Lawmaker doubts Kansas lawsuit

By LORRI SUGHROUE

City Editor

Kansas will threaten to sue Nebraska over non- compliance in the Republican River Compact but stop short of filing a lawsuit, Sen. Mark Christensen predicted this morning in McCook.

Christensen spoke at the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce and Industry Legislative Forum at Country Kitchen. About 30 attended the forum, where representatives of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce also spoke of the state’s economic climate.

In response to a question from the audience, Christensen said although Nebraska is still about 100,000 acre feet short of water, measures in LB701 are making progress.

In talking with a water lawyer from Colorado, he found Nebraska is basically doing what the lawyer recommended, Christensen said, such as vegetative management, water transfers and allocation cuts and acre reductions.

Kansas will threaten to sue over noncompliance, he said, but according to the 2002 settlement, Kansas would have to prove damages. This would be hard to do, he said, as several conditions have not yet occurred, he said, such as lakes in Kansas at historic lows.

In response to another question, Christensen said he did not advocate “pumping things dry,” but that irrigators as well as others will have to continue practicing a balancing act to conserve water.

“Can we maintain 13 inch allocations or above? No,” he said, adding that farming practices and other measures, such as vegetative management, will utilize less water.

“People have learned to use less water and get by,” he said, from irrigators to those in town who use less water on their lawns.

Other topics Christensen touched on were bills he sponsored last year and others he was asked to sponsor this year, such as bonding options for the City of Curtis to build new dorms for the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture.

Christensen attended a hearing this summer where he learned that measures that protect NCTA from being closed also prohibit the University from funding the building of new dorms. Curtis is looking to what avenues it can pursue in constructing new dorms for the college.

Ron Sedlaek of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce said Christensen voted for every Chamber-backed issue that was brought to the 2007 Legislature. This included voting for LB305, that provided $10 million annually for road construction by redirecting sales tax revenue from leased motor vehicles to the Highway Trust Fund; LB367, that repealed the estate tax and LB367; and a tax cut package that provides $400 million in relief over two years.

Nebraska is only one of a few states where incentives to businesses are performance-based, he said. These incentives in tax credits are given only if criteria is met, he said.

This means for in 2006-07, 116 companies applied for incentives with the possibility of 10,000 jobs created.

The Nebraska Chamber of Commerce has a registered lobbyist and represents the business community in the Legislature.