BISMARCK — A veto by North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong aimed at a single line of a budget bill ended up removing an entire funding bucket designated for affordable housing, a move the administration said was a “mistake.”
In a veto letter published Monday, May 19, Armstrong
that was supposed to go to a liaison to address homelessness in tribal communities, calling on the state for more “long-term” solutions to the issue.
However, instead of only line-item vetoing the $150,000, as discussed in the letter, the entire section was nixed, including $25 million for affordable housing initiatives and $10 million in homeless services.
“Governor’s Office staff met with Legislative Council this morning to discuss options for correcting our markup error on SB 2014 to reflect the clear intent stated in the line-item veto message, Armstrong said in a Thursday, May 22 release. “If necessary, we will call the Legislature back to ensure the appropriate funding is delivered, but we hope to avoid the expense of a special session.
“This was an honest mistake, and we will fix it.”
The section containing the $35 million for housing needs, section 7, was part of the North Dakota Industrial Commission’s budget, or
North Dakota’s Legislative Council confirmed to Forum News Service that the bill it received Monday, May 19, which was also sent to the Secretary of State, did not contain section 7 — meaning the $35 million is no longer a part of the overall budget.
Of the state’s $20.3 billion budget,
the allocation was the only funding to specifically target housing needs.
Now, instead of the state
spending approximately one-third of what Armstrong recommended
it spend on affordable housing initiatives, it is currently slated to spend nothing.
Click the image above to view the full PDF document.
Armstrong’s administration said the dollars will be reinstated, even if it means the Legislature has to convene for a special session. According to the Legislative Council, special sessions cost the state roughly $65,000 per day.
If legislative leadership decides to meet and override the veto, which would involve reinstating the $150,000 and the $35 million, at least one of the 80 legislative days allowed by the constitution would be lost. Because the Legislature used 74 days during the regular 2025 session, there are six days left for a special session.
But if the governor calls upon the body to convene, the time wouldn’t count toward the constitutional limit.
It takes two-thirds of the Legislature to approve a veto override.
To reintroduce the bill with the $35 million and not the $150,000 would take at least three days to be approved by both chambers.
Working around a special session would “come under some degree of legal scrutiny,” said John Bjornson, director of Legislative Council.
In 2018,
the governor “has no power to withdraw a veto.”
“It’s the risk of setting a precedent where a small number of legislators would be agreeing with the executive to do something that the entire body may not necessarily be in alignment with, as well,” Bjornson added.
The Housing Finance Agency, the entity in charge of the lost funding, deferred to the Governor’s Office when asked for a comment.
A few hours after Armstrong’s office released the statement Thursday morning, during a regularly scheduled Industrial Commission meeting, the governor assured the housing agency that the state is not getting rid of the funding.
“I have a very talented staff, and I’m very proud of them 99.9% of the time. They, however, apparently forgot their coloring skills from grade school,” Armstrong said. “We inadvertently made the mistake, which is on us and our office.
“We are talking to everybody we can from Legislative Council, our lawyers, everybody, to figure out if there is a legal way in which we can solve this without calling them (the Legislature) back into a special session and costing the taxpayer dollars,” he continued. “However, if that is the only alternative, it will be exactly what I am doing because we are not getting rid of the housing finance funding.”
Thursday evening, Armstrong’s office requested an opinion from Attorney General Drew Wrigley on whether the intent outlined in a veto letter can override “the visual pen marks on the bill.”
The request obtained by Forum News Service argues “the veto message reflecting the objections serves as the official notice from the governor, whereas the physical vetoed bill merely serves as a color-coded visual aid.”
If Wrigley determines the letter can override a mistake on the “color-coded visual aid,” then the Legislature would not have to meet to fix said mistake.
It could be challenged and sent to the courts to decide, according to Wrigley.
“It’s intriguing,” he said, adding the opinion could set a precedent. “One of these is right, they can’t both be right. It can’t be both.”
He said it’s a “clear question” of what officially constitutes a veto: the letter’s written intent or the markings on the bill itself.
Wrigley called the governor “wise” to “not just go along with an assessment made by Legislative Council,” because the Attorney General’s Office has the “authority and expertise” to determine if a special session is needed to fix the error.
According to Wrigley, the request has taken top priority, and an opinion will be issued in the coming weeks.
Legislative leaders are likely to discuss how to proceed during a Legislative Management meeting scheduled for Wednesday, May 28, in Fargo.
