The Legislature continued this week with a schedule of morning debate on the floor, and afternoon committee hearings. I had three bills heard in committee this week, LB 759, LB 1090 and LB 1091.

LB 759 addresses the microenterprise loan program, which is part of the Business Innovation Act (BIA).  This program began in 2011 to award loans to small businesses. The original amount back then was $50,000; it was raised to $100,000 in 2015.  My bill would raise that cap to $150,000 in an effort to account for cost of living changes, the current business climate and inflation and get those funds out to the people who really need it and can use it to contribute to our local economy.  This program works well for those who might not fit a typical bank loan. The entrepreneurs and start ups in the program have nearly always been turned down by traditional lenders, and this can fill a financing gap in the community. BIA also provides technical assistance and helps these innovators develop the credit history they will need to become bankable going forward. 

I also introduced LB 1090 to resolve an issue in a positive way with the Business Innovation Act (BIA). This bill increases the annual cap of the amount of funds to be awarded for microlending and technical assistance. Last year, the Legislature passed LB 380 which capped small business investment at 20% of the BIA budget appropriation, amounting to about $2 million for microlending. That created a ‘math problem’ that needs to be remedied. With an appropriation of $13.7 M this year, and $14.7 M for FY 22-23, a cap of just two million dollars would prohibit full use of the intended 20% for small businesses. Increasing the cap from $2M to $3M allows BIA, through the Department of Economic Development, to fully fund small business investment and assistance.

The third bill, LB 1091, was heard by the Health and Human Services Committee. This bill was brought to me by Nebraska nurses and hospitals, as part of a group of bills designed to help with the healthcare staffing crisis in our state. A study done last year shows we will have a shortage of over 5,000 nurses in just three years. We all know how important high quality and readily available health care can be for a community. This bill would allocate $5 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to provide scholarships for nursing students. The requirements include being a resident of Nebraska, enrolling in an approved program, and the intent to work in nursing for two years in our state when education is complete. My hope is to keep our healthcare workforce as strong as possible going forward.

Much of the debate on the floor this week has centered around school finance, with a measure to cap spending in LB 986 by Sen. Briese, modifying state school financing in LB 890 introduced by Sen. Walz, and a separate  companion funding bill from Sen. Lindstrom, LB 891.  

Like a similar measure for a 3% cap on school spending in last year’s session, LB 986 didn’t get enough votes for cloture, so will not proceed. While discussion did go the full eight hours allotted, I did appreciate the explanations of how it would affect schools, property tax, and the reasons for the bill. Many of our school districts are controlling spending and those local school boards are doing their job well. That bill had a cap of 2.5% and we have many schools below that.  Generally speaking when a school has a high increase in spending, there is a reason why.  Lincoln Public Schools over the last five years has had a 7% increase in spending; but they also have new school buildings to staff and a growth in student population.

In Nebraska, we have strong support for local control: we have local schools boards and there are local elections for those boards. You have an opportunity at your local level to get involved, to see what is going on. You can ask your elected officials at the local level why they voted a certain way. So right there we have an opportunity to help control spending. I did vote against LB 986. My vote was based on my experience of sitting on the county board. A cap can have an inverse effect, it can actually encourage a board to go up to the maximum allowed by a cap so they don’t risk losing money in future years. Generally, the cap doesn’t do what you want. It rewards those who have spent too much, as they are now starting at a higher level. Those who spend less start at a lower level and lose out. The result is that a cap can have a negative impact on the intent of keeping taxes lower; and in LB 986 it could have increased spending in some school districts.

Taxes and K-12 school funding debate continued when we took up LB 890. The funding arm to implement this is addressed in LB 891. One good aspect of separating the matter into two bills:  it allowed one to be heard by the Education Committee and the other by the Revenue Committee.  At this time, I cannot support LB 890, there are too many winners and losers without guarantees for the funding of all schools across the state. Since long hours had been spent on this without any consensus, Speaker Hilgers used his authority to put a ‘speaker hold’ on the bill and debate has stopped for the present time. 

In the meantime, make sure you get credit for your property taxes. Under LB 1107 passed last year, property tax payers are eligible for the income tax credit refund for school property tax paid. This year the level is 25.3% of the school property taxes you paid in 2021, so be sure to file for that and get that refund. Last year it didn’t all get used, so be sure to apply that on your income tax return.

Please continue to contact my office if you have any concerns or questions. mdorn@leg.ne.gov  402-471-2620. Send mail to District 30, PO Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509-4604. These are the best ways to contact me, and I appreciate hearing from you.