(The following article by Brian Duggan was posted on the Bismarck Tribune website on February 17.)
BISMARCK, N.D. — Senators agreed on Monday to direct $6.4 million into a special fund to help cities construct quiet railroad zones.
The House also approved a bill that now directs abortion clinics to inform women seeking an abortion that they are ending the life of a human being.
During a marathon session Monday afternoon, lawmakers also voted down a measure that would have given the Legislature the power to set tuition rates, and shot down another bill that would have increased penalties for speeding.
Quiet rail
The Senate passed the $6.4 million quiet rail special fund 32-15, which now directs railroad fuel tax revenue out of the state highway fund into a new grant program for cities to construct quiet zones.
The bill was amended so that a city could apply for up to five grants at $100,000 each. Bismarck voters shot down a ballot measure last year that would have spent $4 million in local funds to construct quiet zones along the city’s eight crossings at about $500,000 each.
The state Department of Transportation, which opposed the bill in committee, would be in charge of doling out the funds.
Proponents of the bill said train horns have gotten louder and longer in recent years as federal restrictions have tightened.
“The thought here is, let’s use that money that’s paid by the railroads to help remedy a problem that’s caused by the railroads,” said Sen. David Nething, R-Jamestown, who introduced the bill.
Opponents said they were leery that such a fund would be a one-time expenditure. Sen. Randel Christmann, R-Hazen, said the problem is not the state’s to fix.
“I don’t see how we could keep up fixing every regulation the people in Washington keep imposing on us,” Christmann said.
The bill, SB2338, now moves on to the House for consideration.