BISMARCK (North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Department of Commerce immediately identified a cost saving Wednesday during the first meeting of the state’s DOGE task force – eliminating bonuses paid to employees during the legislative session.
Twenty-nine Commerce employees received pay adjustments totaling $122,000 attributed to increased workload during the session that ended in May. The payments ranged from $550 to $6,600 per person.
Lawmakers questioned the salary adjustments during a June meeting of the Budget Section, with Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck, pointing out that no other state agencies were listed on a report as awarding extra pay for the legislative session.
Commerce Commissioner Chris Schilken, presenting Wednesday to the new Legislative Task Force on Government Efficiency, began by announcing his department would discontinue the extra session pay.
Schilken, who was appointed to his position in November, said the payments were established by the department’s previous leadership. He received $6,600, records show.
“I thought it was a standard practice and that was wrong,” Schilken said. “It won’t happen again, and I’ve been told by the governor it will never happen again.”
Joe Morrissette, director of the Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers in June the payments were not necessarily improper, but they were irregular. Other agencies had employees with additional pay for increased workload or irregular hours, but not attributed to the legislative session.
Lawmakers during the session established the 10-member Legislative Task Force on Government Efficiency, similar to the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, to find efficiencies in state government.
Chair Rep. Nathan Toman, R-Mandan, said previously he thinks the task force could find $1 billion in cost savings, though added hundreds of millions may be more realistic. The state’s budget for 2025-27 is $20.3 billion including federal and other funds.
Schilken told lawmakers about ways Commerce could become more efficient, including streamlining the more than 80 workforce development programs that cross nine state agencies.
Alan Dohrmann, a member of the committee and chief operating officer for Gov. Kelly Armstrong, said an effort is already underway to better coordinate agencies involved in workforce development.
Schilken also said Commerce is working to provide more information to the public about state and federal grants the agency administers, including launching a new transparency page.
Members of the Department of Health and Human Services and Information Technology Department also presented to the task force. The group plans to meet at least quarterly and develop recommendations ahead of the 2027 legislative session. State agencies also could implement changes ahead of the session if they don’t require legislative approval.
Lawmakers discussed the challenge of evaluating the effectiveness of programs. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Kathy Hogan, D-Fargo, said while Health and Human Services has hundreds of ways of measuring its programs through federal reporting requirements, they are inconsistent and may not be publicly available.
“And Commerce is so vague,” Hogan said. “They talk about things like return on investment. Well, how does one measure return on investment?”
She said the departments are doing good work, but measuring outcomes needs to become a higher priority for all agencies.
“We should ask it up front, not at the back end,” she said.
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