Budget package clears second round

Lawmakers gave second-round approval March 19 to four bills comprising the Appropriations Committee budget adjustment package.

The committee offered an amendment to LB905, the mainline budget bill, which was adopted 31-0. In addition to a series of technical changes, the amendment would establish a contingency appropriation of $7.4 million for a potential budget shortfall in community corrections.

Omaha Sen. Heath Mello, Appropriations Committee chairperson, said corresponding cuts had been made to other programs so that the amendment would have no impact on the overall budget.

The amendment also increased funding to the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA) by $110,322 to reflect the final calculation of certified aid for fiscal year 2014-15.

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers offered an amendment that would have eliminated a one-time $5 million appropriation to temporarily move certain state prisoners into county jails.

Chambers said the state Department of Correctional Services’ plan to help alleviate overcrowding in Nebraska prisons is flawed. County jails likely would not be certified to hold state inmates, he said, which could result in liability issues. In addition, he said, the number of inmates who could be moved would do nothing substantive to address prison overcrowding.

“Prison inmates – state prisoners – are the responsibility of the state,” he said.

Mello conceded that the number of inmates impacted by the appropriation would be small – approximately 150 – and said the plan was a “band-aid approach” to the state’s over-crowding problem. Inmates chosen would be low-management individuals without significant programming needs, he said, adding that long-term prison reform was a separate issue.

“[This] just gives us a little more breathing room as a state,” Mello said.

The Chambers amendment failed on a vote of 16-22.

An amendment offered by Omaha Sen. Scott Lautenbaugh, which would have removed $60,000 allocated to pay the state’s Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Compact dues, failed on a 3-34 vote.

Senators advanced LB905 to final reading by voice vote.

Additional components of the budget package also advanced:
• LB130, introduced by Mello, which would make transfers from the state’s Cash Reserve Fund;
• LB906, introduced by York Sen. Greg Adams at the request of the governor, which would make transfers between funds and create and eliminate funds; and
• LB949, introduced by the Business and Labor Committee, which would approve claims against the state and agency write-offs.