Water bill delayed until 2014

McCOOK, Nebraska -- Sen. Mark Christensen will likely shelve his priority bill until next session after failing to gather enough support for it to pass. The bill, LB 522, sought compensation for surface water irrigators when they were prohibited from irrigating by the Department of Natural Resources.

Sen. Christensen told members of the McCook Area Chamber of Commerce during his weekly legislative conference call that he didn't approve of allowing DNR to take irrigating rights away from irrigators without compensation.

"If they can take surface, they can take ground," said Sen. Christensen.

Sen. Christensen said he had faced much opposition to his bill and believed budgeting hurdles drove many against it. Sen. Christensen said legislators already faced a $5 million budget hurdle that in order to meet would require reducing either budget reserves or funding for other bills.

Sen. Christensen said adding another $5 million for his bill would require putting off a lot of other bills, hence the opposition.

According to Sen. Christensen, the tax modernization committee that was proposed to be created to evaluate the current state tax code will likely proceed as a legislative resolution instead of as a bill.

The 13 member committee will be tasked with evaluating fairness, competitiveness, simplicity and compliance, stability, adequacy and complementary tax systems, in addition to identifying areas of concern.

The original bill introduced to create the committee targeted Dec. 15, 2013, as a date for the committee to provide a preliminary report to the legislature and governor. A final report would be due by Nov. 15, 2014.