We have reached the midpoint of the 60 day session of the Legislature. As with many things we experience, the days are long but the months and years go by fast.

My bill, LB 940, has advanced to final reading. The legislation will make it possible for a county to pay for services provided through non-profit organizations that have the necessary expertise and experience.

My last bill for the session was presented in public hearings on Wednesday. LB 1095 is an E-15 Ethanol Act “clean up” bill. The Department of Revenue and the Department of Agriculture asked for these clarifications: the specific definitions of motor fuels and ethanol blends, storage tanks and dispensers, and dates .There was no opposition to the bill. I hope it sails through the process and continues to encourage ethanol availability.

Most committees are finishing up their public hearings this week. The Appropriations committee on which I serve heard 59 bills as well as reports from all state agencies. We finished those up on Tuesday so we are now in the process of going back through all the agency adjustment requests; then we will take up the Governor’s budget proposals as well as reviewing the funds he wants to bring back into the state’s budget. Finally, we will consider bills we heard in committee.

Appropriations met in a special executive session this week to vote on whether to advance LB 1402 to first round debate. Sponsored and prioritized by Sen. Linehan of Elkhorn, the bill would appropriate $25 million out of general funds to provide grants to scholarship organizations for eligible students to attend a K-12 private school. Sen. Linehan brought the bill as a replacement for the Opportunity Scholarship Act, passed last year to allow income tax credit on contributions made to scholarship organizations. However, that Act was the subject of a successful referendum petition drive, and the possible repeal of the Act will be on the November ballot. The vote to advance LB 1402 out of committee was 6 to 3. I did not vote in favor of advancing the bill.

A note on agency requests. As you know the state budget spans two years. Nebraska has 74 agencies with 275 programs, the largest being the Department of Health and Human Services. In the first budget year, each agency must update their numbers and submit a report by December. For the second year changes may occur if, for example, a program has excess funds; or something arose that caused their budget to fall short. Of course during Covid, we had a lot of those shortfalls, but we are not seeing that this year. In general, state agencies do not have the authority to shift funding around between programs without the approval of the Legislature. So sometimes an agency will ask for permission to move unused funds in their original budget to other projects.

Two years ago the state received $1.04 billion in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding from the federal government. As we went through the process of allocating the funds through the Appropriations Committee we anticipated that some projects would not fit the federal criteria or could not be completed by the deadline. ARPA funds must be allocated by the end of this year and spent by September 30th, 2026. As a result we are now reviewing reallocation requests.

LB 931, introduced by Sen. Fredrickson is one of those. He asked for a reallocation of $2.5 million for the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska, BHECN, to increase mental health treatment capacity. The intended purpose is the same but the mechanism for spending those dollars has been adjusted to make sure we can capture that funding for Nebraska . There are some excellent projects out there that received ARPA funding and we want to make sure it all gets used appropriately.
The exact amount of unallocated ARPA funds varies, due to pending uses, reallocation, etc., but could perhaps be as much as $80 million. The Governor wanted to move that money to the Department of Transportation to use for safety measures. Sen. McDonnell’s bill LB1079 would give some to the Department of Economic Development for reinvestment, low income housing construction loans, and so on.

On Wednesday, I was able to meet with the Leadership Beatrice class and listen to a talk by Bryan Slone, State Chamber president. He indicated how far behind we are as a state with workforce/affordable housing. Testifiers at the hearing for LB 1079 also spoke to the scarcity of housing for those in poverty and people with disabilities. When you hear from builders, you also find out the term “affordable housing” means different things. Housing can be very different in communities in rural Nebraska compared to a newer part of Omaha, and with a very different price tag, including District 30.

Contact me any time at mdorn@leg.ne.gov. Call or leave a message at 402-471-2620. Thank you.