With North Dakota recently enacting budget cuts in light of lower than expected tax revenues, allocations of state spending in the future is a widespread topic of discussion. While public officials need to address the state’s budget woes, the drop in expected tax revenue should be seen as just part of a deeper challenge with the state’s economy: Its dependency on high commodity prices.

North Dakota has been fortunate to have the Bakken shale formation and some of the most fertile farmland in the world in addition to other natural resources. These have obviously been a boom to our economy, and while there were some growing pains and undesired consequences associated with the shale oil boom, our energy sector is an important part of making North Dakota a prosperous place.

But, as the last couple months have shown, North Dakotans must deal with both the highs and the lows when it comes to the price of oil and its effect on the economy. This downturn in projected tax revenue has been coupled with state spending that has grown drastically over the past several years, in part to deal with the increased need for public spending to accommodate issues surrounding the rapid growth in the state.

However, the budget problems are reflective of an underlying reality of a major part of the state’s economy. As the state deals with the current budget problem, we should also look forward to what we want the future of the state to look like. While we are fortunate to have natural resources, it is apparent that the state would benefit from an economy that is more diverse. This would complement the current stronger parts of our state when times are good and provide stability, both for workers, and for state tax revenues when things slow down.

In the long run, the people who live and work in this state would be better off with a job market that provides solid, good paying jobs that don’t disappear when oil prices dip. Saying North Dakota should have a diversified economy is much easier than actually achieving it. After all, any state should want that, but some clearly excel at this diversity compared to others.

Public policy in the state should be shaped so that people have the opportunity to flourish. This is a wide philosophical statement; the intricacies of the specific actions needed to achieve this will obviously be examined and debated further.

Not only should the state be a place where businesses want to open, but it should be a place where people want to raise their families, where people are treated with respect and where we give a hand up to people who may have fallen on hard times.

This means investing in priorities that are essential to the foundation of the state, addressing the current problems with our budget, and creating an environment in our state where people have the ability to make a better life for themselves and their families.