calculator2BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) – Deposits into North Dakota’s oil tax savings account have dropped to the lowest level since the fund was created.
 
     State Treasurer Kelly Schmidt says the Legacy Fund deposit for March was $22.9 million, down from $31.7 million in February.
 
     North Dakota voters approved the fund in 2010. It received its first deposit of $34.3 million in September 2011.
 
     The fund had been growing faster than anticipated. But it’s slowed now with slumping oil production and prices.
 
     The Legacy Fund gets 30 percent of the state’s oil tax collections. The money can’t be touched before 2017 and it would still take a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to dip into it.
 
     Schmidt says this month’s transfer brings the balance of the account to about $3.46 billion.