Yes.

North Dakota law limits how much counties can increase property tax levies from one year to the next. 

Legislation passed in 2025 established a general cap of 3% on annual growth in the total property tax levy for counties and most other local taxing entities. The limit applies to revenue raised from existing taxable property and is intended to slow the growth of property taxes while providing greater predictability for taxpayers. 

Revenue generated from newly taxable property is excluded from the cap, allowing collections to grow beyond 3% due to new construction or development without voter approval. Counties may exceed the 3% levy limit only if voters approve a higher increase through a local election. 

The cap applies to counties, cities, townships, and park districts, while school districts are subject to separate provisions. The limit does not restrict spending funded by non-property-tax sources such as state aid, federal funds, grants, or fees.

This fact brief is in response to online conversations such as this one.

Sources:
North Dakota Office of the Governor – Gov. Armstrong signs historic property tax relief and reform package
North Dakota Legislative Assembly – House Bill 1176  

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.

Yes

The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2025 Thanksgiving Dinner Cost Survey finds that the average price of the classic holiday meal for 10 people is about 5% lower than in 2024.

The decline is driven primarily by a steep drop in turkey prices—down roughly 16% from 2024—as supplies recovered from earlier losses caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza. With flocks rebuilt and production stabilized, the cost of the turkey fell enough to outweigh price increases in several side dishes.

Items such as sweet potatoes, some vegetables, and dairy products rose in price this year, while a few other components saw modest declines or remained steady.

Overall grocery inflation remains a factor for many households, but the turkey reduction exerted such a strong influence on the total basket that the combined meal cost decreased compared to last year. 

This fact brief is in response to online conversations such as this one.

Sources:

American Farm Bureau Federation – Cost of Thanksgiving dinner declines
FoodDive – Lower turkey prices slash Thanksgiving dinner costs in 2025
FarmProgress America – Turkey flock at 40-year low, wholesale prices up 40 %–75 %

A newly reorganized N.D. Interagency Council on Homelessness could have an early crisis on its hands because of significant changes to federal homelessness funding. 

A Nov. 13 directive issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) signaled a funding shift away from long-term permanent housing solutions toward shelters and transitional housing. 

For the YWCA of Cass-Clay, which assists women and children suffering homelessness – often because they were victims of abuse, the loss of federal funding could be drastic for some of its housing programs. 

The YWCA received HUD grants issued through the state’s Continuum of Care (COC) arm annually since 1989. It currently has three – one transitional housing, one permanent and one specifically focused on domestic violence. 

YWCA CEO Erin Prochnow said 45 of the organization’s 97 housing units are at risk of being lost because of the funding priority shift and the grant uncertainty going forward. 

“I believe that this will make some folks homeless again,” Prochnow said. 

Timing has also changed for applying for grants and disbursement, with a Dec. 12 deadline to submit to the state COC, which will then apply to HUD. 

This rushed timeline has created some anxiety about when funding that is eventually disbursed will actually come in.

“On the first of January, I don’t know if I have a transitional housing program,” Prochnow said. “The first of March, I don’t know if I have a permanent supportive housing program.” 

Besides those 97 units, the YWCA also offers emergency shelter for an average of around 350 women and children every day, she said. 

Currently, around seven grants, both federal and non-federal, help fund the various YWCA programs, she said. 

“We, collectively as service providers, know what works and have demonstrated we know what works,” Prochnow said. “There’s just not enough funding to go around to meet the growing demand, and our community locally in Fargo-Moorhead has grown.” 

Jennifer Henderson, director of community housing and grants management at N.D. Housing Finance Agency (NDHFA), said since the HUD directive just came out, they are still trying to get a better understanding of the funding situation and the timelines. 

“It’s going to be a significant change,” said Henderson, the new chair of the homelessness council. “We do anticipate that when all of the dust settles, we’re going to have some organizations who have been recipients who may not have funding. (Then the question is) how do we fill those gaps with other resources, if we can.” 

Henderson said North Dakota usually has a higher percentage of funding coming from HUD through the COC that goes to permanent housing, so “funding may look different this next year,” she said. 

Hope for a fresh start 

Despite the looming challenges, those working with people experiencing homelessness hope bringing back the statewide council could lead to more momentum for tackling the challenge. 

Gov. Kelly Armstrong reestablished the Interagency Council on Homelessness on Nov. 14. The council will be tasked with recommending “strategies to wipe out homelessness and prevent its underlying causes,” according to the executive order. 

“Homelessness is such a complex issue that state, local and private entities should not address it independently,” Henderson said. 

“That’s ultimately the goal of the council, to coordinate state policy, to ensure there are good working relationships between state agencies and our homeless providers, and come at homelessness with a unified, coordinated response,” Henderson said. 

The council was previously established in 2004 and started creating a 10-year plan for addressing homelessness. After developing the plan, the council lost momentum between 2018 and 2021, and was never reauthorized during Gov. Doug Burgum’s final years in office. 

“We see an incredible opportunity to align strategies across the state,” Chandler Esslinger, executive director of Fargo-Moorhead Coalition to End Homelessness and board chair of the N.D. Coalition for Homeless People. 

“Across the state, we’re continuing to see an increase in homelessness,” she said. 

Esslinger said the situation stabilized a bit during the pandemic, particularly as funding for things like rental assistance trickled down to the states, but the state is now back to a “cliff” which  developed prior to the pandemic and is moving toward a “crisis.” 

Sister Kathleen Atkinson, executive director of the low-barrier Ministry on the Margins in Bismarck, which offers homeless people a safe place to shelter nightly, said she’s excited about the work a renewed council could achieve. 

“In a state like North Dakota, homelessness is going to need to be addressed from the state,” Atkinson said. “I’m very much a supporter of help and guidance from the state in a regional way.” 

Jena Gullo, executive director at Missouri Slope Areawide United Way in Bismarck which runs a shelter, said she’s hopeful now that the council has been reorganized. 

“I feel it will be very action-oriented,” Gullo said, while leading around 40 people on a mile-walk through Bismarck Nov. 18, tracking the route many homeless people take on the city’s southside. 

“I’m hopeful that the interagency council, not just in Bismarck, but throughout rural communities in western North Dakota, will be able to get some funding to be able to do what we know works,” Gullo said. 

One issue Gullo currently faces is her shelter no longer has the funding to be open around the clock – something it’s not been able to do since March.

With colder weather looming, and no other shelters open in the daytime in Bismarck, the homeless population has to roam. 

“When we’re open 24/7, we know that 80% of the people we serve don’t return to homelessness,” Gullo said. 

Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health is in the process of creating a community triage program that would provide for a more coordinated response to homelessness in the capital than is currently available. 

A complex, growing issue 

From last October through September, over 6,500 people either experienced homelessness or were assisted by prevention programs or rapid re-housing statewide, according to the N.D. Homeless Management Information System.

More than 3,800 people experienced homelessness in North Dakota and more than 2,400 used emergency shelters across the state. The overall numbers have grown by around 100 over the past year.

 Eviction rates also appear to be rising. According to the Legal Services Corporation’s eviction tracker, Cass County had the highest number of evictions at 32 in the most recent data available. 

Williams County had the highest rate of filings in June, with nearly 6 of every 100 renter households reporting an eviction. 

From 2020 to 2024, evictions rose in North Dakota, from around 1,700 to over 2,500 per year, according to a state of housing report by NDHFA.

Cass, Burleigh, Ward and Williams counties accounted for 71% of all evictions. 

Eviction judgments on tenant credit reports often lead to difficulty securing housing and in some cases can lead to a downward spiral of housing insecurity, employment and health issues. 

A new state law passed in March gives tenants the right to seal eviction records, but only after all judgments are satisfied and only seven years after a case. 

A severe shortage of affordable rental units statewide exacerbates these issues. Home costs have risen by around 19% in North Dakota since 2020, and rental rates are around 39% higher, according to data from Zillow. 

“Some of the answer to homelessness is simply having available housing, and housing that is affordable and attainable,” Henderson said. “Really, it means having enough housing available that everybody has an opportunity to access it.” 

The LSC reports 38.4% of renters in the state are “rent burdened,” meaning more than 30% of a household’s gross income goes toward housing costs, including rent and utilities. 

“It just says a lot about the levels of precarity about people’s housing situations, and there’s no county in North Dakota that’s not touched by eviction or housing instability,” Esslinger said. 

North Dakota renters were able to utilize federal pandemic-era American Rescue Plan funding through the N.D. Rent Help program run by the Department of Health and Human Services, but this has now expired. 

The program helped cover rent costs, rent arrears, utilities and other expenses, with $149 million distributed to renters in the state between October 2022 and August 2025. 

One major change the YWCA has seen in recent months is an increasing number of elderly women seeking shelter at their facilities, Prochnow said. 

The average age of clients is usually around 32, typically a mother with a child or two, she said. 

“In the last week of October, we had seven women aged 57 and older, several of them in their 80s, seeking service, because they couldn’t make do any longer on their fixed incomes and had nowhere else to go,” Prochnow said. 

She said YWCA services aren’t designed for being an emergency shelter for people in cognitive decline or with advanced medical or functional needs. 

“What I see happening is that the YWCA and organizations like ours are the safety net that families have when the rest of the world turns away,” Prochnow said. “If you deplete that safety net, what happens? I think that’s the question our communities need to solve.” 

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.

On any given day, rancher Brian Maddock is out in the drift prairie near the town of Maddock that bears his family name, dropping hay bales on wind-scoured hilltops and hardpan soil where little else will grow.

From there, the cattle do the rest of the work. They eat, they trample, they fertilize. Green rings begin to form where nothing grew, soft swells of emerald where cattle will graze again after they’re rotated in again from another paddock. 

The soil, after years of careful management by the Maddock family, breathes again. 

For that work, Brian and his wife Vicki, along with the entire Maddock family, recently received recognition as recipients of the Leopold Conservation Award, making them part of a growing lineage of farmers and ranchers proving that working lands can also heal themselves. 

The transformations to the Maddock family’s 4,000 acres of ranchland didn’t come from a one-season fix. They were constructed one fence, one water line and one holistic grazing decision at a time. 

For the Maddock family, it has been a way of life since the early 1990s when land they farmed near Devils Lake became inundated, forcing a shift to rotational grazing and other regenerative ranching practices. 

The Leopold Conservation Award, administered by Sand County Foundation, is a nationally recognized honor celebrating outstanding voluntary conservation. 

Named after conservationist Aldo Leopold, the award is now presented in 28 states across the country. This is the 10th time the award has been given in North Dakota. 

“We’re excited about the things we’re doing, raising the cattle the way we do, and we’ve changed so many things over the years,” Brian Maddock said. “In a lot of ways, it’s not more work, it’s easier.” 

A pivot born of necessity

After attending a course on holistic land management through the Carrington Research Extension Center around 40 years back, Brian came back home with eyes wide open to a shift the family needed to make away from crops and toward cattle.

“That opened my mind up tremendously,” Brian Maddock said of the course. 

The farm was struggling financially at the time, he said. 

“He came back from that course and said we need to make changes in how we farm or we’ll have to quit farming,” his son Travis Maddock said. “He realized, once he started looking at the whole of things, that as a farmer, he was failing to try to raise crops. He wasn’t making any money. It wasn’t going to work out.”

That soul searching led his father to understand where his strengths lay, which was managing cattle and grass, Travis said. The family looked at the land they had and saw a lot of dirt, but not much quality soil left. 

“All the tops of these hills are blown right down to the clay. Can we build some soil? Can we look at that? So we start putting a lot of these principles into place,” Travis said. 

From there, they started installing cross-fences, developing water systems and rotating cattle through around two dozen paddocks, eventually shifting marginal farmland with soils too thin to support crops to ones that can support cattle. That’s helped restore fertility to the land. 

“That land is really designed to support cattle,” Travis Maddock said. 

Through practices like livestock impact on the grassland and bale grazing, the family has been able to transform the land, he said. 

“You put the bales out there and let the cattle graze them down,” Travis Maddcok said. “That gives you your soil health principles, you’ve got cover, you’ve got living roots in there, you’re increasing your water cycle, your nitrogen cycle. Underneath there, you get your microbes rocking and rolling, and they’ll build soil for you. That’s how you build soil.” 

Travis talks about how as a regenerative rancher, you really have to think about the two herds you need to manage. 

“We’re feeding the cows, but we’re also feeding all those microbes in the soil. We need to feed them too, and they need to be thriving,” Travis Maddock said. “As long as we can have symbiosis between those two things, we have the opportunity to create something where good things are happening, whether it’s financially or ecologically.” 

Why the award matters

Since the first Leopold Conservation Award was given in 2003, the award has spread to recognize the positive things farmers and ranchers were doing across the country in stewarding working lands. 

Lance Irving, vice president of Sand County Foundation, calls these recipients “quiet heroes” for the work they put into their farms and ranches. 

“This is an opportunity to recognize actual working farms and ranches, where their livelihood is tied to their productivity, and how conservation is a tool in their toolbox to not only make them more environmentally resilient but also economically resilient,” Irving said.

Award winners are chosen by panels within their state designated by local partners that include the North Dakota Association of Conservation Districts, North Dakota Grazing Lands Coalition, and the North Dakota Stockman’s Association. 

What stood out about Brian Maddock, Irving said, is that he’s never satisfied and always looking to improve his processes. 

“He’s not doing it for himself, he’s thinking, how can I make it better for my kids, how can I make it better for my grandkids,” Irving said. “Folks of his generation willing to change what they’ve done for the last 40, 50 years, to try something new, is not something you see all the time, and that really stands out to me.” 

Irving also points out that the Maddock family motto of “Soil. Cattle. Family.” sums up their philosophy. 

“If you take care of the soil, the soil will take care of the cattle. If you take care of the cattle, the cattle will take care of the family,” Irving said. “But that initial building block is taking care of the soil. You can’t do the others before you take care of the soil.” 

Community backbone 

Darrell Oswald, district manager for the Burleigh County Soil Conservation District, helped bring the award to North Dakota in 2015. 

Judging is done by local leaders from agriculture, conservation, and state agencies. 

“One thing I’ve noticed about all of the winners over the years is they all think holistically,” Oswald said. “They’re early adopters. They think outside the box. They’re not afraid to try things.” 

The Maddock family is no exception, he said. 

“Brian was an early adopter of multi-paddock adaptive grazing systems, and was thinking outside the box,” Oswald said. “They’re in an area where ranching is secondary to farming. They’ve carved out a living there, where annual cropping is generally king.” 

As the tenth North Dakota family to receive the award, the Maddocks join a roster of producers helping to shape regenerative agriculture in the state and region. 

Other recent winners include Heaton Ranches in McKenzie, Bartholomay Kattle Kompany in Sheldon, Spring Valley Cattle in Glen Ullin and Sand Ranch near Ellendale. 

“These are the elite of the elite of producers, in my mind,” Oswald said. “They’re profitable. They’re putting resources first. They’re in it for the long haul. They’re generational, and in theory, they want to farm and ranch forever and are working towards that. What they’re doing with the soil and resources is allowing them to do that, and that’s important.” 

This mirrors national trends. Many Leopold winners began changing practices when their backs were against the wall — financially, ecologically, or both. Once they saw it work, they became advocates, showing neighbors what’s possible.

Irving notes that today’s regenerative ranchers don’t fit old stereotypes. 

“The general public’s notion of what a farmer or rancher is not actually indicative of what this next generation is,” Irving said. “These are tech-savvy folks.” 

Irving mentioned how they’re adopting GPS grazing collars, innovative water systems, soil sampling and tissue testing and that there is more of this than ever before. 

“In a way, agriculture kind of has its back against the wall, and you have to figure out how to do it, because not only is our food system relying on it but also our rural communities,” Irving said. “Farms and ranches are the backbones of rural communities, and without them, that’s an entire way of life that becomes harder and harder.” 

Yes.

Argentina’s temporary suspension of export taxes in September 2025 briefly increased competition for U.S. farmers, especially in the soybean market.

The measure removed export duties on soybeans, corn, wheat, and beef until a $7 billion sales limit was reached. Within days, Argentine exporters filled that quota, prompting the reinstatement of taxes.

During the suspension, U.S. soybean exporters saw reduced demand and lower spot prices as international buyers, particularly in China, shifted short-term purchases to take advantage of Argentina’s tax-free window.

According to the American Soybean Association, the suspension undermined fair trade and disadvantaged U.S. producers by allowing Argentine soy to sell at lower prices.

A USDA Foreign Agricultural Service report confirmed the Argentine government later made the lower rates permanent, cutting soybean export taxes from 33 percent to 26 percent.

Experts say though brief, the suspension’s market ripple highlighted how swiftly policy shifts abroad can affect U.S. commodity producers.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources:

• Argentina Ministry of Economy, Boletín Oficial de la República Argentina (Sept. 2025): boletinoficial.gob.ar
• American Soybean Association: ASA Responds to Argentina Soybean Actions
• USDA Foreign Agricultural Service: Argentina Permanently Lowers Ag Export Taxes (PDF)

Farmers heavily reliant on coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace are likely to see out-of-pocket health insurance premium payments rise more than 75% on average in 2026. 

Enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits will expire at the end of 2025, unless renewed by Congress. 

For farmers accessing health insurance through the North Dakota Farmers Union insurance division, that could mean a big increase in family expenses. 

More than 70% of those farmers in the state who are members of the union get a tax credit on the ACA marketplace, according to Lance Boyer, sales director of financial products at Farmers Union Insurance.  

Those added out-of-pocket costs could hit North Dakota farmers at a time when many are already pressured from the impacts of tariffs, inflationary pressures on inputs and equipment, increased debt and high interest rates. 

Increased costs could also lead to an increasing number of uninsured. 

“A lot of those folks are going to walk away from coverage because the reason they didn’t have it before was because it was unaffordable,” Boyer said. 

Boyer predicts that we’ll see a return to short-term medical plans that don’t necessarily cover preexisting conditions. 

“It’s going to drive some bad behavior because some folks are going to end up in a difficult spot and make a decision on price, and not about what they’re actually getting,” Boyer said. 

Enrollment in the ACA Marketplace is expected to start Nov. 1 for next year, he said, and if tax credits are not extended by that time, some farm families could be in a difficult position, he said. 

One other significant change to the ACA system is the elimination of automatic renewals, which will require active re-enrollment each year. 

Boyer said he’s concerned about the relative lack of awareness regarding these changes and the potential cost increases. 

Major changes to the Medicare program have been taking priority, he said, but that will soon change if tax credits are not extended. 

“We didn’t feel it was our place to go out and call clients and tell them their premiums are going to go up 75%,” Boyer said. “You were hoping that messaging would come from somebody else, but we’re going to meet with everybody when enrollment starts and deliver that message.” 

One potential for coverage includes catastrophic plans, Boyer said, but those traditionally covered people under 30 with a hardship exemption. 

According to healthcare information nonprofit KFF, nationwide 27% of farmers, ranchers and other agricultural managers got coverage through the ACA marketplace in 2023, most of whom rely on tax credits to lower premiums. 

Centrist think tank Third Way estimates that a family of four with an income around $158,000 who previously had their health insurance covered by the tax credits would end up paying around $20,000 per year, or about 13% of their income. 

Soybean concerns and frustrations grow

Those raising soybeans are also in a bind due to the fact that few, if any, orders have been placed to purchase their beans for export to terminals in the Pacific Northwest due to continued trade friction with China, the largest purchaser of North Dakota soybeans. 

U.S. soybean exports were worth around $25 billion last year. Without a major purchaser buying beans, North Dakota’s soybean producers are faced with the prospect of storing beans until purchases are made. 

That could mean months of storage through the winter and possibly into next year.  

“There’s growing frustration and concern,” said Justin Sherlock, president of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association. 

China has already turned to Brazil for much of its supply and also recently reached an agreement with Argentina for a large purchase of soybeans, an action that has frustrated soybean producers in North Dakota.  

“That’s the kind of win we need to see for American farmers right now,” Sherlock said. 

Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, said the China purchases from Argentina have made the situation worse for North Dakota’s soybean farmers and lowers any leverage the U.S. had for unlocking soybean exports to China. 

“That’s one-sixth of our whole crop in North Dakota,” Watne said. “That’s huge and it appears China just played the administration. It just looks bad.” 

Speculation that the Trump administration could use tariff revenue to help farmers absorb losses is also not an ideal resolution, Watne said, since the long-term disruptions and shifts of China buying more soybeans from other countries could continue in the future. 

“It certainly helps with farmers getting some money in hand, and will potentially help folks trying to pay down bills to get ready for next year, but it’s a mess,” Watne said. 

“I’m fearful that we’re starting to destroy the 2026 crop and the gains we made with crop insurance (from the Big Beautiful Bill) actually isn’t going to help a lot because we’re simply going to have lower prices on what our coverage is,” Watne said. “So we’re really losing a lot. This is a bad, bad scenario.” 

Prices farmers get for soybeans, corn and wheat have all dropped from June 2022 highs and are currently all below January 2012 levels, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. 

“The reality of the financial crisis is starting to sink in,” Sherlock said. “I think a lot of lenders are really concerned. The issues bubbling up have the potential to become a multiyear problem, and unfortunately that’s now starting to happen.” 

Sherlock said if farmers can’t export the soybeans and don’t have customers to buy them, the huge ending stocks will carry over into next year. 

“How do you possibly get a loan from a bank when your cost of production is 20 to 30% higher than the market price for crops in 2026? There are no cuts you can make to make up 20 or 30% cost savings. We were already in a low margin industry. There’s no possible way to make up 20 or 30% losses.” 

Losses like that could lead to more bankruptcies. 

Joe Mahon, director of regional outreach for the Ninth District, which includes North Dakota, said in a policy paper on September 25 that while bankruptcies are historically low in the region, they did increase in the first two quarters of 2025 and are likely to continue ticking upwards. 

Nationally, bankruptcies increased 55% last year over the previous year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. 

Storage situation coming to a head 

Storage is and will remain an issue, according to Watne and Sherlock. 

Kenneth Hellevang, a professor in Ag and Biosystems engineering at North Dakota State University who monitors grain storage, said two issues are impacting storage at the moment. 

One is storms over the summer that badly damaged or put many storage systems out of commission, particularly in the eastern half of the state. 

“I haven’t seen exact numbers, but it was pretty extensive across the state,” Hellevang said. 

The other issue is that the market for soybeans has collapsed because of China’s failures to purchase, necessitating the need to store more beans for a longer period once they’re harvested. 

“With no one buying beans we’re going to have a lot of beans that need to go into storage,” he said. 

This could lead to a lot more on-farm storage than usual, and also open air piles in some cases, that would need to be well covered to reduce losses due to increased moisture content if those beans have to sit for months. 

“With a lack of storage to start with, we’re going to end up in a no-win situation for farmers,” Hellevang said. “They’re going to need to come up with some kind of alternative storage for grain and soybeans.” 

An issue with storing beans long term would be trying to keep moisture content just below 13 percent, as too dry would lead to cracking and degraded beans and too wet could lead to rotting beans.

“The research we were doing found that if you’re at 11% moisture, we can store beans for a year with no problem, but it needs to be at that,” Hellevang said. 

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.

Most North Dakotans support the use of tariffs as part of trade policy but appear mixed on how President Donald Trump is handling trade and whether the impacts of tariffs will hit them personally, results of the latest North Dakota Poll show. 

A total of 60% of respondents support the use of tariffs as part of U.S. trade policy, and 34% oppose, with most opposition coming from Democrats and just under half of self-described Independents. 

Slightly less approve of the Trump administration’s handling of trade policy, with 57% approving and 39% disapproving, with opposition again coming from Democrats and nearly half of Independents. 

A total of 33% of respondents said their own financial situation would be better off because of the Trump trade policies, 32% said they’d be worse off, and another 35% said their situation would be about the same. 

Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Aug. 12 showed a slight 0.2% rise in the Consumer Price Index in July over the previous month. Other CPI figures excluding food and energy prices rose 0.3%, or 3.1% higher than the past year, signaling that inflationary pressure is growing. 

The bureau also released Producer Price Index data on Aug. 14, showing a 0.9% increase over June with the wholesale inflation rate up from 2.4% to 3.3% between June and July, another indication of higher inflation. 

“The economy is slowing down and I think we’re going to have slow growth for a while, and I think people are going to see some of the effects of the tariffs maybe coming up more so than they have already,” said John Bitzan, Menard Family Director of the Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth at North Dakota State University. 

Bitzan said the on-again, off-again nature of the Trump administration trade negotiations and tariff policies has businesses in a state of uncertainty, even with recent reprieves of 90 days for further negotiations with China and Mexico. 

“That uncertainty makes businesses less willing to invest in capital equipment, but it also makes them less willing to invest in employees and hiring,” Bitzan said. 

Arik Spencer, CEO of the Greater North Dakota Chamber of Commerce, said support for tariffs appears to track in general with support for Trump’s trade and other policies. 

“In terms of how it’s going to impact people, I think the verdict is still out on a lot of that,” Spencer said. “From a business perspective, a variety of inputs have seen impacts but that hasn’t quite trickled down to the consumer.” 

Spencer said he felt there was broad support for fair trade, but that business people also want certainty going forward. 

“With the volatile scenario we’re in related to tariffs and 90-day extensions, that kind of makes it hard to plan out,” he said. “Everyone supports reindustrializing the United States, but those conversations take a long time, from site selection to where you’re going to make investments.” 

Of Trump’s handling of the economy since he took office, 45% said they were better off, 33% worse off, and 21% about the same. Support for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” was also

strong, but with most Democrats and a large segment of Independents dissenting. Overall, 55% of all respondents support and 36% oppose the bill. 

Asked if the country was on the right or wrong track, 58% believe it is on the right track and 38% said it was on the wrong track. 

Solid support for Trump on immigration

The poll also showed strong support for Trump administration immigration policies, with 65% approving of mass deportations and 32% opposed. 
Asked if mass deportations of undocumented immigrants would do significant harm to North Dakota’s agricultural industry, 64% said it would not harm the industry, tracking closely with support for the deportation policies. 

Longer term, however, the U.S. will need to address workforce challenges due to demographic shifts, analysts said. 

“While we have to have an immigration policy that respects our borders, we’re not really talking about overhauling our immigration system in the US,” Spencer said. “There’s not enough babies being born to replace the baby boomers leaving the workforce.” 

Bitzan said, like tariffs, the impacts of the current immigration policies would likely be felt down the road. 

“We know that we don’t have enough workers in our economy to sustain growth, and so we need more immigration, not less immigration, and I think that the effects of that are going to become apparent later as well,” Bitzan said. 

Optimism on North Dakota economy

Overall, of the 625 regular voters polled, most are rosy on North Dakota’s economic and overall prospects. 

A total of 74% felt the economy in the state was either excellent or good, while only 26% said it was fair or poor. 

Those numbers match closely with whether people believe the state is on the right or wrong track, with 72% saying it is on the right track and 24% more negative on the future trajectory. 

“I think by and large, people do have confidence in our state economy and the U.S. economy,” Spencer said. “I think there is some concern that as inflation is trickling a little bit higher, the impact that has on our national outlook.” 

Most respondents didn’t believe recent geopolitical events in the Middle East related to Israel and Iran would have an impact on North Dakota’s energy industry. A total of 40% said it would likely improve because of those events, with 46% saying it would remain the same. 

The North Dakota Poll, initiated by the North Dakota News Cooperative, was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, Inc. of Jacksonville, Florida. From August 4 through August 6, 2025, a total of 625 adult regular voters were interviewed statewide by phone. The margin of error is no more than + or – 4%, according to the polling firm. 

The final story on the latest poll data will look at attitudes toward spending from the Legacy Fund and property taxes. 

A total of 155 respondents were in Fargo-Cass County, 155 in eastern North Dakota, 120 in the Bismarck-Mandan region, and another 195 in western North Dakota. Quotas were assigned to reflect voter turnout by county.

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.

Cody Two Bear, who is Standing Rock Sioux, served on his tribal council during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in 2017. Growing up in a community powered by coal, the experience was transformative. “I’ve seen the energy extraction that has placed a toll significantly on tribal nations when it comes to land, animals, water, and sacred sites,” said Two Bear. “Understanding more about that energy, I started to look into my own tribe as a whole.”

In 2018, Two Bear founded Indigenize Energy, a nonprofit organization that works with tribes to pursue energy sovereignty and economic development by kickstarting clean energy projects. Last year, with nearly $136 million in federal funding through Solar for All, a program administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, the nonprofit launched the Tribal Renewable Energy Coalition, which aims to build solar projects with 14 tribal nations in the Northern Plains.

But when President Donald Trump took office in January, those projects hit a wall: The Trump administration froze Solar for All’s funding. That temporarily left the coalition and its members earlier this year without access to their entitled grant (it was later released in March). However, the EPA is considering ending the program entirely. 

The coalition is back on track with its solar plans, but now tribes and organizations, like the ones Two Bear works with, are bracing for new changes.

When President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, or OBBB, became law last month, incentives for clean energy projects like wind and solar tax credits and clean energy grants were cut — a blow to the renewable energy sector and a major setback to tribal nations. Moves from federal agencies to end programs have shifted the project landscape as well. The current number of impacted projects run by tribes is unknown. According to the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy, at least 100 tribes they have worked with have received funds from federal agencies and the Inflation Reduction Act; however, those figures could be higher. “Without that support, most of, if not all of those projects are now at risk for being killed by the new unclear federal approval process,” said John Lewis, the Native American Energy managing director for Avant Energy, a consulting company. 

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The Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, for instance, has planned solar projects reliant on federal tax cuts. The projects were designed to power a community health clinic, schools, and a radio station that broadcasts emergency notices during winter storms. However, with the passage of the OBBB, the tribe must now begin construction by July of next year or lose credits, a feat that doesn’t account for the time it takes to secure capital in various stages, seek a complete environmental review, and navigate long permitting timelines through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 

“Some of these projects, at a minimum, have stalled, or they’re having to be reworked in some way to fit within the current parameters that have been laid down by the administration,” said Verrin Kewenvoyouma, who is Hopi and Navajo, and a managing partner at Kewenvoyouma Law that assists tribes with environmental permitting, cultural resources, and energy development. “We have clients that are looking at creative solutions, trying to keep them alive.” 

In June, the Inter-Tribal Council of Michigan, a joint organization representing 12 federally recognized tribes in the state, joined a class-action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, alongside a tribe in Alaska, arguing that the agency illegally froze access to promised project funds from the Environmental and Climate Justice block grant program. The now-defunct program promised $3 billion to 350 recipients to fund projects addressing pollution and high energy costs. Plaintiffs hope the program will be reinstated so that pending projects can be restarted.

Tribes are now seeking philanthropy, short-term funding, and conventional financing to cover delays and gaps in project costs. After the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians in California lost access to a $3.55 million BIA award to the tribe for solar microgrid development in March, the BQuest Foundation, which specializes in covering expenses needed to continue housing or climate-related projects, gave the tribe $1 million to resume the project’s timeline. 

Currently, the self-funded Alliance is covering tribal projects that have experienced a sudden loss in tax credits, rescission of federal funds, and uncertainty of direct pay. “We’re helping try to navigate this challenging period and continue on their self-determined paths, whatever it looks like for them — to energy sovereignty,” said Shéri Smith, CEO of the organization. At the moment, the Alliance is offering a mix of grants from $50 to $500,000, and loans up to $1 million, which will be converted to grants should a tribe default. 

“Tribes need to build up internal capacity to carry that out and to have control of their energy situation, for their at-risk members, and members in general,” said John Lewis. “ At such a critical stage, access to affordable, reliable electricity is paramount. The country is getting hotter. The world is getting hotter. It’s warming.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Tribal nations scramble to save clean energy projects as federal support vanishes on Aug 11, 2025.

For farmers across North Dakota, alarm bells are ringing and could get louder following tariffs imposed on Canada and the potential for increased tariffs on China in the coming weeks. 

On July 31, the Trump administration increased tariffs on Canadian imports to 35%, with 69 other countries seeing increased tariffs at varying rates. Mexico received a 90-day extension on an existing trade deal for further negotiations. 

A similar 90-day pause on increased tariffs on Chinese products expires on Aug. 12. If China tariffs go into effect, they could be much higher than the current 30% rate imposed during the pause, possibly exceeding 100%.  

Futures prices of some commodities like soybeans are lower and already starting to cause some concern. 

A bigger looming issue is that there are currently no soybean orders yet out of the Pacific Northwest, where almost all of the state’s soybean production goes, according to Justin Sherlock, president of the North Dakota Soybean Growers Association.

“It’s starting to cause a lot of concern,” Sherlock said of the trade uncertainty. “We are hopeful of potential trade deals, but hope is not a way to operate a business.” 

Elephant in the room 

The North Dakota Soybean Council estimates that around 90% of soybeans produced in North Dakota are exported, with two-thirds going to China and Southeast Asia. 

China, Sherlock said, is the big elephant in the room for the state’s soybean growers. 

“All of our other export demand combined is still not as much as we typically export to China,” he said. “So we really need the Chinese demand to enter our market. So far they’ve bought no soybeans for 2025, so that is very worrying.” 

Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, said both soybean and wheat markets are currently depressed and will likely remain so. 

“If there’s no agreement with China, Mexico and Canada, that really hits us hard, especially from a North Dakota perspective, because we export so much,” Watne said. 

The addition of two new crushing plants for soybeans does help somewhat, Sherlock said, but even if half of the soybeans produced in the state can be crushed, a market would be needed for the other half. 

Soybean producers need to see some sort of movement on orders out of the Pacific Northwest in the next two or three weeks, Sherlock said, otherwise there could be bottlenecks on shipping or storage after that point. 

Other business impacts 

Ag-related businesses are also increasingly impacted by the trade uncertainty. Everything from fertilizer, seed, and other inputs have seen inflated prices, as has farm equipment and parts. 

Sherlock said costs have increased by between 15% up to 50% for some parts and equipment. 

“So much of our equipment is manufactured in Canada or Mexico,” he said. “We’re very grateful that we saw the 90-day pause with Mexico. That’s very promising. It was disappointing to see the tariff rate increase with Canada.” 

Current tariffs on imported steel, aluminum and semi-finished copper now stand at 50%, potentially raising the cost of equipment further down the line. 

Watne said those impacts are mostly indirect and few people think about them, but increased tariffs on metals, electronics, and microchips eventually hit the pocketbooks of farmers. 

“Those prices are rising and now as we get into the next couple of years, as they have to restock and resupply, those (tariffs) seem to be tighter,” Watne said. “From an agricultural perspective, we’re at a vulnerable stage.” 

In mid-May, major tractor company John Deere detailed in an earnings call that it had incurred $100 million in tariff-related expenses in the second quarter of the year. Deere estimated $400 million more by the end of the year and will likely need to increase some prices because of tariff and inflationary pressure. 

The new tariffs on Canada will also likely increase costs for fertilizer further, largely because up to 90% of potash used in fertilizer in the U.S. comes from Canada. Tariffs on urea imports, also used for fertilizer, from Saudi Arabia and other sources also increase fertilizer prices. 

“Fertilizer is probably our biggest cost on the farm,” Watne said. 

One of the main issues of the trade drama for most farmers is the uncertainty it creates in both the short and long term, said John Bitzan, director at the Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation at North Dakota State University. 

“If you think about it from the perspective of farmers, they don’t know what their input prices are going to be. So, buying fertilizer, or seed, or other things, are the prices of those going to go up because of import tariffs? I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about markets, too,” Bitzan said. 

That uncertainty also leads to less willingness to make investments for the future on a new tractor or other equipment, Bitzan said. That uncertainty has knock-on effects for machinery and input dealerships. 

Supply chain dilemmas 

Trade friction and increased tariffs can also impact products most people don’t often think about. 

Recent analysis by property experts at Eden Emerald Buyers Agent found North Dakota to be the third-most rodent-infested state, for example, just behind Vermont and South Dakota. Rodents sometimes like to chew on wires and cables in everything from cars to tractors. 

Ken Huening, creator of CoverSeal, makes and sells covers for cars, tractors, motorcycles, BBQs and other equipment all across the U.S. When he started his business, he wasn’t able to produce the covers in the U.S., so he had to make them in Mexico and China. 

“Textiles were a U.S. commodity. They aren’t anymore. So, I couldn’t find a mill in the U.S. to either create the fabric or try and find people who would build them in the U.S. in any kind of volume that would be cost effective,” Huening said. 

Farmers in North Dakota recently looking to buy CoverSeal covers to protect their equipment from rodents are seeing higher prices and delays because of trade friction. 

Huening said a year ago for bulk orders he had to pay a $14.5 tariff on each cover imported from China. He now has to pay around $44. New tariffs also require additional paperwork, often adding another two or three days of processing through the supply chain, Huening said. 

Another challenge is that direct-to-customer sales of products under $800 shipped from his warehouse in China are no longer exempt after the 321 exemption rule was rescinded. Those added costs are partly passed along to consumers. 

For smaller ag-related businesses, tariff impacts depend on how supply chains are structured, said Alfredo Roa-Henriquez, an assistant professor of supply chain management at North Dakota State University. 

Some may come out better, depending on what exemptions are carved out in the final trade deals, and others could lose out, he said. 

“All sectors will be unequally affected,” he said. “The impacts will be different.” 

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.

Murray Sagsveen estimates there are nearly 1,000 registered cemeteries in western North Dakota. 

Most of those in rural farming communities are small, maybe 10 to 20 burial plots, sometimes just a handful. 

“Every cemetery has a story, and it’s often about the settlers there,” Sagsveen said.

Each story is also about the people who remain in the area with relatives buried near once vibrant communities. 

Sagsveen is a volunteer attorney for the Western North Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. A chance call several years ago from an oil company rep trying to determine who to pay royalties to on land where rural cemeteries were located set him on the path to a nearly full-time hobby. 

“A guy called up and said, ‘We’re pumping oil out from under two Lutheran cemeteries up in Divide County and we don’t know who to pay,’” he said. 

The congregation that owned the land had disbanded and the church corporation dissolved. Determining the owner of record took quite a bit of digging, Sagsveen said. 

“I’m currently handling several such issues,” he said. 

Sorting that out helped get at least a little money to those churches and people taking care of the cemeteries. 

A chance passion

Sagsveen is a self-described “cemetery nerd.” At 78, documenting and determining ownership of cemetery land keeps him active. His brother often joins him on the road in the summer to help with the project. 

“The more I got into it, the more I thought there’s a story I’ve got to explore,” he said. “As a semi-retired lawyer, it’s fascinating.” 

Driving the backroads, most of these cemeteries would be missed if not for the wrought-iron gates cutting the prairie wind on lonely hillocks surrounded by furrowed fields. Today’s GPS coordinates also help. 

About half were established by Lutheran church congregations. There are also Methodist, Baptist, Catholic and Jewish cemeteries. The oldest Muslim cemetery in the United States is another one, located in Mountrail County, adjacent to a mosque constructed in 1929 by Lebanese and Syrian immigrants. 

On bright summer days, Sagsveen often sets out with his DJI drone and plenty of backup batteries to visit cemeteries across the western half of the state. 

He’ll take photos, survey and see if they’re well-kept or abandoned. If abandoned, he’ll try to determine ownership or who can take care of the site, whether it’s the county or a former congregation member. 

Most are well-kept, he said, even if no church or congregation exists. Sometimes, family members remain nearby, or they’ve scattered across the country. 

Some are more forlorn and forgotten, overgrown with grasses, home to badger dens and pheasants rummaging in the brush. 

Zion Baptist Cemetery in McLean County is one. The church was active between 1904 and 1931 but is now long gone. The sexton has died, and it is only occasionally mowed. 

A lens into rural decline

For Sagsveen, these explorations have uncovered what he sees as a microcosm for the larger issues shaping rural North Dakota. 

While farms grow larger, small towns struggle to retain congregations, grocery stores, schools and other services. 

Farm residents move into town or relocate to larger communities, particularly if they’re older and in need of medical care. Older, isolated cemeteries are left behind. 

Though headlines say the population is growing in North Dakota, that’s mainly the major metro areas, Sagsveen said. 

Shifting demographics continue to hollow out smaller communities across the state. 

All used to have a house of worship nearby. Many of those are long torn down with lumber and foundation stone hauled away for scrap. 

Some were moved in their entirety to nearby towns, like the one that stood next to the Bethel United Methodist Cemetery. It was relocated to nearby Mercer and is now a Lutheran church. 

Lori Walcker and her husband, Jeff, care for Bethel United Methodist Cemetery. Her parents and brother are buried there. 

It requires an hour or two of mowing and checking the fences each week or two in the summer, depending how much rain falls and how fast the grasses grow. They donate their time and gas costs tending to the site. 

That’s the case with most of the smaller rural cemeteries. Nearby farmers with family buried there end up caring for them.

Occasional donation campaigns can help pay for fences. This is how Lori’s uncle helped pay for a new chain-link fence about 15 years back, she said. 

“We’ve done a lot of improvements throughout the years,” she said. “Of course it was, you know, just a cemetery like all the others that had a wire fence around it many years ago.”

Only a handful of relatives of those buried in Bethel visit these days. Most who knew the deceased are now gone themselves, Lori said. 

Several relatives of farmer Lamoyne Vossler are buried at Bethel. He pulls up on a seeder next to another nearby cemetery, Zion Lutheran. 

“This is where I’m going to end up,” Vossler said, pointing to the well-maintained Zion cemetery, “in this hill here.” 

As for the shrinking of the community, Vossler said if not for the coal mines and power plants nearby, the community would be even smaller. 

He mentions the loss of the high school in Mercer in 1972, where he graduated from, and the dwindling number of current students at the high school in Turtle Lake as a sign of the times. 

While ever larger farms mean more workers need to be hired, the reliance on seasonal H-2A visa workers, who only stay half the year and don’t put down roots, doesn’t help grow the community, he said. 

“If it wasn’t for the people at the (power) plants over there, it would be pretty desolate around here,” Vossler said. 

Beverly Peterson, a rancher who also owns Frontier Floral flower shop in Washburn, got to know Sagsveen after two cemeteries near her, Basto and Birka, were close to being encroached upon by a coal mining operation. 

Determining ownership and ensuring the plots were registered helped preserve them. 

“I think they’re worth saving, I really do,” Peterson said. 

She said they’re down to about 10 regular churchgoers at rural Birka Lutheran Church, and while some younger board members are keeping it alive, they know their time might be limited. 

While Washburn is active and thriving to a degree, and the promise of jobs related to Talon Metals nickel processing plant at a former coal mine near Beulah will help the larger communities, she doesn’t see the new facility reviving the countryside. 

“That’s something to ask some of the smart people on the planet, is how do we keep these hometowns,” Peterson said. “It’s so important to keep that vibrancy going because of our kids.”

The North Dakota News Cooperative is a nonprofit news organization providing reliable and independent reporting on issues and events that impact the lives of North Dakotans. The organization increases the public’s access to quality journalism and advances news literacy across the state. For more information about NDNC or to make a charitable contribution, please visit newscoopnd.org. Send comments, suggestions or tips to michael@newscoopnd.org. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NDNewsCoop.