Finalizing the state budget

Last Friday, the budget adjustments for the second year of the biennium passed the Legislature and are awaiting the signature of the Governor. I would like to summarize several of the changes in Legislative Bills 959, 960, and 961 to the State's budget, and touch on couple other bills.

LB 959 was the mainline budget adjustment bill, passing the Legislature with a 39-9 vote. One change was an additional $14.5 million dollar appropriation for employees at the State Department of Roads (DOR) that would bring about a 1.2 cent increase at the pump. Without this appropriation, DOR would need to dip into funds designated for road maintenance. Some wanted to use cash reserve funds to pay for this, but the majority wanted to continue the "user fee" approach and not use General Fund tax dollars, I agreed. LB 846, introduced by Sen. Fischer, is another piece of the road-funding puzzle that sits on Select File. It will be addressed again this week.

Additional changes in LB 959 include $52.9 million for state aid to schools, $2.6 million for behavior health provider rate increases, $3 million for developmental disability provider rate increase, $20 million for a student information system at the university and state colleges, and $3.9 million for state employee health insurance.

Passing 48-0, LB 960 was part of the budget package and allowed for additional appropriations for salary and health insurance costs. Also, LB 961 authorized several cash fund transfers, it too passed with an almost unanimous 48-0 vote.

On Monday morning of this week, the Legislature also passed, 46-0, LB 1094 that would get the farmers paid for the water they leased in 2007. This bill requires the funds to get to the NRDs within 15 days of the Governor's signature. It also requires NRDs to repay the assistance funds they receive. Sen. Carlson and I worked very hard to get this bill developed and passed and we are pleased with support of the other senators to do the right thing.

Finally, last week LB 606, the Stem Cell Research Act, passed 48-0 and was signed by the Governor. This bill was a compromise bill that grew out of my LB 700, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act. LB 606 prohibits the use of public funds and facilities to destroy human embryos for research and the creation of cloned human embryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). It also creates a stem cell advisory council and provides $500,000 of matching funds for non-embryonic stem cell research in Nebraska. I am happy to see a lot of hard work pay off with a great step forward in protecting human life in Nebraska.