North Dakota governor orders cuts amid $1B budget shortfall
Source: Washington Post
BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple on Monday ordered deep cuts to government agencies and a massive raid on state savings to make up for a more than $1 billion budget shortfall due to depressed crude prices and a drop in oil drilling.
The state had more than $2 billion in various reserve accounts just one year ago, but oil prices — a key contributor to the state’s wealth — have taken a nosedive in the past year. The Legislature’s record-high $14.4 billion budget for the two years that began July 1 was built on oil prices and economic assumptions that have fallen “much greater than anyone would have predicted,” the governor said.
“After 15 years of receiving almost entirely good news about the growth in revenues for North Dakota, it seems strange to hear that things have gone in the other direction,” the Republican told state agency officials at the state Capitol in Bismarck.
To balance the budget, Dalrymple ordered agencies to cut their budgets by 4.05 percent, which will save the state about $245 million through the spending cycle. The governor also will take more than $497 million from the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund, a surplus stash of cash that has been built up over the past decade largely from past oil bounty. That fund will now have a balance of about $75 million.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/north-dakota-governor-orders-cuts-amid-1b-budget-shortfall/2016/02/01/94ba96ba-c918-11e5-b9ab-26591104bb19_story.html
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but in between, Minnesota is thriving. Gee, what could possibly be the difference? 
What did they think would happen to oil prices? Aren't they always telling us about the free market and supply/demand?
I hope someone tells us the Keystone XL pipeline would have solved this problem, mainly since the planned route doesn't even touch North Dakota.
