We have completed all of our committee hearings and we’ve begun full-day debate on the floor. The speaker is focusing the agenda on priority bills from senators, committees and speaker priority bills. We are also working on consent calendar legislation. These are bills that had no opposition in their committee hearing, and were advanced out of committee on a unanimous vote. The process for these bills is accelerated and debate is limited.

We have begun debating the budget, including taxation and spending measures, and bills that appropriate federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. Our rules require we take up the budget debate on the 40th day of the session. The budget bills need to be sent to the Governor by the 50th day. So far, two of the four budget bills have passed the first round of debates. Many senators have important questions about the priority of state spending projects, and they will continue the debate into the next round.  

The Nebraska Legislature passes the biannual budget every odd-numbered year in a long session. During the short session in even numbered years like this year, the budget debate is ordinarily a minor affair. The main budget is passed using assumptions about revenue. In the short-session year, we typically adjust the budget to fit the revenue the state actually received versus the forecast that was used to build the budget. This year is very different. We have slightly more than $1 billion in extra federal dollars to appropriate and spend. 

New fiscal projections would push the “Rainy Day Fund” (the state’s cash reserve) to a record $1.7 billion by the end of the two-year budget period. Senator Stinner, the appropriations committee chairman, has said that a $1.3 billion or $1.4 billion balance would give the state security against the next economic downturn. 

The state forecasting board has boosted its projections of state tax collections for the current fiscal year to $5.725 billion, or $370 million more than its previous number. By law, that money will automatically go into the rainy day fund.  

Next year, the board added $405 million to its estimate, bringing the total to $5.96 billion. That leaves $392.7 million more revenue available for the two-year budget cycle.  

The forecasting board sets the revenue figures used by both the legislature and the governor in building the state’s budget. I’m glad they are projecting economic and revenue growth for Nebraska, but there is a lot of uncertainty in the world today.

The historic skyrocketing inflation we are now experiencing has been caused by historic levels of money-printing that the federal government has engaged in. Nearly eighty percent of all the US dollars in circulation today have been created out of thin air in the last two years. This concerns me very much. I think Nebraska should have a strong cash reserve. With all that’s going on in the world right now, I think having plenty in our savings account is a very good idea. We will be glad later if we save now.