Senate Bill 2012 (SB 2012) allocates up to $80,000,000 per biennium to non-oil-producing counties and the townships within these non-oil-producing counties for "road and bridge infrastructure projects" with up to $40,000,000 to be distributed by the Office of State Treasurer and adds additional requirements for organized and unorganized townships to be eligible to receive the township infrastructure portion. The remaining $40,000,000 will be appropriated to the Department of Transportation (DOT) for grants. For more information related to grants through Department of Transportation (DOT), please visit DOT's website detailing grant and funding programs.
Amounts:
The $40,000,000 is to be divided between the counties and townships as follows:
- 13%, or $5,200,000, among the townships in non-oil-producing counties,
- 87%, or $34,800,000, among the non-oil-producing counties.
During the 2025 Legislative Session, House Bill 1065 (HB 1065) was passed amending the distribution from an equal allocation to an allocation proportional to road miles. A copy of the final bill can be found here.
The township amount will be distributed proportionately based on township road miles to all qualifying townships in non-oil counties. Based on current data and the additional requirements for eligibility, the Office of State Treasurer is unable to provide any estimates. This money will be distributed to the county for further allocation to the organized townships. In the case of unorganized townships, the county will retain the money for use on unorganized township roads. See “Eligibility Requirements” below for more information to determine the status of your county or township.
The county amount will be allocated to the non-oil-producing counties based on the most recently completed Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute's needs study. The distribution to each county is to be proportional to each county's total estimated needs relative to the combined needs of all eligible counties.
Eligibility Requirements:
SB 2012, Section 17 added the following criteria for townships to be eligible to receive a direct distribution from the Township Infrastructure Fund.
Unorganized Townships:
- A county must levy at least eighteen mills for unorganized township road and bridge purposes
Organized Townships:
- Must levy at least eighteen mills for general purposes AND
- Have a general fund balance of less than one hundred thousand dollars as of December thirty-first of the prior year.
The Office of State Treasurer will be using data from ND Tax Commissioner’s Taxpayer Access Point (TAP) to retrieve the mill levy data; therefore, no additional certification will be required by the counties.
The Office of State Treasurer will send correspondence to non-oil-producing counties in the last quarter of calendar year 2025 regarding the process to certify the general fund balance of organized townships. The certification will need to be returned to the Office of State Treasurer the first quarter of 2026.
Eligible Projects:
NDCC 57-51.1-07.8 defines "road and bridge infrastructure projects" as follows...
"Road and bridge infrastructure projects" means the projects associated with the construction of new unpaved and paved road and bridge infrastructure or associated with the maintenance, repair, or replacement of existing unpaved and paved road and bridge infrastructure.
Timing:
As with the municipal amounts, the timing of these distributions will be dependent on when the County and Township Infrastructure Fund bucket is filled during the biennium. Distributions will occur the month after the fund reaches its biennial cap of $80,000,000, or the end of the biennium if it doesn't fill completely.
Reporting Requirements:
By November 30 of each even numbered year, each county that receives a distribution from this fund is required to provide a report to the Office of State Treasurer on the usage of the funds received. This reporting will be done online via the Office of State Treasurer's website and will provide for review of the reported information by the general public.
Failure to report in a timely manner or in the correct format will make said county ineligible for funding during the subsequent biennium. Using the funding in a manner inconsistent with the requirements for eligible projects will reduce any future grants to that county by the amount spent on ineligible projects.
Click here to be taken to the reporting page.