The Appropriations - Education and Environment Division voted to advance House Bill 1319, clearing funding for a stand-alone website intended to publish information about North Dakota's Legacy Fund and make fund data easier for the public to search.

The bill would authorize up to roughly $476,000 for the website build and approximately $55,000 for operating costs covering the next biennium, according to discussion in the committee. Interim Retirement Investment Office Executive Director Jody Smith told the panel the project's fiscal note ranged from about $280,000 on the low end to $500,000 at the high end and that the agency provided the higher estimate "with an abundance of caution." Smith said the work likely would roll out in phases so not all costs would occur in year one.

The bill responds to public requests for more user-friendly access to fund information, Smith said. "If you go on our website, you have to look for the information. It is out there. It's all on our website in a PDF format," she said, adding constituents often find the PDF files cumbersome to search. The office showed committee members the Oslo sovereign-wealth-fund website as a model for searchable data and said North Dakota Information Technology (NDIT) lacks the in-house expertise to build the tool without outside consultants.

Committee members pressed the office on which information could be published. Senator Michael Connolly (Sen.) said he had received a large open-records response that included categories of investments withheld as proprietary, and that those withheld categories totaled about $3,100,000,000. "They put them in categories and it was about $3,100,000,000 of monies that ... we are not allowed to see," Connolly said.

Smith said the agency's interpretation of state and federal law and existing contracts limits disclosure of certain commingled or proprietary holdings and that the office has requested an attorney general's opinion to clarify what must be released. "There's been an attorney general's opinion request," she said, and the AG's office is working on guidance that could determine whether the state must disclose some of the previously withheld information. Smith warned that some fund managers have told the state they would terminate contracts if required to disclose proprietary holdings.

Senator Tom Thomas urged the office to design the site both for transparency and public engagement, suggesting the site could highlight how Legacy Fund earnings are spent and include a running tally of the fund's value. "I see this website ... not only for transparency, but also for, I mean promoting that and letting people know what, why we're allocating X amount of dollars every year to grow this fund," Thomas said.

On the question of operations and maintenance, Smith said the office plans to hire an outside vendor for the build and initial upkeep; the agency previously removed a proposed FTE from its budget in favor of consultant support. Smith said the office expects to automate some of the reporting once a new internal fiscal IT system is in place, which she estimated could take several years.

The committee formally moved the bill forward with a "do pass" recommendation. The committee recorded ayes from Chairman Sorvaugh, Senator Connolly, Senator Thomas and Senator Shively; Senator Meyer was absent. The committee chair directed Senator Connolly to carry the bill to the full committee.

What the bill does and what it does not: Committee discussion made clear the bill would fund development and initial operation of a public-facing website for Legacy Fund information and related links (for example, to legislative and budget documents). It does not itself change disclosure law; whether the website can publish specific holdings now withheld under current contract interpretations depends on forthcoming attorney general guidance.

Votes at a glance: The panel voted to advance House Bill 1319 with a recorded vote of four ayes, zero nays, and one absent. The motion on the floor was recorded as "do pass."