Nearly a quarter of the current session is already in the books. Bill introduction is complete with the addition of 597 new bills, and public hearings begin on the 22nd. The Governor has outlined his budget proposals and the Appropriations Committee has begun working on the state’s finances. By the time you see this update, debate on the rules will have been completed and going forward, our time on the floor will be spent on bills and resolutions.

We did adopt some rule changes that will affect how we do our work on the floor. I want to point out that many of these changes simply streamline how we conduct business as a legislative body, and do not have a direct effect on the public. For example, “E and R Amendments”, the step in processing a bill called Enrollment and Review, are brought forward when the Revisor’s office here at the Legislature finds a grammatical mistake or a need to harmonize a statute with other sections of the law. Those amendments are just technical in nature. Another instance of legislative business is to take up the state budget on the same round of debate with judges salaries and state claims. We approved a rule to allow for fiscal notes to be sent electronically, rather than printed and sent to each senator for each bill, reflecting a savings of time and money.

You may notice some of the new rules if you observe debate, which refer to the order of amendments and whether or not a question can be divided. Again, these are designed to improve the process, not change substance. In sessions when we have a “consent calendar”, we will now need five senators to disagree that a bill qualifies for “consent” rather than the previous three. Consent calendar is a method used by the Speaker to put non controversial bills, which had no opposition, on the agenda. Each bill in this category is limited to 15 minutes of debate and then a vote is taken.

A rule change that will benefit both senators and the public can be found in the new requirement for “statements of intent” to be submitted three days prior to a public hearing. This statement is a short paragraph that describes a bill in layman’s terms; you can find the intent statement, and all fiscal notes, on the legislature’s website for every bill. I will discuss any additional rule changes next week.

Thursday morning, prior to the Governor’s State of the State address, the Appropriations and Revenue committee received a private briefing from the Governor, as is traditional. The Governor and his staff went over the budget proposals and discussed how they intend to implement those ideas. After the presentation, I am comfortable saying that if the economy remains strong as it has been the past few years and revenue stays where it is, and as long as funding is controlled and the dollars are accounted for, then the Governor’s plan is a sustainable program.

No one can predict a recession and so there is always the need to be prepared; to make sure that during good times you are preparing for the down times of the economy. We need to be aware of costs and control spending, so when we run into the inevitable rough patch, we are ready. As the Governor pointed out, back in the 1970s and 80s in agriculture, the ones who survived had a long term plan and had prepared for it.

The Governor did discuss a hard cap on government entities that collect property tax. For example, if valuations go up 10% and the levy isn’t lowered, in practicality, property tax went up 10%. So, the levy must be adjusted accordingly. There are different levels being discussed about the cap, and there will be some exceptions for growth, etc. We need to remember that a valuation increase in itself is not necessarily a bad thing for a property owner, since it reflects market value and potential. But tying the levy and property taxes to that valuation is what causes the problem.
The property tax credit fund, which was enacted over three years ago, still does not show that everyone is taking advantage of this method to lower their property tax. About 25% of the fund in this Act is going unclaimed, so a portion of that fund will be moved to another line in the budget and shown as revenue for the state.

Another idea from the Governor is to pull some agency funds back into the main budget from unexpended cash funds. As he said, the state is not supposed to hoard funding in this way. Finally, a major proposal in the Governor’s plan for raising more revenue is through an increase of one cent of sales tax, and by eliminating various exemptions from sales tax such as soda pop and candy, for example.

Six bills were introduced by Speaker Arch at the request of the Governor, to accomplish these recommendations. The Appropriations and Revenue Committees will hold hearings and consider these proposals before the full legislature takes them up for debate.

As we move into public hearings I encourage you to check the Legislature’s website for schedules, statements of intent, fiscal notes and the portal to submit your comments if you are not able to testify in person and wish to do so. And as always, I welcome your communication. www.nebraskalegislature.gov mdorn@leg.ne.gov 402-471-2620