Cuts to preservation fund proposed

The Nebraska Cultural Preservation Endowment Fund would receive half the general fund transfers currently intended for it under a bill heard by the Appropriations Committee Feb. 22.

Current law includes legislative intent to annually appropriate up to $500,000 from the general fund to the Nebraska Cultural Preservation Endowment Fund from 2011 to 2016.

LB485, introduced by Wilber Sen. Russ Karpisek, would decrease the maximum amount of these annual appropriations to $250,000.

Karpisek said LB485 is one of the bills that resulted from the Legislature’s process of identifying potential budget cuts. He said the goal was to maintain resources for the fund without completely eliminating general fund support.

“We all understand [budget cutting] is not anything we relish doing, but we have to come up with that money,” Karpisek said.

Nebraska Cultural Endowment board member Robert Nefsky testified in a neutral capacity. The endowment is willing to do its part to reduce demands on public funds, he said, but funding reductions or delays should not undercut the Legislature’s promise to appropriate the remaining $3 million to the fund.

The committee took no immediate action on the bill.