About half of North Dakotans think the oil-producing counties are not getting enough money from the state, according to a recent Forum Communications poll.
This editorial is to convince the other half:
“Whether North Dakota can build out the transportation and utility infrastructure in the western oil patch that is needed to ensure future prosperity will ultimately determine how well the state performs over the longer term,” said Moody’s Analytics in its conclusion to a recent report.
Residents of Grand Forks and other valley communities should take note. Because as the Moody’s analysis confirms, if people in eastern North Dakota want the energy boom to continue, they’ve got to plan on helping western North Dakota build out to accommodate its burgeoning workforce.
That means blessing - at least for now - the state’s efforts to direct more tax dollars to the west’s infrastructure needs.
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As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, State Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, knows the state’s finances well. At a recent meeting with the Herald editorial board, Holmberg was asked how he’d convince Grand Forks civic leaders to go along with recent proposals by Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, and others to dramatically boost spending in western North Dakota.
He’d do so by pointing to the Moody’s quote, Holmberg answered.
“It does underpin almost exactly what he (Wardner) has been saying, because even though most of the money is going out West, the bottom line is, it benefits the entire state,” Holmberg said.
The Moody’s report, which came out in June, takes a look at the state’s economic prospects over both the short and long terms. As North Dakotans have come to expect, the prognosis is good:
“North Dakota remains the country’s top performer, thanks to an energy boom and its ripple effects,” the report declares.
“After a brief lull around the turn of the year, payroll employment is once again rising and growth exceeds that in all other states.”
But a few key weaknesses remain, and one of them is the serious lag between population growth in western North Dakota and the housing, utilities, transportation and other infrastructure that the growing population needs.
Much of the national attention that’s now coming to North Dakota dwells on this lag. It’s the conflict that fuels not only news stories on the Oil Boom - news stories that very often cast the state in an unflattering light - but also documentaries such as “The Overnighters,” which follows a Williston pastor who let newcomers to the region sleep in his church.
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The bad news is that not only has infrastructure in western North Dakota fallen behind, but also labor costs are such that catching up is sure to be very expensive.
The good news is that North Dakota at last has the money to do the job.
Grand Forks already is benefitting from the Oil Boom, both directly from industry-related growth and indirectly through projects such as UND’s new medical school building.
But the high rents, dirt roads and overcrowded schools out West are poor foundations for permanent prosperity. For the long haul, the Red River Valley’s best bet is to help “build out the transportation and utility infrastructure in the western oil patch,” exactly as Moody’s suggests.
