The Number Of North Dakotans Reporting Income Greater Than $1 Million/Year Jumps By 22 Percent; If A Really, Really Good Farm Bill Is Passed, Things Could Be Even Better In 2014; Fargo And Grand Forks In Top Five Fastest Growing US Metro Areas, 2013

 The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

The number of people reporting seven-figure incomes in oil-rich North Dakota nearly doubled last year and residents' average incomes rose 22 percent to an all-time high, boosted by the state's booming oil economy, state tax officials said. 

"It was a really strong 2012, not only in oil but agriculture across the entire state," Deputy Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger said Wednesday.
Tax Department figures released to The Associated Press show a record 1,126 people reported incomes of more than $1 million on their 2012 individual tax returns, up from 634 in 2011. Only 339 so-called income millionaires reported incomes of more than $1 million in 2006, at the dawn of North Dakota's unprecedented oil boom.

Tax Department records show the average adjusted gross income in the state increased from $60,947 to $74,221 last year. The average adjusted gross income on 2006 returns was about $43,300.

Rauschenberger said North Dakota has jumped from 38th in the nation in per capita personal income in 2006 to 6th highest in 2012.

The first Bakken well in this boom was drilled in 2007, I believe (again, I'm forgetting all the facts I once knew about the Bakken; stuff is moving too quickly).

On another note, if a really, really good farm bill is passed, things might be even better in 2014. Politico is reporting:

The potato industry and lawmakers have another card up their sleeve in their effort to protect the starchy spuds from those who seek to remove them from federal nutrition programs: a study inserted in the House’s version of the farm bill that could be used to promote their healthful qualities.

The single paragraph is easy to miss in the 701-page House farm bill, tucked away in Section 4051 on Page 388. It would require the Department of Agriculture to “conduct a review of the economic and public health benefits of white potatoes on low-income families who are determined to be at nutritional risk” and report the findings to both the House and Senate Agriculture committees no less than one year after the date of the law’s enactment.

To the untrained eye, Section 4051, referred to simply as the “Review of Public Health Benefits of White Potatoes,” is just another potentially legislatively mandated study. But it’s much more important than that to the National Potato Council, which says it is needed to fight against nutritionists who’ve been using outdated science in an effort to exclude potatoes and potato products from USDA programs intended to feed needy school kids as well as pregnant women, infants and children.

The little I know about nutrition: potatoes are a gazillion times healthier than white rice.  And, I believe healthier than corn. On the latter I could be wrong; on the former I know I am correct.

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Meanwhile, CarpeDiem is reporting:

Looking forward, energy will continue to fuel economic gains this year, and the metro areas of Texas will again top the list of fastest growers; this year they will be joined by Fargo and Bismarck, ND both of which are benefiting from booming growth around the Bakken Shale play. The top five fastest growing metro areas for 2013 are expected to be: Midland (7.3%), Odessa (6.4%), Pascagoula MS (6.3%), Fargo (5.7%) and Bismarck (5.4%). Amazingly, four of the top five metro areas for economic growth this year are directly benefiting from the shale areas fueling the Great American Energy Boom: Midland and Odessa in Texas, and Fargo and Bismarck in North Dakota.

One wonders how many Minnesotans living along the North Dakota state line are simply moving across the river into a low-tax state.