As expected, it has been a long week debating the budget.  The budget is done in a group of about six bills. The first two bills dealt with the actual payment of salaries of lawmakers and the salaries for the elected officials cited in the state constitution. LB195, the main budget bill, would appropriate funds for state government expenses. This is where the harder work began. Many would claim that we spent a lot of time debating “small cost” items; I would argue that those “small cost” items add up and rather quickly. While I would agree that presently our economic outlook is better than it has been, I think we need to be very careful with how we are spending money.

Senator Ken Schilz, of Ogallala, introduced an amendment that would have added $15 million over the biennium (the two year period) to the already budgeted $230 million property tax credit program. This addition of $7.5 million each year would have amounted to about $4.56 per $100,000 of property evaluation which would have been used to reduce property tax paid. I fully supported this amendment while others argued that it would take $15 million away from funding so called “worthy” projects and programs. It is my opinion that we should not be spending on all of these programs without giving some tax relief (especially property tax relief) to the hard working tax payers in the state. Senator Schilz amendment did not pass, I’ve lost that fight, and property taxpayers will not see that additional relief this year.

Another budget bill that has received a lot of attention is LB194, a bill that included $2.7 million for the purchase of a 2001 Super King Air B200 airplane. For that $2.7 million we would have no warranty, but it does include five years of maintenance assuming nothing major goes wrong and an avionics upgrade. This plane would be for use by the Governor and state agencies for state business. The state has been leasing this plane from the University of Nebraska Foundation but that operating agreement will expire on June 30, 2013. The Foundation is planning to sell the plane at that time and the Governor would like to purchase it. This funding was included without debate in the budget. Senator Annette Dubas, of Fullerton, brought an amendment, AM1324, which would strike the funding for the purchase of the plane and provide funding for a study addressing whether or not the state needs a plane, if so what kind of plane or if the state should lease or charter a plane for state use. After lengthy debate AM1324 did prevail, eliminating the funding. I was in favor of this amendment. I am not yet convinced that we need to own a plane and think that rather than jumping into the purchase of a plane just because we are familiar with it, we should look at our needs and if it is deemed necessary that we own a plane we need to look for one that meets our needs for the most reasonable cost. A new only slightly smaller 2013 King Air C90GTx with a full five year warranty, upgraded safety equipment and the latest technology can be purchased for about $800,000 more. With the memory of the crash that killed the Governor of South Dakota still in my mind, I think if we must own a plane that the extra money would be well spent.

As I write this newsletter we are down to nineteen working days left in the session with several issues waiting to be addressed. We will start next week with General File debate on the budget bills. The Appropriations Committee released the proposed budget this week and it will no doubt be a weekend reading project for many senators and staffers, me included. There has been a lot of talk lately about how much better our economic outlook is than what was originally predicted. This is in part because of the projected $125 million dollars the state is expecting to see by July 1^st in capital gains taxes paid by individuals who sold off investments last year fearing a large increase in the capital gains tax. I feel that it is very important that we keep in mind that this is a one time “jackpot” if you will and while it is nice to have it coming in we need to save it for a rainy day. Senator Heath Mello, of Omaha, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee has also cautioned the Legislature on the fact that this is a one-time influx of money and it should go to the cash reserve. The cash reserve is what you will often hear senators refer to as our “rainy day fund” or savings account. Like many of you the state has had to dip into that savings in the last few years in order to balance our budget (which, thankfully, is required of us) without making cuts that would completely eliminate programs.

According to the OpenSky Policy Institute, the Government Finance Officers Association suggests that states have 16.7 percent of their General Fund budgets in their “rainy day fund” or cash reserve account. In 2007 Nebraska had 15 percent of our General Fund budget set aside, today we will have 15.7 percent set aside if we adopt what the Appropriations Committee has proposed. While it is great that the predictions are better than originally forecasted, I think we need to be very cautious on how we are appropriating money. As we begin debate on the budget my focus will be on making sure that the programs and services that are essential to our state are provided for and that we are building our cash reserve back up for the next time we see a recession.

LB407, the bill dealing with state aid to schools, is also up on Select File debate Tuesday. While I do not see us reaching it on Tuesday, I am positive it will be debated again next week. Like I said last week, there are many factors that go into the very complicated state aid formula. Last week, I incorrectly stated that nine out of ten District 17 schools stood to lose money under the original Education Committee proposal. Six out of ten of the schools in our district stand to lose money under the original committee proposal from the TEEOSA portion of their funding and under the current compromise amendment which is what we will be discussing this week. As I look at the numbers now, no school should lose dollars to their total funding.   This is a case where we cannot give everyone what they want but we can make sure the schools have what they need. Remember, there is a difference between what we need and what we want. I know that there has been some concern in the district regarding funding and I understand that concern. My staff and I met with Senator Kate Sullivan (Chairperson of the Education Committee) this week to go over the state aid numbers for the schools in our district. After talking with her and her staff, I think this is a defendable plan.  I will intend to support the compromise amendment moving forward.  I intend to provide the actual numbers to you, probably after the session ends.  There is simply not enough room in these “updates” to put out the numbers and try to keep you informed on other things going on.

Looking forward, we still need to deal with the state budget as a whole, probably the death penalty  and the whole matter of expanding Medicaid is still not settled.

I attended the “Chamber Coffee” in South Sioux City on Friday (5/3), they are starting a new program to help eliminate litter and they are calling it “LITTER COSTS”.  If you would like more info please send your business email address to kquinn@simpco.org.  (Your email address will be kept private.)  I would remind all of us to take a little time and thank God again for the moisture He has sent our way.

This week we started debate on LB577, introduced by Senator Kathy Campbell of Lincoln, which would expand Medicaid in Nebraska. This is a contentious issue that is being brought about due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) otherwise known as Obamacare.

As written, LB577 would expand and require Nebraska Medicaid to add adults made eligible by the ACA. The bill will provide health insurance for any adults from 0 to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level. The proponents of this bill argue that this is a great move for those that would be considered the “working poor” in Nebraska. They further argue that for the first three years the federal government will cover 100% of the costs related to this expansion. After three years Nebraska will be required to pick up part of the cost.

Anyone that has read my weekly newsletters will not be surprised to hear that I am vehemently opposed to LB577. I was opposed to the ACA and I am opposed to expanding Medicaid in our state. While I wish everyone had adequate health insurance I do not think it is the responsibility of the government to provide it. The federal government is nearly $17,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) dollars in debt, the price tag for the expansion in Nebraska for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013-14 is $263,250,919.00 (million). That is what the federal government is supposed to pay us, but how; they do not have that kind of money. In FY 2016-17 this expansion is expected to cost the state $7,353,752.00. That may not sound like a lot in the big picture of the state budget but I would argue that these are projections and we have no way to know what the exact price tag will be, nor do we have the money.

We debated LB577 on Tuesday and Wednesday with no action being taken on the bill. With only 27 days left in the session, I am not sure when or if LB577 will be back on the agenda unless a compromise has been made and I do not know that there is a compromise that could be made on this bill. This bill, this idea and this spending of millions and millions of taxpayer money needs to go away. I am pleased that the Governor also seems to oppose this idea.

With all day debate in full swing and a schedule for late nights at the Legislature, it is becoming clear that we may debate a full eight hours on more bills than we should, especially if they were brought to address a specific issue faced by one community, county or area. First up was LB57, brought by Senator Tyson Larson, which would expand the oversight authority of the Nebraska Environmental Trust when its funds, given to grantees, are used to purchase real property. LB57 also provides for reimbursement to the counties for the loss of property tax revenue when Environmental Trust funded property is sold or transferred to a federal land management agency. While there are still some questions and possibly even some problems with the bill, it did advance from General File debate. I support this bill in hopes that it will help our counties, state-wide, preserve their property tax base.

LB271, introduced by Senator Scott Lautenbaugh, would reduce the number of days for in-person early voting in an attempt to prevent situations like one seen last year in Lincoln when a blind woman was unable to cast an early ballot because the Automark machine (a machine used to help disabled voters) did not have the necessary software at the time. It takes time after the voting ballot is set to program these machines. After much debate it was agreed to amend LB271 to say that no registered voter may appear in person more than 30 days prior to the election to obtain his or her ballot.  Current state law requires that ballots for in-person voting be ready at least 35 days prior to the election. As introduced the bill would have required ballots to be ready 25 days prior to the election. You could say that 30 days is a true compromise, no one is overly thrilled with it but they can deal with it. Nationwide the average is 22 days. This bill is necessary for the State of Nebraska to be in compliance with the federal help America Vote Act of 2002.

Starting this week, the Legislature will be in session until at least 6:00 p.m. or 6:30 p.m. every night that we are in session. Starting on April 22^nd we will begin working past the 6:30 p.m. hour on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Our final push will begin on May 7^th when every night we are in session is reserved by Speaker Adams as a late night, which could run as late as 11:59 p.m. with the exception of the last day of the week. As of today, the fifty-fourth day of the session, 115 of the 655 bills introduced have seen final action. Of that 115, 72 have been approved by the Governor, 36 have been indefinitely postponed and 7 have been withdrawn. I think it is safe to say that we have our work cut out for us with the budget and around 100 priority bills ahead of us. It sometimes seems like we make a lot out of some things that do not amount to much. Then we “fly over” more important issues.

This week marked the start of all day debate for the Legislature, the committee hearings are pretty much behind us. Most of the debate this week focused on LB 528, presented by Senator Sara Howard of Omaha, which would allow for expedited partner therapy (EPT) for the treatment of chlamydia and gonorrhea. EPT is the practice of allowing a physician who diagnoses a patient with either of these “sexually transmitted infections” (STI) which is the new politically correct name for what was called venereal disease to prescribe, provide or dispense medications to that patient’s partner(s) without examination of said partner or in some cases several partners.

I understand that we have high numbers of chlamydia; according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) as of December 2012 there were only 28 states that had a higher positivity rate than Nebraska. Another CDC report from December 2012 shows that only 30 states have a higher gonorrhea rate than Nebraska. I agree that something needs to be done but I don’t think that this bill is the answer. In most cases, if your child has been diagnosed with strep throat and is on medication and a few days later your throat is scratchy and you call the doctor hoping to get some medications they usually want to see you before giving you the medication. Why should getting medication for a STI be any different? This bill provides no protection for a doctor who prescribes medication to a partner of their patient without seeing them or even talking to them, who then has a reaction to the medication. For years the state has allowed a doctor to treat your minor child for an STD if they went in and saw the doctor, this bill would allow said minor child to receive a medication for chlamydia and gonorrhea without ever seeing a doctor and without the knowledge of the parent or guardian. Much to my chagrin this bill did advance to Select File.  I fear for any doctor that might write such a prescription.  I repeat, there is no protection from liability for the doctor in this proposed law.

NET and the Nebraska Office of the Chief Information have announced the launch of a new mobile app, Nebraska Capitol Live. This new app is a free download found in the Apple App Store, Android market or iTunes store. This is one more way you can keep track of what is happening with your state government.

A majority of this week was spent debating LB 613, introduced by Senator Paul Schumacher of Columbus, which would create the Tax Modernization Commission. After the Governor backed off of LB 405 and LB 406, which were his tax proposal bills, LB 613 became the main focus for looking at taxes. The purpose of the commission would be to review and recommend updates for the state’s tax laws.

This commission would be a special legislative committee made up of the Revenue Committee, the chairperson(s) from the Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Education, Agriculture Committees and the Legislature’s Planning Committee. This commission will be chaired by the chairperson of the Revenue Committee. There are six elements the commission will look at but they are not limited to those six elements which are: fairness, competitiveness, simplicity and compliance, stability, adequacy, and complementary tax systems.

LB 613 has an emergency clause attached to it which means that this act would take effect as soon as it is passed according to the law. On Wednesday, March 20^th, LB 613 advanced to Select File which is the second round of debate. I believe that this is something we need to do; we need to look at our current tax structure and ways to improve it as a whole. Studying the issue during the remainder of this year and then making decisions is a much wiser path than passing a smorgasbord of tax bills with no idea of what the impact might end up being.

Additionally, my final two bills were heard by the Judiciary Committee this week. LB 602 which would adopt the Nebraska Firearms Freedom Act and LB 171 which would provide for an expedited concealed carry permit process for victims of domestic violence were heard. I feel strongly about both of these of bills but it was made clear during the hearing that Senator Chambers and others intend to fight LB 602. Realistically, I know that both of these bills are now in the black hole that the Judiciary Committee has become.   Many good ideas go to this committee never to be heard from again.  LB 171 was not as strongly condemned so it might have a slight chance.  There were five or six bills introduced to this committee to strengthen and protect your rights to keep and bear arms.  I doubt any of them will survive this group of senators.  If you feel strongly that any of these bills need to come out of the committee, I would encourage you to contact the members of the Judiciary Committee and let them know how you feel.

It was another busy week in Lincoln, I had two bills that were heard in committees and several bills have been discussed with the full Legislature. LB 143, which I introduced would allow schools to adopt a sexual abuse policy if they so choose, was heard in the Education Committee. I am cautiously optimistic that this bill will be advanced from the committee but time will tell. LB 473, which would add parks of at least twenty-five hundred square feet to the list of residency restrictions for Sexual Predators of Children, was heard by the Judiciary Committee. I am pretty sure that this bill will not come out of the committee. My hope is that the Judiciary Committee will spend some time reviewing the sexual offender laws we currently have and look at ways to improve them and as part of that process they will look into adding parks to schools and child care facilities as restricted areas.

Senators are allowed to select one bill that they can designate as a priority bill every year. Priority bills have a priority status and are generally considered ahead of other bills. In addition to senators being allowed to select a priority bill, each committee is allowed to select two bills for committee priority bills. This year I have decided to make LB 393, which would change helmet and eye protection provisions regarding motorcycles my priority bill.

LB 105 introduced by Senator Steve Lathrop of Omaha, is a bill that was discussed this week on General File that may be of interest to many of you in the district. This bill would require any child care facility which is licensed by the Department of Health to have written proof of liability insurance coverage of at least one hundred thousand dollars per occurrence. A provider that is already licensed by the state will need to obtain the liability insurance and provide written proof to the department within thirty days of this act becoming effective. A licensee who fails to maintain the required level of insurance will be deemed noncompliant with the Child Care Licensing Act. I think this bill will in all likelihood become law. My reason for mentioning this in the newsletter is to suggest that each of you review your homeowner’s policy. As I understand current law if anyone within the home receives any amount of payment for watching a child, your homeowner’s policy probably won’t be responsible for any harm that might befall that child, whether you are licensed or not. So, if your daughter is being paid to watch the neighbor’s child your insurance may not pay if the child falls and gets hurt. Please to protect yourself from financial loss, check with your insurance agent.

I would like to recognize National Agriculture Day, March 19^th, a day to recognize the abundance provided by agriculture. We need to remember the many contributions made to our society by the agriculture industry.