North Dakota Gov. Orders Cuts to Make Up for $1B Budget Shortfall

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple has ordered deep cuts to state government and a massive raid on state savings to make up for a more than $1 billion budget shortfall due to depressed crude prices and a drop in oil drilling.

Dalrymple announced the cuts to state agency officials on Monday at the state Capitol in Bismarck.

The Legislature’s record $14.4 billion budget for the two years that began July 1 was built last year on economic assumptions that have proven far too rosy.

To balance the current two-year budget, Dalrymple ordered agencies to cut their budgets by 4.05 percent. The governor also will take more than $497 million from the state’s Budget Stabilization Fund.

That rainy-day fund will now have a balance of about $75 million.