{"id":20711,"date":"2017-02-13T12:32:58","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T18:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20711"},"modified":"2017-02-16T13:34:21","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T19:34:21","slug":"initial-budget-cuts-approved-after-cloture-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=20711","title":{"rendered":"Initial budget cuts approved after cloture vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers voted to end debate and give final approval Feb. 13 to a bill that makes cuts to the state\u2019s budget for the current fiscal year. The reductions are a first step to offset an anticipated budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion over the biennium.<\/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 bill makes across-the-board cuts to funds previously appropriated to state agencies, with some exceptions. Among other provisions, the bill:
\n\u2022 cuts approximately $4 million from the state Supreme Court budget;
\n\u2022 allows the University of Nebraska to retain approximately $5.2 million in unspent funds; and
\n\u2022 adds $3.5 million to the state Department of Health and Human Services to offset the loss of federal funds for certain developmental disability providers.<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. Bob Krist offered a motion to return LB22 to select file for consideration of an amendment that would have exempted the Legislature\u2019s budget from the bill\u2019s provisions. He said lawmakers need to protect unappropriated funds to address ongoing upgrades to phone systems, public hearing rooms and logistics related to an overhaul of the Capitol\u2019s heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t think we have to make this cut \u2014 this deep \u2014 right away,\u201d Krist said.<\/p>\n

Gering Sen. John Stinner, chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said work is being done to address the Legislature\u2019s needs in another deficit bill and the regular biennial budget process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to work with the Legislative Council,\u201d Stinner said. \u201cWe are committed to making sure that these projects get done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Krist\u2019s motion failed on a vote of 11-30.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha then filed a motion to bracket the bill until Feb. 27, which failed on a vote of 2-42. He said senators should take more time to find a way to fund the Legislature at a level adequate to fulfill its lawmaking and oversight responsibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a point at which we should function as the third branch of government,\u201d Chambers said.<\/p>\n

After two hours of debate, Stinner offered a motion to invoke cloture and cease debate on the bill. The motion was adopted 43-1 and LB22 passed 42-3. The bill takes effect immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers voted to end debate and give final approval Feb. 13 to a bill that makes cuts to the state\u2019s budget for the current fiscal year. The reductions are a first step to offset an anticipated budget shortfall of nearly $1 billion over the biennium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20709,"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_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[5],"tags":[149],"class_list":["post-20711","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\/LB22StinnerSchumacher2-13-17a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20711","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=20711"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20767,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20711\/revisions\/20767"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}