Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
10-18-2019

On Friday, October 18th, we held a meeting of the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee to discuss two interim study resolutions. These resolutions are introduced by senators who want to investigate topics that they think may require action by the Legislature. Our committee heard testimony on two subjects: unfunded mandates by the Legislature for counties, and election technology updates.

The first study, LR 149, was introduced by Senator Justin Wayne. His concern was laws passed by the Unicameral telling counties to run programs without providing state funds to make those programs work. He pointed out that the Government Committee does not get a lot of chances to lower property taxes, but that this was one area where that is possible.

Senator Steve Erdman testified next. As a former county commissioner in Morrill County, he told the committee that unfunded mandates are a core reason for high property taxes in Nebraska. Keeping state prisoners in county jails is not reimbursed like it used to be. State aid to counties was cut off in 2011. He accused the Legislature of “balancing the state’s budget on the backs of local units of government” over the last ten years.

A representative from the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO) agreed with Senator Erdman. NACO provided a handout with a whole laundry list of additional unfunded mandates. Among others, the costs of laws requiring county action on behavioral/mental health and transport for juveniles and other state wards add up quickly.

A Lancaster County board member informed us that in Lancaster County unfunded mandates add up to almost $20 million of expenses in the current budget year alone. A representative from Douglas County piled on with even bigger numbers. It is clear that there are a lot of programs that my colleagues in the Legislature have created in law that do not have any funding source other than the local property tax payer.

All of the testifiers seemed to agree that if the county government is doing something to help the local community, it makes sense to pay for it locally. But if that activity is really about state goals and local officials do not have much say in how to carry it out, that is something that lawmakers in Lincoln ought to budget for.

The second hearing of the day was on LR 247, proposed by Senator La Grone. He is my committee vice-chair, and he is keenly interested in keeping elections honest and secure. At this hearing we heard testimony about how we are updating Nebraska elections technology. Testifiers all agreed that the useful life of elections equipment is about ten years, but one thing is not going to change any time soon: using paper ballots is still essential. Part of my Government Committee priority package this past year provided for needed election law changes, handicap accessibility updates, better training, and more streamlined Election Day procedures. Fortunately, we are on track to have all of our ballot machines and procedures updated in time for the upcoming 2020 elections.

Please contact my office with any comments, questions, or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.