal with flooded or threatened homes and businesses, and others wracked by worry, they adjourned March 25.
It was to have been a two-day recess; they intended to reconvene the following Monday. But a blizzard saw to it that they were thwarted getting back to the Capitol, and they didn't begin again until April 1.
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If they had not lost four working days on the calendar, their 80th day would have been April 30.
This year's Legislature very nearly became party to a lawsuit when the House balked at funding the Measure 3 tobacco initiative voters had approved in November, and it looked like they would adjourn without providing the money. Negotiations that lasted until the very last night helped drag out the session.
But people like lawmakers and governors are more interested in other kinds of history.
Who would have thought legislators would start a session with a $1.2 billion surplus, House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, said after it was all over.
That enabled the Legislature to pass $39.7 million for an expansion of the state's history museum. The project, which will also need $12 million in fundraising cash, will more than double the size of the Heritage Center. The approval of the project caused grown men in the Senate to weep with pride and sentiment.
Nor did anyone expect the $650 million windfall the state will get from the federal stimulus package Congress passed this winter -- after the governor and lawmakers had pretty well settled on a budget. Though legislators never considered turning down the money, "It didn't make our jobs any easier" in building a budget, said Senate Majority Leader Bob Stenehjem.
School program
With Gov. John Hoeven's encouragement, the Legislature enacted $395 million in property and income tax cuts for citizens, including a small amount for corporations. The new school funding program, which cuts property owners school taxes by as much as 75 mills, is unprecedented in the state.
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The federal stimulus funds also arrived just in time to free up funds to help the state pay for rebuilding roads and bridges torn apart by record snowfall and the catastrophic flooding all over the state, and that resulted in an extraordinary $1.3 billion in transportation funding.
And for the first time, spurred on by a worker shortage, the state will get involved in encouraging expansion of child care services, something some legislators have implored their colleagues to do for 10 years.
The session was also unique in one way that it brought national attention to the state. Rep. Dan Ruby's "personhood" bill was discussed all around the country as a possible challenge to Roe v. Wade The bill ultimately failed.
