BISMARCK – With less than six weeks left in the biennium, state lawmakers and the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System are still waiting to hear whether NDPERS can operate through 2015-17 with existing budget authority or if lawmakers must return to session to finish the agency’s budget.
The attorney general’s office was asked to issue an opinion on the matter after the Legislature adjourned April 29 without passing the NDPERS budget bill because of differences between the House and Senate.
Attorney general’s spokeswoman Liz Brocker said she couldn’t estimate a timeline for the opinion.
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“We are working on this as a high priority, but because of the complexity of the issue and of the opinion process, I can’t predict exactly when the opinion will be issued,” she said Thursday.
Legislative Management, the panel of 17 lawmakers that serves out the various functions of the Legislative Assembly between its regular sessions every other year, will meet Wednesday for the first time since the session ended.
But the topic of possibly calling lawmakers back into session to finish House Bill 1476 isn’t on the agenda. Lawmakers adjourned on the 78th day of the session, leaving two legislative days to spare.
The panel’s chairman, Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, said they will have to decide their next step after NDPERS receives the opinion.
“There’s little purpose in going back (into session) until we have a pretty good idea of what we’re going to do,” he said.
The House and Senate disagreed on amendments to HB1476 that House Republican leaders said will protect NDPERS members and ensure they have the same network coverage and benefits when the group’s carrier switches July 1 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota to Sanford Health Plan.
The NDPERS health plan covers more than 29,000 public employees and retirees and their family members at the state and local levels – nearly 66,500 insured lives in all, including state lawmakers.
Senate leaders said the House amendments represent legislative micromanagement that could breach the contract with Sanford Health Plan and land the state in an expensive lawsuit.
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House Majority Leader Al Carlson, R-Fargo, said House Republicans are willing to send a few like-minded members to sit down with senators and try to work out their differences on the bill.
He said it’s bad policy and precedent to let a state agency go through the next biennium without a budget approved by the current Legislature.
“I think that’s our job to do, and I’d hope that we’d address it, but we’ll see what they want to do,” he said.
On Wednesday, Legislative Management members will begin prioritizing which of the 111 studies approved by lawmakers should be conducted in the interim. They’ll also appoint members to the Legislature’s Budget Section.
