Transcript Highlights:

• West Texas, to the God of rural Texas, to the God of urban Texas.
• , otherwise known as Cactus Jack, and Governor Dolph Briscoe Jr. both of whom have left a lasting impact

Keywords: 1184, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• It was there in that rural farming community in New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley that she and my dad raised
• Whenever I hear adjourn in memories from my colleagues, I try to take from it not just the impact that

Keywords: 988, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• It's starting to impact enrollment as well for this fall.
• ><c> enrollment</c><00:20:55.360><c> as</c> it's starting to impact enrollment as it's starting to impact
• The impact to the students has been measurable.
• </c><00:45:11.200><c> Iowa,</c> enrollments we've seen in rural Iowa, enrollments we've seen in rural
• </c><01:08:12.480><c> and,</c> sort of costs are really impactful and, sort of costs are really impactful

Committee: Senate Finance

Keywords: 1191, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• ,</c> good for climate impact, good for climate impact, and<00:53:26.840><c> local</c><00:53:27.120><
• Marsh, I would like to hear more about the federal impact from the trade and tariff changes.
• How has that been impacting the flow of goods?
• locations where we can't land a rural locations where we can't land a large<01:14:57.240><c> jet.
• It truly is something that impacts the Commonwealth completely.

Keywords: 958, all

Summary: The task force met on October 14, confirmed a quorum, and adopted the September 16, 2025 minutes. Members then received a Kentucky Air National Guard 101 briefing from Brigadier General Bruce Bancroft, commander of the Kentucky Air National Guard, who described the Guard’s structure, missions, and statewide role. He emphasized that Kentucky is a single-wing state centered at Louisville’s 123rd Airlift Wing and highlighted several unique capabilities, including the Contingency Response Group, critical care air transport teams, medical detachment for chemical environments, explosive ordnance disposal, fatality search and recovery, and special tactics personnel. General Bancroft also discussed staffing and readiness, saying the Guard has 1,273 authorized positions, with a mix of AGR, Title 32, and Title 5 personnel. He noted that AGR positions are funded at about 96 percent, while technician positions are funded at about 53 percent, leaving the organization to operate at roughly 75 percent of authorized manpower overall. He said the wing converted from the C-130H to the C-130J in 2021 and completed the transition in about 2.5 years, ahead of the original three-year timeline. The briefing further covered the Guard’s operational tempo and community role. Bancroft said the unit has earned 21 Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards, has deployed about 500,000 days since 9/11 across 45 countries, and routinely supports federal and domestic missions. He described the C-130J’s tactical airlift, airdrop, and blacked-out operations as directly useful for disaster response in Kentucky, and he pointed to strong ties with UPS and other aviation employers. No votes or formal actions were taken beyond approval of the prior minutes.

Transcript Highlights:

• </c> impactful on those young individuals. impactful on those young individuals.
• on state revenues, two with material impact, and one with unknown impact.
• impact is difficult to determine impact impact is difficult to determine as<02:49:35.480><c> eliminating
• Section three has revenue impacts and appropriations impacts for years out, not this fiscal year.
• </c> potential impact on future budgets. potential impact on future budgets.

Keywords: 927, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• But this is a surcharge that directly impacts the library.
• Both independent cattle producers and consumers are being negatively impacted by the from.
• Both independent cattle producers and consumers are being negatively impacted by the U.S. not ensuring
• want to oppose any costly government mandates, any regulatory overhead that might have potential impacts
• And maybe I'm in rural Missouri, Monday through Friday, I'm driving into town.

Committee: House Corrections and Public Institutions

Keywords: 959, house, all

Transcript Highlights:

• certainly provide information on a county level, but I'm not as easily able to tell citizens the impacts
• district that misses that deadline and where they might end up with their levy, and now it might impact
• Minot Rural Fire, 5.66%.
• Minot Rural Fire, 5.66%.
• The line that the county is, that's the one that we can talk about and we can have an impact on.

Summary: The subcommittee of the Tax Reform and Relief Committee met to begin its study of the feasibility and desirability of revising the content of the real estate tax statement to improve property tax transparency. Legislative Council staff reviewed the study directive under House Bill 1176 and the statutory requirements for tax statements, including required line items such as true and full value, mill levy, legislative tax relief, primary residence credit, and the Legacy Fund portion of that credit. The Tax Department then explained how the current uniform statement is prescribed and approved, and noted that changes are typically driven by statute and implemented collaboratively with counties and vendors. County officials from the North Dakota Association of Counties described the full annual tax cycle, from county budgeting and valuation notices to budget hearing notices, levy certification, cap calculations, and final tax statement mailing. They emphasized that counties and auditors do extensive coordination with taxing districts and neighboring counties, and that the process is labor-intensive and often manual. Members discussed the limited public response to budget notices and tax statements, the difficulty of explaining the legislative tax relief line, the 3% cap and valuation issues, and whether more frequent assessments or different timing would improve understanding. Several members and witnesses noted that many taxpayers only engage when they receive their final bill, and that clarity may be more important than adding more detail. NDACO also presented a rough cost survey from eight counties, estimating an average tax statement cost of about 74 cents and a statewide total near $600,000 for printing and mailing tax statements alone, with outsourcing generally cheaper than in-house printing. Witnesses noted that House Bill 1176 added other mailings and notices, increasing county workload and cost beyond the statement itself. The committee then heard from software vendors, who explained how their systems handle tax billing, budget notices, valuation notices, primary residence credit processing, and tax levy calculations, and they identified the 1600/1685 primary residence credit and discount interaction as a current programming challenge. No votes were taken; the meeting was informational and focused on gathering testimony and identifying issues for possible future recommendations or bill drafts.

Transcript Highlights:

• With already limited resources in rural areas, this compounds housing instability and perpetuates cycles
• Um, sometimes we think about these funds going to help people in more urban areas, but in rural areas
• Um, sometimes we think about these funds going to help people in more urban areas, but in rural areas
• A testament to resilience and the impact of stable support.
• A testament to resilience and the impact of stable support.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• total number of people, by a very small amount, even though that's a small amount that does have an impact
• So that is one impact of complete count committees.
• It's no secret that the communities that come in the first and the highest tend to be rural, suburban
• They tend to be the most rural parts of the state: the Berkshires and Barnstable County are the two that
• I mean, some have got any; some of the more rural communities don't.

Committee: Senate Senate Committee on the Census

Keywords: 995, all

Summary: The committee held a hearing on census preparation, focusing first on testimony from U.S. Census Bureau staff James Whitehorn and Andrea Grace Johnson. They described the Bureau’s decade-long geographic and redistricting programs, including the Boundary and Annexation Survey, School District Review Program, Participant Statistical Area Program, and Local Update of Census Addresses (LUCA), along with the Block Boundary Suggestion Project and voting district collection. They emphasized that Massachusetts has been a strong partner in these efforts and explained how the Bureau is using updated street data, building footprints, machine learning, and change detection to improve address lists and track new housing. Whitehorn also reviewed the 2030 redistricting data program, the legal basis for it under PL 94-171, the role of state nonpartisan liaisons, and the expected timeline for data delivery. He noted that OMB’s revised race and ethnicity standards will merge those questions into one and add a Middle Eastern/North African category. Committee members asked about the new standards, state contacts, and how boundary updates are submitted, and the witnesses said they would provide the slide deck and contact information. Wendy Underhill and Helen Brewer of NCSL then testified about why census preparation matters for states, stressing its impact on data, federal funding, and political representation. They outlined optional steps states can take before 2030, including staying in touch with Census Bureau staff, identifying state and local personnel involved in census work, supporting local participation in Bureau programs, and creating complete count committees or commissions. They cited Massachusetts’s prior complete count committee and grantmaking efforts as an example and said such efforts can improve self-response and overall accuracy. They also noted that state legislatures can act as conveners and trusted messengers, and they discussed broader issues such as privacy protections, differential privacy, budget uncertainty, and the possibility of future litigation or a citizenship question. Secretary of State William Galvin then gave extended remarks on Massachusetts’s 2020 census experience and the need to prepare early for 2030. He said the state faced major challenges in 2020 from the pandemic, litigation, and rhetoric about citizenship, and that Massachusetts relied heavily on local records, university data, and community outreach to document residents, especially students and non-native-born populations. He argued that the state should strengthen local recordkeeping now through LUCA, annual resident lists, assessors’ and zoning records, and other local data sources, and he urged support for a proposed $500,000 appropriation for census-related grants and technical assistance. Galvin said better preparation is needed because housing patterns, population shifts, and local administrative capacity have changed since 2020, and he emphasized that the goal is to improve the completeness of the records the Census Bureau will use in 2030.

Transcript Highlights:

• Despite being the second smallest state in the nation, Delaware continues to make a significant impact
• behalf of the men and women whose hard work, dedication, and resilience keep food on our tables and rural
• thousands of jobs, strengthening local economies, and contributing to the vitality and resilience of our rural
• communities. ...local economies and contributing to the vitality and resilience of our rural communities
• I've had the privilege of serving DANA for nine years, and I've seen firsthand the extraordinary impact

Summary: The Senate reconvened, read committee reports, and assigned House Bill 89 with House Amendment 1 and House Bill 393 with House Amendment 1 to the Senate Finance Committee. It then adopted Consent Calendar 64, which included resolutions recognizing Take Our Children to Work Day, Juneteenth, National Farmers Day, Invisible Disabilities Week, Stonewall Uprising Remembrance Day, National Nonprofit Day, and two property-assessment working group resolutions. The calendar passed by a unanimous roll call, and the chamber heard remarks supporting Juneteenth, Delaware agriculture, invisible disabilities awareness, and the nonprofit sector. The Senate passed the fiscal year 2026 and 2027 revenue estimates in Senate Joint Resolution 16 and Senate Joint Resolution 17, and approved the fiscal year 2027 operating budget in Senate Bill 335 after extended debate on budget growth, recurring costs, health care, education, public safety, retiree obligations, and fiscal restraint. It also passed Senate Bill 336, the one-time supplemental appropriation bill, which includes one-time investments such as a $100 million transition toward a weighted education funding formula, election support, early childhood education, classroom projects, lead remediation, and campaign finance modernization. Several members praised the budget process and staff, while others cautioned against future spending growth. Among policy bills, the Senate passed House Bill 369 to codify the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety, House Bill 268 to increase penalties for assaulting postal workers, House Bill 374 to require workforce reporting on large public works projects, Senate Bill 253 with House Amendment 1 to standardize school bullying parental-notification procedures, Senate Substitute 1 for Senate Bill 342 to modernize the Delaware Motion Picture and Television Development Commission, House Bill 402 to extend Clean Air Act Title V permit fees, and Senate Bill 346 with Senate Amendment 1 to streamline Environmental Appeals Board timelines. The Senate also began consideration of House Bill 293, which would add hate crimes to the Victims’ Compensation Assistance Program, but the transcript cuts off before its vote is shown.

Transcript Highlights:

• , and decisions that have generational impacts, were not in the position description.
• And now very high with high, huge-impact projects.
• And again, their financial impact or project analysis tools are scarce.
• It can't unduly impact fish and wildlife, various criteria such as that.
• So potential impact is broad and deep.

Summary: The committee met in Grand Forks, approved the February 26 minutes by voice vote, and recessed for a tour of Minnkota Power Cooperative before hearing presentations on large energy consumers and related infrastructure issues. The first presentation, from the North Dakota Transmission Authority, focused on the need for better local decision-making tools for counties, townships, and planning and zoning boards facing major projects such as transmission lines, pipelines, data centers, wind, solar, and large-scale agriculture. The speaker urged more objective, data-driven analysis, noted that local officials often have limited time and resources, and said the state should support training and tools through groups like the League of Cities and the Association of Counties. Members asked about proactive outreach, data center ordinances, and how to avoid subsidizing large loads or causing reliability problems. The Division of Air Quality then discussed environmental oversight of data centers, emphasizing that North Dakota’s air remains among the cleanest in the country and that the agency’s role is limited to air, water discharge, stormwater, and waste—not zoning or water use. The presentation explained that data centers generally have low direct emissions but may rely on diesel backup generators when the grid is unavailable, which creates air-quality concerns; the department said it is requiring air monitors at some projects to collect real-world data and guide future decisions. Members asked about generator emissions, misinformation, monitoring costs, and staffing succession, and the agency said permit applicants pay for the monitors while the state handles some QA work. The Department of Water Resources followed with an overview of North Dakota water law and data center water use. The director explained the state’s prior-appropriation system, the public-interest review for permits, and the large overall water supply available from groundwater and the Missouri River. He said most proposed data centers use closed-loop cooling systems and generally request relatively small amounts of water compared with other uses such as power plants, irrigation, and oilfield operations, and that even a worst-case data center scenario would use only a tiny fraction of Missouri River flow. Questions focused on downstream impacts and comparisons to fracking water use, and the director said the state’s use is too small to materially affect downstream users. Later, McLean County State’s Attorney Ladd-Erickson testified online about data center zoning and permitting. He asked the committee to have Legislative Council gather information on how other states handle data center permitting and to keep the topic on the interim agenda. He argued that local zoning should remain local, but said counties lack the technical and legal resources to manage complex reclamation or bonding requirements and that state-level enabling legislation may be more appropriate. He also recommended eliminating tax incentives for data centers. The committee chair said staff would prepare a document on other states’ zoning and permitting approaches. After a lunch recess, the committee reconvened at the EERC, where CEO Charles Gorecki gave an overview of the center’s 75 years of work and its role in oil and gas, carbon management, and other energy technologies, highlighting enhanced oil recovery and carbon dioxide utilization as major opportunities for future production and tax revenue.

Transcript Highlights:

• or might impact other areas of the law as well.
• </c> mandates that don't work for our rural mandates that don't work for our rural nursing<02:38:40.000
• </c><02:39:04.319><c> communities</c> facilities in these rural communities facilities in these rural
• Right now, we are our rural communities.
• Anyone in this chamber knows that small rural nursing homes and assisted living facilities close.

Keywords: 1187, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• These are not just individual impacts. This impacts families and communities.
• These are not just individual impacts.<00:16:35.519><c> This</c><00:16:35.759><c> impacts</c><00:16:36.240
• ><c> families</c><00:16:36.639><c> and</c> impacts.
• This impacts families and impacts.
• ><c> will</c><00:19:12.320><c> bring</c> rural Minnesota town, we will bring rural Minnesota town, we

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• Really is impactful when we hear from people that's directly impacted.
• And so, keeping a structure like this, I think is really impactful.
• We've seen how impactful it can be around ending veterans homelessness.
• Um and I think we just have impactful.
• 18:47.280><c> around</c><00:18:47.600><c> ending</c> impactful it can be around ending impactful it can

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• Substitute Senate Bill 6843 extends the property tax exemption for relief for residents impacted by the
• We've talked in this committee earlier this year about the value that granges provide to rural communities
• At this point, we are looking at the fiscal impact of making this exclusion.
• Now that they are no longer twins, that means that this bill does not have a fiscal impact, whereas 2257
• So I just want to check in, see what that does, see its impact on the shift, and just make sure we're

Bills: SB5994 , SB6244

Committee: House Finance

Keywords: timber tax, school funding, levy failure, tax distribution, education funding, tax exemption, agriculture, hazardous substances, crop protection, warehousing, 904, all

Transcript Highlights:

• Reductions in legacy support will diminish that impact statewide.
• This would have significant impact on our programming.
• We're a very small agency, but I think we have a big impact here in the state.
• So, Legacy has a really big impact on how we run the zoo. So, Mr.
• And they mean real projects that impact people.

Bills: HF2563

Committee: House Legacy Finance

Keywords: HF2563, legacy finance bill, Legacy Amendment, outdoor heritage fund, clean water fund, parks and trails fund, arts and cultural heritage fund, Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, Clean Water Council, Minnesota legacy funds, habitat conservation, prairie restoration, wetland restoration, forest conservation, riparian buffers, water quality, groundwater protection, drinking water, septic systems, watershed planning

Transcript Highlights:

• I'm trying to minimize the impact to Minnesota.
• I'm trying to minimize the impact to Minnesota.
• I'm trying to minimize the impact to Minnesota.
• </c><01:26:05.760><c> to</c> I'm trying to minimize the impact to I'm trying to minimize the impact to
• does this impact in our state?

Bills: HF3901 , HF962 , HF4428 , HF4478 , HF1775

Committee: House Judiciary Finance and Civil Law

Keywords: foster care, ombudsperson, investigative powers, children's rights, complaint process, HF4428, Medical Assistance, Medicaid, community engagement, work requirement, work mandate, employment requirement, community service, 80 hours, half-time student, income threshold, federal minimum wage, eligibility verification, benefit suspension, benefit termination

Transcript Highlights:

• </c><00:26:02.320><c> We</c> will impact all areas of the state.
• We will impact all areas of the state.
• </c> mitigate the impact of that. mitigate the impact of that.
• Our proposal would impact around 1.75% of spending.
• I'm talking rural around the state?

Committee: House Human Services Finance and Policy

Keywords: 1183, house

Transcript Highlights:

• It's particularly impacting elderly West Virginians, and putting some of these changes in place I think
• Further language is added detailing valuation determinations when a high-impact data center or power
• This is a real game changer for our very rural communities as well, who need this access.
• Can you explain to me how the impact of them not having an EMS levy?
• ...how the impact of them not having an EMS levy would they still be eligible for funds?

Committee: Senate Finance

Keywords: 994, senate, all

Transcript Highlights:

• think about it, and the good senator from the southwest has talked a lot about some of the negative impacts
• We have one bill, House Bill 122, Wyoming Rural Health Transformation Program. >> Thank you, Senator
• We have one bill, House Bill 122,<01:07:18.000><c> Wyoming</c><01:07:18.480><c> Rural</c><01:07:18.799
• ><c> Health</c><01:07:19.359><c> Transformation</c> 122, Wyoming Rural Health Transformation 122, Wyoming
• Rural Health Transformation Program.

Keywords: 916, all