Plain Talk With Rob Port

Election day has come and gone, and in North Dakota, that means a new session of the state legislature is looming. There will be an organizational meeting and a budget address from Gov. Doug Burgum in December, and then the regular session commences in January, tasked with tackling issues ranging from income tax and property tax relief to child care and water needs. And the legislature will go about its business with new leaders. Two long-time chairs of the House and Senate appropriations committees are no longer in the legislature. Two long-serving lawmakers who served as majority leaders last session have retired. Their replacements - Sen. David Hogue of Minot and Rep. Mike Lefor of Dickinson, now the Senate and House majority leaders, respectively - joined this episode of Plain Talk to discuss the upcoming session. They talked about the challenges a newly-approved term limits amendment to the state constitution poses when it comes to recruiting competent lawmakers and mentoring legislative leadership. They