Senators advance bill to pay for special session expenses

On the opening day of floor debate Aug. 7, lawmakers gave first-round approval to a measure that would appropriate funds for expenses incurred during the special session.

LB4, as introduced by Speaker John Arch of La Vista on behalf of Gov. Jim Pillen, would appropriate $126,860 in state general funds for session expenses. Those funds would pay for per diems for state senators, salaries for session-only staff and funds for the Legislature’s bill-drafting office.

Arch noted that the bill was drafted assuming a 10-day special session and likely would need to be amended, given that the Legislature already has been in session for eight legislative days.

Lincoln Sen. Danielle Conrad offered and later withdrew a motion to indefinitely postpone LB4. She called the motion an attempt to structure debate, build a record and frame the issues that lawmakers would be considering in the coming days.

Conrad characterized the special session as “chaotic” and argued that property tax relief — while an important public policy concern for all Nebraskans — is not the kind of issue for which special sessions normally are convened.

“Special sessions are meant to take up discrete, unforeseen issues that we cannot take up in regular session,” she said, calling the current process “unserious at best and dangerous at worst.”

An amendment from Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha would have reduced the general fund appropriation to the governor’s office by an amount equal to that required to pay special session expenses.

Hunt said the conservative group Americans for Prosperity estimates that the special session already has cost Nebraskans approximately $240,000. The governor frequently has stated that “everybody has to give something” toward the goal of property tax relief, she said, and argued that her amendment would be an opportunity for Pillen to do so as well.

After approximately an hour of discussion, Arch offered a motion to invoke cloture, which ends debate and forces a vote on the bill and any underlying motions and amendments. Following the 46-0 adoption of the cloture motion, lawmakers rejected the Hunt amendment 11-33.

Senators then advanced LB4 to select file 46-0.