{"id":20595,"date":"2017-02-03T11:15:53","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T17:15:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20595"},"modified":"2017-02-03T11:15:53","modified_gmt":"2017-02-03T17:15:53","slug":"initial-budget-cuts-clear-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20595","title":{"rendered":"Initial budget cuts clear first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

After four days of debate, lawmakers gave first-round approval Feb. 3 to a bill that would make cuts to the state\u2019s budget for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sen. John Stinner<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB22, introduced by Norfolk Sen. Jim Scheer at the request of Gov. Pete Ricketts, is part of the governor\u2019s expedited adjustments proposed for the state budget ending June 30, 2017. The regular budget process for setting spending for the next two fiscal years will be taken up separately later in the session.<\/p>\n

The Appropriations Committee amendment, adopted 46-0, became the bill. Sen. John Stinner of Gering, chairperson of the committee, said the amendment resulted from a thoughtful consideration of the governor\u2019s proposal and contains adjustments based on input from state agencies provided in public hearings.<\/p>\n

Much of the debate focused on the amended bill\u2019s provisions to re-appropriate unspent agency funds. With minor exceptions, the bill would re-appropriate funds to the general fund that were held back by the governor at a rate of 1 percent per quarter from agency budget allotments during the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n

During debate Feb. 1, Omaha Sen. Bob Krist offered a motion to return the bill to the Appropriations Committee. Krist expressed concern with the governor\u2019s decision to hold back those budgeted allotments, in what he said amounted to a 4 percent, across-the-board cut in what the Legislature appropriated to state agencies in the last budget cycle.<\/p>\n

Krist urged the committee to reconsider accepting that proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not the way to do business,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have to slash and burn in the first 19 days … of this legislative session. We can carefully and judiciously walk through this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Burke Harr also raised concerns, saying agencies should be able to save the funds appropriated to them for use at a later time. Re-appropriating unspent funds would disincentivize agencies from frugally managing their budgets, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking money that is being saved for a rainy day … and we\u2019re stealing it,\u201d Harr said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Adam Morfeld of Lincoln said Ricketts does not have the authority to unilaterally alter the budget passed by the Legislature by withholding those allocations.<\/p>\n

\u201cA budget is more than just a direct allocation to the governor\u2019s office to do as he sees fit,\u201d Morfeld said. \u201cThe governor, by withholding funds from agencies, has altered the intent of the Legislature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Robert Hilkemann said the governor\u2019s actions, and in turn those of the Appropriations Committee, are the responsible approach to the looming revenue shortfall. Re-appropriating unspent funds now will make future budget cuts less painful, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI consider the governor as the CEO of the state of Nebraska,\u201d Hilkemann said. \u201cIt is the responsible thing to start cutting back spending and that\u2019s what our governor did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Kate Bolz of Lincoln, vice chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said the Legislature acted independently and used its authority to alter the governor\u2019s recommendations in important ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of our goal here is to make cuts that are easier \u2014 when we can make them \u2014 rather than to make more difficult decisions down the line,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Krist withdrew his motion Feb. 3. Following two unsuccessful attempts to bracket the bill by Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, lawmakers voted 46-1 to advance LB22 to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After four days of debate, lawmakers gave first-round approval Feb. 3 to a bill that would make cuts to the state\u2019s budget for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-20595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appropriations","tag-sen-john-stinner"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/LB22Stinner2-3-17a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20595"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20597,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20595\/revisions\/20597"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}