Voters averse to property taxes

By Jeff Beach | Deputy editor

By Jack Dura

Voters in two North Dakota counties Tuesday defeated ballot measures to raise property taxes beyond a 3% cap set by the Legislature last year. 

The measures in Traill and Divide counties came as an early sign of how some counties have grappled to cover rising costs under the limitation set by the Legislature last year.

Additionally, seven county measures for increased mill levies failed around the state; only one passed.

By Michael Standaert, North Dakota News Cooperative

North Dakotans see value in having data centers in the state, particularly if developers cover infrastructure costs, but remain split on whether they’d welcome them in their communities, a new North Dakota Poll has found. 

Poll respondents also said they were more welcoming to traditional data centers – those providing digital services such as messaging, GPS navigation, banking transactions and storage for things like hospital records – than they were data centers primarily used for powering artificial intelligence computations. 

Among those polled, 57% said they supported the development of traditional data centers, while 19% opposed and 24% were undecided. 

A total of 45% opposed development of artificial intelligence data centers in North Dakota, compared to 35% who supported that development, with 20% who remained undecided. 

North Dakota and President Donald Trump have tried to give farmers and truckers a break on diesel prices, but the effectiveness of their executive orders have been limited by a number of factors. 

North Dakota Monitor deputy editor Jeff Beach joins host Craig Blumenshine to discuss what farmers and researchers are seeing in the week’s episode of A Closer Look with the Monitor.

A Closer Look with the Monitor is a partnership with Prairie Public's Main Street.

By Jacob Orledge and Michael Achterling

An attempt to guarantee free school meals to K-12 students narrowly failed at the ballot box Tuesday, but the issue isn’t going away in North Dakota. 

Supporters and opponents of Measure 2, the defeated constitutional amendment, are looking ahead to next steps. Nearly 51% of voters rejected the measure, while about 49% supported it.

An advocate for free school meals in the Legislature said she plans to introduce legislation in 2027 to accomplish what Measure 2 failed to do.

By Jack Dura

Democrats made small gains in North Dakota’s Legislature Tuesday, flipping some seats in Fargo and Grand Forks to boost their tiny minority.

Republicans will keep their longtime control of the Legislature by supermajorities in the House and Senate. Seventy-five of 141 seats were on the ballot. Two incumbents, both Republicans, lost election.

By Jeff Beach

North Dakota voters have given U.S. Rep. Julie Fedorchak a second term in Congress.

Fedorchak led in a political rematch against Democratic-NPL U.S. House candidate Trygve Hammer when The Associated Press called the race at 8:56 p.m. Fedorchak finished with 57% of the vote Tuesday to Hammer’s 37% in complete but unofficial results.

In 2024, Fedorchak became the first woman elected to represent North Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives.

By Jacob Orledge

Native American communities experience some of the highest disparities in healthcare in the country. Tribal chairs are hoping to work with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who visited North Dakota Thursday, to remedy that. 

A major theme of the tribal chairs’ comments Thursday was the need for the federal government to provide the necessary resources to support local tribal solutions, not to impose solutions crafted in Washington, D.C. 

“We have survived generations of policies that attempted to diminish our identity, diminish our lands, and take our sovereignty,” said Lonna Street, chair of the Spirit Lake Nation.

By Jack Dura

The top U.S. health official visited a ranch near Bismarck Thursday where he talked about the importance of soil health for human health.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at a roughly 90-minute roundtable on regenerative agriculture at the Black Leg Ranch east of Bismarck. Reporters were not allowed in except for a 15-minute portion, during which Kennedy talked about how vital soil health is for the human gut, which he said dictates health, emotions, moods, energy levels and “our effectiveness in life.” 

“If we can keep that healthy, we can maintain public health. It’s hard to keep it healthy if the nutrients that are supposed to be in the soils are not making it into the plants, then onto our tables or our plates,” Kennedy said.

By Jeff Beach

Moves to provide help for farmers, truckers and others hit by high diesel fuel prices are having a limited effect in North Dakota.

For some farmers, loosening up restrictions on the use of lower-taxed diesel came too late and was complicated by farming in two states following different sets of rules.

North Dakota on Sept. 29 announced it would allow expanded use of a lower-taxed diesel from just off-road use to highways.

But highway use only accounts for about 5% to 15% of a typical farm’s diesel use, said Matthew Gammans, assistant professor in NDSU’s Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics.

By Mary Steurer

A North Dakota judge on Monday denied Greenpeace’s request for a new trial in the case brought against the organization by the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Greenpeace will now move forward with its appeal of the $345 million judgment entered against it earlier this year, the organization announced Monday. 

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