(bright music) - This is "North Dakota Legislative Review" on "Prairie Public."

I'm Dave Thompson.

Thanks for joining us.

Our guest today is Representative Austin Foss.

He's from Fargo, and thank you for being here.

- Thank you so much for having me, Dave.

- Well, let me just ask you, you are a new legislator.

This is your first session?

- Yes.

- What do you think so far?

- I've really enjoyed the experience actually.

I think this is my wheelhouse.

I really love working with people.

I mean, I can't say that every day is great, you know.

It's been definitely a roller coaster.

There's some really good days and some fairly bad days.

But I've learned a lot.

I've learned a lot.

I mean, this is just a major, basically North Dakota 101, right?

- Well, I've gotta ask you, because why did you decide to run for legislature?

- Yeah, I mean, I think there was...

There was an opening in our district.

And I just felt that I was the best person to fill that opening.

I think that our voice, especially in a superminority, is still, well, you know, it's well-meaning in this state and we need to be here because there are quite a few people that hold our viewpoints in this state.

And they might not necessarily be from our district, but they see us as representing them as well.

And I wanted to make sure that they are represented.

- So it sounds like one of the pluses is you get to work with people and work on issues?

- Yes.

- What do you see are minuses?

- Oh, minuses, as far as just being a legislator?

I think you're really exposing yourself, right?

Like you are very public-facing.

I mean, we have our phone numbers on there.

I mean, anybody can contact me day or night.

Which is great, I mean, for constituents, but it's also, you have to have some thick skin.

Sometimes you're gonna get calls or emails that are less than nice.

And you just have to brush that off and realize that you have a job to do, and you have a constituency to represent, and you just need to keep going.

- Is it hard to keep the noise out from social media, from other things?

- Yes, I personally try to avoid social media as much as possible.

Even when I'm posting something, I usually do not read the comments because our brains are wired to remember the bad things more than the good things, right?

And even if there were a hundred comments on a post and 99 of them were good, I'm gonna remember that bad one.

So I just try to avoid it as much as possible.

- So tell me about the legislation that you've introduced and what's happened to it.

- Yeah, yeah, so I introduced three bills this session.

One was actually giving legislative lead protections to legislators.

And so because term limits are now enacted, we will have a harder time recruiting people to join the legislator.

And so I wanted to introduce legislation that would make that easier for people that are currently employed.

And so this would require employers to give leave, just like they give leave for maternity leave or military leave to legislators.

It did not pass the House.

And so I think by next session, I wanna work with the chambers who were against it and try and find a solution that we both like to make sure that we do have good candidates that are employed right now because we're a citizen legislature.

Another bill that I put forward is requiring school boards to have a teacher representative, a non-voting teacher representative.

And I've just heard from many teachers in my constituency and in other places too that they just do not feel heard within their school board.

And some school boards do have the correct channels for teachers to go through and voice their concerns, but some don't.

And I was trying to just make that uniform throughout the state, and that also didn't pass the House.

And I might work with those in opposition on that one too to bring back.

And then the third one was actually from a constituent who unfortunately, in our century code right now, there are certain obligations that landlords have to give to tenants.

And one of those obligations is reasonable heat.

And I was just clarifying and defining what reasonable heat is.

And that would be 68 degrees from September to April.

The House did pass it, the Senate thought it was overreach, and so it didn't pass the Senate too.

So oh for three this session.

But I've learned a lot and I know how to move forward.

- Well, you've learned some tricks and maybe some hints about what you can bring to the next session.

- Yes, and I know who to talk to now.

And it honestly brings up an interesting point that we get elected in November, right?

We basically have a month and a half before the session begins for new legislators to figure out how this process works, right?

Figure out who is in this process that we need to talk to and how to pass legislation.

And that doesn't give us a lot of time, right?

And so you're scrambling to create legislation, and it would be interesting to see because the bill to go to yearly sessions just failed in the House.

But I think it'd be interesting to keep our every other year schedule, but switching that to even years to give a year and a half for new legislators to, or I guess a year to actually like learn the process and learn who their other legislators are, who they have to talk to to bring.

And I think you see much better legislation coming out of freshmen.

- It is funny you mentioned that because there were a couple of times that was talked about in the legislature, never got any traction.

Because they think you're elected and immediately come to Bismarck for the session.

There was a way that they were trying to provide some OJT or just get familiar with how the lay of the land is.

- Right, right, yeah.

And I think it would be nice because again, it was a huge North Dakota 101 huge learning experience.

But if I had a year under my belt before that, that'd be great.

- So what are the issues that are most top of mind to you right now?

- Yeah, so what we have left in this session are huge is the property tax bills, the ESA bills.

And we brought up before when we were talking the state hospital as well.

I mean, that's a huge issue too.

I think the number one issue that I heard from constituents when I was door knocking was property tax.

I mean, people are fed up with their high property tax, especially senior citizens who have fixed incomes when they just keep seeing their property tax rise, but their incomes are staying stagnant.

And so that was on the top of their mind.

And I think this legislative body will pass some sort of relief, a little bit of reform, not a whole lot of reform, but some sort of relief.

Do I think the bill, I mean truthfully, there's one bill that I think is the frontrunner in the three.

Is it perfect?

No.

Is it a pretty good step forward?

I think so.

- Yeah, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

- Exactly, exactly.

- So you think that might be, and I'm been hearing from a lot of legislators saying that might be one of the last two bills that gets worked on?

- Yes, yes, for sure, yeah.

I mean, that will probably go till the last day, I'm guessing, will be that discussion, because the House and the Senate have two different thoughts on how that'll work.

- Well, what about caps?

What about property tax caps?

- Yes, yeah, that is I think the huge sticking point for a lot of people.

And I've said before, I think there has to be some buy-in from localities on if we are providing this relief that they can't just go rampant in their spending.

But I also see their side of, especially Fargo, I mean, we are growing at an exponential rate, and is 3% even enough?

I'm not sure.

And I think the Senate, I'm not sure if they went with the 2% or not, but they were even thinking about lowering that.

I like that there is a certain amount of flexibility in there that the constituent or the body that the political subs vote from can actually bring forth some sort of a legislation, I would say, to get rid of those caps.

And we can vote on those as citizens.

And so that flexibility is nice in there.

I think there are some political subs that still don't think that's enough, or they think that's too big of a hurdle.

And I have sympathy for that too.

- Yeah, you're talking about Cass County and Brule County, they're counties that you could levy sales tax, and have levied sales taxes.

- There are counties like Slope, which all you've got is property taxes.

- Right, exactly, exactly.

I think it could potentially be killer for these smaller communities, but I also do think that it's easier in a smaller community to get that information out there.

You're all neighbors, you're all friends, right?

It's like, "Hey, we need new roads in Hatton where I'm from, we need new roads."

Like, "Hey, we need to remove this cap because we just need that."

And I think it's an easier sell to them than a city of Fargo that has a hundred thousand people.

- Well, we talked about Fargo and the growth.

What are your workforce issues?

And is childcare still an issue?

- Yes, childcare is still a major issue.

So actually, the conference committee that I am a part of offers businesses within the state of North Dakota a corporate income tax credit for providing childcare contributions to their employees.

And so this credit that we just amended would actually be up to $500.

And we also made that a little flexible to do 10 miles from the border too, because it is a huge issue in Fargo.

I mean, you have to secure a spot before you're even pregnant in Fargo right now.

We just do not have enough childcare in our city.

And so some people may have to go to Moorhead for that too, which also Moorhead doesn't have a lot of spots.

So it's a huge issue.

There's just not enough of it, and it's so expensive.

And so I think this is at least a small way that we can incentivize people to come to this state and work because their employer is providing this contribution.

And again, it gives families a way to actually pay for childcare.

- I know with the development of these data centers, we're getting more people in like Ellendale and perhaps into northwestern North Dakota.

And really, childcare is at a premium.

- Oh, yes, I mean, I don't see it not being an issue anytime soon, which is great for the state.

I mean, that means we have more kids, right?

And that means we don't have a dying population.

- Along with that, how about affordable housing?

Is that a real issue too?

- Oh yeah.

Especially in my district as well.

We do not have enough housing in this state, in our city, in my constituency, in my county, in this state, and across the board, right?

A affordable housing is a very broad term because what's affordable to one person is different from another person.

But just median income housing right now is just at such a low amount.

And there is some funding that is going to be available for grants for affordable housing.

Along with that also, homeless grants as well that I believe appropriations in the Senate maybe just passed.

And so it's great.

It's a great first step.

I don't think it's enough.

It's not enough money.

But I think that's a great first step in that we're providing capital for these projects.

I think the issue is still going to be how are we gonna build it, right?

Where are we gonna build it?

There is a lot of restrictive zoning codes within the city of Fargo within all of our cities that don't allow for affordable housing to be a part of some communities.

And whether that's nimbyism or people are worried about their housing costs or their housing affordability, it's a multitude of issues that people don't want these projects in their community.

But we need them.

We need them.

People need housing, and what we see, the consequences of that, and especially in my district, is our homeless population is that an all-time high.

And that's just sad to see that we are such a state of abundance, right?

But when it comes to housing, not so much.

- For those of us who don't live in Fargo, let's just talk about what your district represents, where are you?

- Yes, yeah, so District 44 would be downtown Fargo and North Fargo.

- And I can tell you from experience, because our headquarters are in Fargo, that the homeless issue is very serious.

- Right, right, and it's been on top of mind of many people in Fargo for some years now.

I was part of the Downtown Neighborhood Association for many years and still am a part of it.

And our number one issue is livability within our community.

And we have always maintained that our homeless population are our neighbors too, they deserve the same respect as anyone else and they need the services that they need.

And unfortunately, we just don't have enough of them right now.

- So it sounds like it might take a partnership, state and local governments or county governments to trying to get together to solve these kind of problems.

- Exactly, exactly.

And there was allotted some money to move and renovate the Engagement Center within downtown.

Whether that moves to another neighborhood or not, I'm not sure, but just to at least study it and make sure that we are providing the services that these individuals need because I think both sides can agree that the current location is not ideal.

The current amount of services is also not ideal.

And that's also the next step with this is not just moving that center, but we actually need to support it as well.

- Yes.

Well, let me ask you about a local Fargo issue.

And you have approval voting, and that was a major discussion, and apparently you're gonna lose approval voting now too.

- Yeah, that one hurt.

That one hurt.

I do not know why there is a handful of legislators that just cannot handle Fargo having local control.

And it's frustrating.

We voted on approval voting by a pretty large margin.

It's just, it's a better voting system for the processes that we have.

I mean, candidates were getting or becoming part of the city commission with like 12% of the vote.

I mean that might be an exaggeration, but it was very, very low.

And with approval voting, you can vote on as many commission candidates as you would like that you approve of.

And so they have a larger majority of the vote within our city.

And that just makes sense to me.

It could change now that there's a push to change our commission to a council with wards, which would change that sort of mentality with approval voting.

But it still doesn't change it for like mayor.

I mean, a mayoral candidate might get 10, 20% of the vote and win, and that's just wrong to me.

- In a way, it's almost so as if you're winning with 10%, there are a lot of people who want to run.

You have some people who are interested in local government.

- Oh, yes, and we've had, I think the last election where the mayor was up, I believe there were at least a dozen candidates, I believe.

So it's great, it's great to see the civic engagement, but then you get a smaller percentage of the vote without approval voting.

- Now, do you have any thoughts about a new state hospital?

- I think we can all agree that the facilities that are currently available just are not up to snuff, right.

As an architect, I can attest to, you know, it needs to be upgraded or renovated.

I mean, truthfully, we just need a new facility, right?

But right, there's a balance there.

There's a balance.

We cannot institutionalize everyone.

And I don't think that is what we're trying to do with a new state hospital.

I think we want a new state hospital for those who can't seek other care within their communities, but we also want to give the care within our communities more support as well.

And I think that has to go hand in hand.

It's not an either or, it has to be both.

- Multi-pronged approach basically.

- Exactly, exactly.

- Would you think like conventional wisdom now is that's gonna be one of the maybe last three issues that's gonna be decided.

- Right.

- That and property tax.

- Right, you're right.

Yeah, I just, I hope, again, I hope they take a multi-pronged attack on it.

I hope it's not an either or issue.

And we'll have to see.

- Did you get involved in a discussion about truth in sentencing and the whole prison system?

- Yes, I mean, I know, you know, very surface level knowledge of it, but I just truly believe in empathy.

It's how I vote.

It's how I present myself.

And I just do not think that that bill had any sort of empathy in it.

And I don't think mandatory minimums and mandatory sentencing fixes the problem.

And the major problem we have right now is our jails are full, and keeping them full and placing more people in it for longer to me does not fix that problem.

- And these people are going to get out of jail at some time and they want to be part of the community again.

So that does take some work.

- Right, right, and that's why I think there are three kind of reentry better approaches to that.

And I think we'll see how those, because I think, so far, I think all three of them will pass.

And so we'll see if that approach is that more of the rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

Also, the DOCR budget just passed, I believe, in the House or the Senate to have a study on what the truth in sentencing measures, how they would actually affect the system.

And you know what, I applaud that, because I would love to see the data on it because I think we are getting very competing narratives on it.

And so I'd love to see how that study turns out.

- So that's another question when you talk about competing narratives.

Legislators in North Dakota don't have staff, it's basically up to you to kind of decide what's the right course of action and to kind of weigh everything.

And that's a real big part of what you do.

- It's huge because you're exactly right.

I mean, we do everything.

It's so funny to me when people call me and it's me.

They're like, "Oh, it's you?

It's not one of your staff?"

I'm like, "No, this is it, you got me."

But yeah, it's hard.

And a thing that I've learned is you just, you rely on so many individuals.

I rely on my seatmate Carla a lot.

She's been a great mentor for me.

I rely on our caucus, I rely on our committee members.

I rely on our constituents, on people who are experts in this field.

- And you don't have a staff that you can turn to and say, "Can we do some research on this?"

A lot of that's gonna be you looking at a computer screen.

- Right, exactly, exactly.

I will say AI has helped a lot with that.

They do a lot.

It's an incredible tool that we can use to gain information.

Do double check your sources, but it's a great way to start.

- Well, yeah, AI is useful if you want to summarize things or things like that.

- Yep, exactly.

- So we have a couple minutes left.

I've got a few different questions for you.

I like to ask everybody, 80 miles per hour, yay or nay?

- Yay, I feel like I go 80 miles an hour now.

So yeah, I think I don't see five miles an hour creating roads that are more hazardous, but I hope I'm right.

- Well, you had talked a little bit about annual sessions.

Would you like to go to an annual session?

- I think I'd like to try it.

I think my employer right now is being very, very flexible giving me four months out of this year off.

I think it would be easier for them to do two months every year.

But I'd like to try it.

- And a Fargo issue, which actually is a regional issue, this Red River Valley water supply project.

That's still out there.

- Right, yeah, they have I think one section left, and they need funding for it.

And I mean, we need it.

We need the project especially for my constituency.

- And I'm gonna ask this because I haven't had a chance to ask anybody, are you concerned about some of the oil prices dropping and maybe not having as much money to work with?

- Oh, I think we will be back for a special session for sure.

I think the budget that we pass right now is going to be in flux from a federal grant standpoint and from an oil price standpoint.

- Yeah, that's the other unknown, the X factor is what is going to be cut from the federal level in terms of grants.

- Oh, I mean, we've already seen a lot of cuts, and I think this is only a beginning.

- Anything that you can share at this point that are really concerning to you?

- You know, again, it's just surface knowledge.

But I think that our Health and Human Services budget was definitely affected already from some DHHS grants that have been canceled.

But again, it's because there's so many, and so much that is happening right now.

I mean, I don't even know what the full effect is.

- One final question.

What's your date for the ending of the session?

- I think we could end April 25th, but I've been told April 30th.

- Now it seems like everybody's circling on April 30th.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Well listen, thank you for being here and taking the time.

- [Austin] Thank you so much, Dave.

- Our guest today, State Representative Austin Foss of Fargo, he's a Democrat.

And for "Prairie Public" and "Legislative Review," I'm Dave Thompson.

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