Session Review: Appropriations

The Appropriations Committee spent the 2010 session looking for ways to reduce the state’s budget for fiscal years 2009-11. Adjustments passed by the Legislature resulted in a 1.1 percent reduction of general fund appropriations in the current biennium.

LB935, the mainline budget bill, cut an additional 2 percent — or $7.1 million — from the same operations and aid programs that received a 5 percent across-the-board cut during the 2009 special session. The bill also calls for transfers to the general fund of $16.7 million from cash funds and $3 million from the state’s cash reserve.

Also included in the budget package and passed 49-0 were:

• LB317, authorizing the $3 million cash reserve transfer;
• LB1090, providing for payment of claims against the state; and
• LB1091, disapproving claims against the state.

Included in the committee’s budget package was a bill authorizing school-based health centers that is estimated to save the state $1 million.

Under LB1106, introduced by Omaha Sen. Jeremy Nordquist and passed 49-0, a school-based health center may provide medical, behavioral, mental, preventive and oral health care. Centers must be sponsored by a facility, such as a hospital, public health department, federally qualified community health center, nonprofit entity, school system or program administered by an Indian health entity.

The $1 million projected savings will result from a new federal match the state will receive for coverage of legal nonresidents eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Prior to LB1106, a state-only program covered these individuals for the first five years that they were lawfully in the country.

LB1106 requires that the state Department of Health and Human Services submit application to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for a waiver to allow for payments for treatment for children who are otherwise eligible for Medicaid and SCHIP, adding treatment for pregnant women and who are lawfully residing in the United States.

Senators also passed a bill intended to reduce costs and permit more efficient administration of the Nebraska Arts Council.

LB1063, sponsored by Omaha Sen. John Nelson, allows the arts council to set aside up to 10 percent of its administrative budget to establish a fund to maintain and preserve public artwork.

The bill also reduced the maximum annual transfer from the general fund to the Nebraska Cultural Preservation Endowment Fund from $1.5 million on Dec. 31, 2011 and 2012, to $500,000 per year beginning Dec. 31, 2011 and ending Dec. 31, 2016.