We have completed the last full week of February here in the Legislature. The schedule of morning debate on the floor and afternoon public hearings continues for a few more weeks. At times the days seem long, but the session is racing by.

LB 45, my bill to help revitalize rural communities, was heard on Tuesday by the Urban Affairs Committee. I want to give credit to Senator Tom Brandt who basically co-sponsored this legislation. This bill, which we call ReRun, got its start in Hebron last summer, when we were invited to tour their downtown. We had a large group of interested people and ended up visiting several towns, and hearing from many more.

We learned there are many small rural communities with deteriorating structures which are not only eyesores, but are potentially hazardous. The cost of demolition is just too great for these towns and villages to afford. We are talking about towns, termed cities of the second class, with fewer than 5,000 people, and villages below 800 in population. These locales want to keep their towns beautiful and maintain their commercial center, no matter how small it may be.

LB 45 creates the Revitalize Rural Nebraska (ReRun) grant program, to be administered by the Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy. It would appropriate $10 million and communities could apply for monetary assistance to demolish these buildings. If a grant is awarded, the town or village must match at a rate between 10 and 20% based on population, and has two years to use it. If money remains in the fund then a city of the first class (5,000 to 100,000 population) can apply for any that is left. The bill does protect structures on the National Register of Historic Places. I hope to see this moved to the General File very soon.

I have a simple bill waiting on the agenda to be heard on the General File (first round debate). LB 47 was brought to me by the fire chief in Panama. In 2020, legislation was passed to allow small towns and villages to post public notices in three conspicuous places in their area as an alternative to using print media. When that bill passed several years ago, they did not include rural fire districts. So this bill simply adds rural fire and suburban fire protection districts to the list, which have limited budgets. Of course, these entities may still publish notices in their local papers if they wish.

The Legislature heard the annual report from Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice, Mike Heavican, this week. His address included prison facilities, the needs of children, minority defendants and the challenges of mental health.

Statistics show there are 14,000 adults and 2,500 juveniles on probation at any given time. This has an effect on our state in several ways. The average cost to supervise an adult on probation is $5,500 per year, compared to a cost of $42,000 a year to incarcerate that person. Probation also keeps people employed, engaged in society and close to their family and local support system in ways that imprisonment does not.

Another recent innovation of the judicial system has been specialty courts. These focus on specific problems such as drug and alcohol addition, veterans treatments and of course, children, youth and families. A lot of success has been achieved with these courts and we need more of these outcomes. Communication is also a problem for our court system. The Chief Justice said there were 46 different languages interpreted in court proceedings in the past year.

Mental health is a major issue in our justice system, here and all across the country. This became increasingly apparent in the past few years, and especially during covid. Our jails and prisons are not meant to be used as mental health facilities. We need to confront that and get these individuals to places where they can get the help they need.

The Lincoln Regional Center has a present backlog of six months to do mental health evaluations. If we can get that down to at least three months and move people into treatment, that will go a long way in alleviating this problem. It will benefit not just offenders but the members of our community who put their lives on the line and work in the justice system as well.

LB 299 was debated this week by the full Legislature. It would ensure voters can approve interlocal bond agreements to pay for the construction of school buildings.

Residents of Beatrice are aware of the interlocal agreement between ESU 5 and Beatrice Public Schools (BPS). After failing twice to pass a bond issue; the school partnered with the ESU. Other schools in Nebraska have used this arrangement as well. Under current statute, any school can use up to 14 cents of levy for capital construction. Originally, this allowed for a funding source for things such as a new HVAC system or other expensive repairs. The caveat is that the 14 cents fall within their levy cap of $1.05. So BPS is using that 14 cents of levy to pay for construction through the interlocal agreement with the ESU .

I have reached out to people on both sides of this issue; and the primary concern was the lack of a vote on something with such long term funding ramifications. LB 299 would still allow interlocal agreements like this to be possible, but it eliminates the option of proceeding without a vote, and I support this concept.

In Appropriations, we are continuing with agency reports and hearings on bills. When I started as a senator just over four years ago, the state’s “rainy day fund” was at $300M. That amount was as low as we would ever want to see it. Now, if we didn’t spend any money, along with federal relief dollars coming into the state, strong revenue receipts and if revenue meets the forecasting board projections at the end of the fiscal year, we would have $2.3 billion in that fund on July 1st.

However, there are numerous proposals for spending. I have heard numbers that range up to $4 billion worth of ask. There are a lot of good ideas in these bills, I do know that. But I continue to look at it from a long term perspective. We need to make sure we are financially sound as a state four years from now. If we over-appropriate today, we will have big concerns in the future, if or when revenue drops again. We simply must be wise in our state expenditures.

I welcome your thoughts, comments and ideas. You can contact me by calling 402-471-2620; emailing mdorn@leg.ne.gov, or sending mail to District 30, PO Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509-4604. Thank you.