Session Starts Tomorrow | Video

Jessica Roose | 1/7/2013

In less than 24-hours, lawmakers will meet at the capitol for the start of the new legislative session. Between the oil boom, population increase and budget surplus the session is sure to keep legislators busy.

They`ve arrived in the Capital City and they aren`t wasting any time getting to work.

"I`m always ready. This is my 11th session and I`m ready to go," said House Majority Leader, Rep. Al Carlson (R).

It`s sure to be an interesting one as lawmakers try and figure out what to do with a significant surplus in the bank.

"Because of that we`ve got all kinds of people looking for things to get for them this session. We need to be smart with how we spend the money," Carlson said.

The Governor gave his proposal last month, but it will be up to the legislature to take look at it and agree on one.

"There`s always differences in the end, but that`s our job. His job is to propose and our job is to analyze and finally pass the spending measures into place," Carlson said.

"Taxes. There`s disagreements there, there`s no question. I think daycare. Providing access to childcare, especially in western North Dakota. It`s going to be important. The governor identified five million for daycare. That`s a first step but it doesn`t go far enough," said Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Mac Schneider (D).

Both Carlson and Schneider agree that the first order of business should be to address the needs associated with the oil boom out west.

"The past two sessions we really haven`t met those needs. We`ve been playing catch up and I`d like to see us get ahead of the game, look around the corner and make sure that those communities have the resources they need when they need it as they arise," Schneider said.

Other topics sure to come up include health care and property taxes.

The session will kick off with the Governor`s State of the State address tomorrow. We will be airing that live starting at 1:00 p.m.

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