North Dakota senators vote to boost their own meal reimbursements after rejecting free school lunch bill

BISMARCK — Ten days after narrowly defeating a bill to provide free school lunches to low-income K-12 students, the North Dakota Senate approved legislation to increase the amount of money lawmakers and other state employees receive in meal reimbursements.

A leading Republican senator says employee meal compensation rates and free school lunch programs aren't related issues, but top Democrats see the chamber’s conflicting actions on the two bills as unjustifiable.

“I thought today’s vote was very self-serving,” said Senate Minority Leader Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo. “How can we vote for ourselves when we can’t vote for children?”

The Republican-dominated Senate in late March rejected House Bill 1491 by a single vote. The legislation, which had previously passed the House, would have dedicated $6 million over the next two school years to cover lunch costs for K-12 students with family incomes below double the federal poverty level. Children from families of four making less than $60,000 a year would have qualified.

A federal program already provides free meals to students from families making below 130% of the federal poverty level, so the state allocation nixed by senators would have applied to kids with family incomes between 130-200% of the poverty level.

The Senate voted 26-21 on Thursday, April 6, to pass Senate Bill 2124, which would raise the meal reimbursements received by state employees during travel within North Dakota. Lawmakers attending interim legislative meetings are eligible for the payments, but they do not receive meal reimbursements during biennial sessions.

If Gov. Doug Burgum signs the bill, state employees could collect up to $45 a day to pay for breakfast, lunch and dinner. That’s a hike of nearly 29% on the current reimbursement rate of $35. The added cost to the state would be nearly $1 million over the next two-year budget cycle.

Thirteen Republican senators, including Majority Leader David Hogue and Assistant Majority Leader Jerry Klein, voted to increase meal reimbursements after voting against the free school lunch bill.

Hogue declined to comment on the reason he voted for Senate Bill 2124 and against House Bill 1491. He said North Dakota lawmakers often are asked to devote state funds to expand federal programs, like the National School Lunch Program or Medicaid.

“I don’t have a good answer for you as (to) why we do it sometimes and not others,” Hogue said.

North Dakota Sen. David Hogue speaks at GOP headquarters in Bismarck before his election as Senate majority leader. Jeremy Turley / Forum News Service

Klein said he doesn’t think there’s “any correlation whatsoever” between the two bills, noting that lawmakers have to “treat each issue separately.”

State employees should get a higher per diem because inflation has made eating out much more expensive, he noted.

Klein said there is still money available and time left before lawmakers leave Bismarck to approve funding for school lunches. Last week, the House added the $6 million for free school lunches into a separate bill that has not yet returned to the Senate.

The other Republican senators who voted for Senate Bill 2124 and against House Bill 1491 are Randy Burckhard, David Clemens, Bob Erbele, Judy Estenson, Curt Kreun, Judy Lee, Randy Lemm, Larry Luick, Don Schaible, Terry Wanzek and Mike Wobbema.

Hogan said she was shocked and disappointed by Thursday’s vote. She dismissed Klein’s suggestion that the two bills are unrelated, noting that they would both spend taxpayer money to cover meals for North Dakotans.

The Senate’s inconsistent actions on the two bills will confuse the public and hurt the chamber’s credibility, Hogan said.

“There’s no underlying consistent philosophy to how we’re spending money in this session, and this is a classic example of it,” Hogan said.

Assistant House Minority Leader Zac Ista, a Grand Forks Democrat at the forefront of the push for free school lunches, said the Legislature should be looking to support both students and state employees.

“I think it shows (the Senate’s) priorities are a little out of whack when they have no problem increasing the meal reimbursement rate for ourselves but not for those families that may be struggling to make ends meet,” Ista said.