Nebraska lawmakers have given first round approval to a bill that contains many of the Governor’s suggested adjustments to the current biennial budget.
LB 1412 was advanced on a vote of 39 to 4 Wednesday, but not before an eight hour filibuster was ended through a cloture vote.
During floor comments, Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad said she was not happy with some of the provisions pulling funding from behavioral health and developmental disabilities programs. She said the adjustment was a mess and not needed. “We’re playing games and we’re using baling wire and bubble gum to construct a budget to pay for unsustainable arbitrary property tax relief, period, And to prop up the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires and big corporations that you all put into effect last year. So let’s not kid ourselves with what’s going on here,” Conrad said.
The measure as amended is a 3.1 percent spending increase, which is higher than the 2 percent increase called for by the governor due to an unanticipated rise in state aid to schools of $94 million,
Lawmakers then moved on to LB 1413, the companion measure that includes new and amended transfers of funds for the current and next fiscal year with the General Fund receiving a net of more than $162 million.
As written, the transfers also include approximately $31 million from the General Fund to the Education Futures Fund, and it also includes a transfer of nearly $60 million from the state’s rainy day fund.
Debate on that measure was scheduled to continue Thursday.
