Senate Majority Leader David Hogue, R-Minot, speaks during a committee meeting on Sept. 24, 2025. (Photo by Michael Achterling/North Dakota Monitor)
By: Michael Achterling
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – North Dakota lawmakers chose a consultant to conduct a study on the effects of the state’s term limits law, but some lawmakers questioned the need for the study at all.
Members of the Legislative Procedure and Arrangements Committee heard presentations Tuesday from Garty Consulting LLC and the Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth, but during the meeting multiple lawmakers debated the need to spend up to $225,000 on a study they said would have a predictable result.
“Do we have to choose one?” asked House Minority Leader Zac Ista, D-Grand Forks. “In six months, eight months from now, I’m not going to learn something that I don’t already know about term limits and how it impacts our legislative assembly.”
Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck, said he didn’t support the study during the legislative session and he doesn’t support it now.
“I think there’s better uses for nearly a quarter million dollars than to study something voters just voted on and the Legislature is already responding to,” Cleary said.
Under the term limits ballot measure approved by voters in 2022, North Dakota lawmakers can’t serve more than eight years in the state House and eight years in the state Senate. The governor is also limited to serving no more than two terms in office.
Up to 69 lawmakers will be termed out in 2028 and up to an additional 72 lawmakers will be termed out in 2030, according to a Legislative Council analysis.
Legislative Council is looking to hire 25 new staff members for 2025-27, in part to assist new lawmakers as the term limit law begins to take effect.
Senate Majority Leader Sen. David Hogue, R-Minot, said the effects of the term limits law will compound each year. He said he believes lawmakers need to have a better idea of what to expect.
“This is just a slow moving, I’ll call it a trainwreck, that will come off the tracks, not in one single rotation of the wheels, but over a period of two to four years where we could have 50% turnover,” Hogue said. “I don’t think we’re structured now to handle that rate of turnover.”
He added lawmakers and legislative staff need an independent study on the term limits law because he believes state lawmakers are “too close” to the issue and could be accused of self-dealing.
Some of the solutions are obvious, Hogue said. Increasing Legislative Council staff to have more long-term professionals with knowledge of the legislative branch and implementing more educational opportunities for new lawmakers could help preserve the Legislature’s co-equal branch of government status, he said.
Lawmakers earlier this year approved up to $225,000 for the study in the budget for Legislative Council.
Committee members on Tuesday debated postponing choosing a consulting group for the study, but the motion failed.
Legislators chose Garty Consulting in a split vote after lawmakers were reassured by Legislative Council they will be able to provide guidance about the study’s focus to the consulting group as long as it doesn’t increase costs. The study is expected to cost $220,000.
In its proposal, Garty Consulting said it will survey members of the public to gauge their feelings on term limits and organize focus groups and meetings with key stakeholders to assemble data for a final report.
The consulting firm was recently launched by Jolene Garty, former deputy executive director of operations for the South East Education Cooperative in Fargo. She said the group plans to pivot the focus of the study based on feedback from lawmakers.
The final report on the term limits study is expected by April 2026, according to the group’s proposal.
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