Senator Justin Wayne of Omaha, speaking with Senator Rob Clements of Elmwood. August 14, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Legislature on Thursday approved the second of two budget bills from the special session aimed at offsetting the cost of a scaled-back property tax relief plan.
But senators spent most of the day discussing what they would like to include in the property tax package and trying to find a last-minute solution for more substantial relief.
In essence, senators seeking options other than those provided by special session procedures/Speaker John Arch’s trial looked at Wednesday’s failed filibuster on the first budget proposal and said, “Same thing.”
The Budget Committee rewrote Bill 3 to transfer $22 million in fees and interest collected by state agencies to the general fund to cover some of the costs of Bill 34, the property tax relief package championed by Gov. Jim Pillen and his allies.
The bill passed by a 35-11 vote after eight hours of debate. LB 3 followed the passage of LB 2 on Wednesday, which included $117 million in spending cuts. Combined, the two would cover most of the $185 million cost of the new aid.
Sen. Rob Clements, chairman of the Budget Committee, said the state would use $46 million from its cash reserves to cover the rest, but LB 3 will help cover some of the costs.
Clements repeatedly defended the commission’s decision to collect or use interest earned on state funds for license plates and other inmate-produced items.
He ultimately agreed to an amendment from Senator Terrell McKinney of Omaha that restored the $250,000, saying the conflict over that issue was not worth the loss of the remaining $22 million-23 million in funds.
“We don’t need to move this money because we have problems right now that need to be solved,” McKinney said.
Clements apologized “for the great concern this has caused” and said that no one during the committee hearings on LB 3 had raised any issues regarding the money for the corrections.
“That is why we bring bills forward and discuss them,” he said.
Clements defeated a similar effort to claw back $2 million that was cut from the Universal Service Fund, some of which is used to improve broadband and cell phone service in rural areas.
“We have appropriated money to fund property taxes, but it should not hurt any agency with any amount of money,” Clements said.
For the second day in a row, Senators Danielle Conrad of Lincoln and Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha argued during a special session that there was no need for funding for property tax relief.
But members of the Budget Committee, including Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, resisted efforts to block the cuts, saying the Budget Committee took their job seriously.
Much of the debate, the Examiner reported earlier Thursday, was dominated by efforts to force more property tax relief than provided for in House Bill 34, introduced this week.
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