Legislature approves budget adjustments

Last week, the Legislature gave final round approval to the two mid-biennium budget adjustment bills: LB1412 and LB1413. The two bills will increase the state budget by 2.7 percent in this two-year period which is up from the 2.3 percent approved last year.

The primary factor for this growth is due to an additional $94.1 million increase in state aid to schools which accounts for actual education spending now that LB583 has taken effect.

LB583 was passed last year as a revision to the TEEOSA school funding formula to provide $1,500 in per-student foundational aid and increase state support for special education. The budget package also included $20 million to cover rising costs for foster care and $15 million to increase nursing staff at the Lincoln Regional Center, the staterun psychiatric hospital. The budget will still leave a record balance of $549.2 million in the state’s General Fund by the end of the current budget period.

The Appropriations Committee argued the cushion in this budget cycle is needed to make last year’s tax cuts and school aid package sustainable into the future. Based on the Legislative Fiscal Office’s projections, this cushion is expected to shrink to $62.3 million in the next biennium, which ends June 30, 2027.

This new budget does leave senators with about $20 million available. However, current estimates show if every bill that has cleared at least one round of debate were to pass, the General Fund would be about $272 million short of the legally required budget reserve. Many pieces of legislation with a substantial fiscal impact will need to be cut back.

From Page 4 Halloran said his comments were an attempt to make people listen to his speech and that any outrage should not be directed at him, but at the profane book he read, which is available in some school libraries.

Sorry Senator Halloran, what you did was hurtful.

In fact, it was not only unnecessary, but it was also foolish. You should’ve listened to Thumper. You have certainly given face to the verse from Proverbs.

The chair of the Legislature’s Executive Board, State Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, said he had personally launched an investigation under the Legislature’s workforce harassment policy against Halloran. The investigation must be completed within 45 days.

But Sen. Cavanaugh and Sen. Julie Slama of Sterling — who both said they have been victimized by sexual violence — said the legislative investigation was inadequate and wouldn’t allow the Halloran comments to be addressed until after the 2024 session ends later this month.

The Legislature has three options to punish a lawmaker under its policies: to issue a letter of reprimand, to censure the lawmaker or to expel the lawmaker. A censure is a statement of ‘'extreme disapproval” of a senator’s conduct or actions.

“We don’t need an investigation,” Slama told the Nebraska Examiner. “It only serves to slow walk this and sweep it under the rug.”

I agree. Halloran is term-limited and will leave office when his successor is sworn in next January. But the Legislature and all Nebraskans deserve better. Get this thing done sooner than later.

floor speeches.

He said he has talked to the attorney general about getting a legal opinion on that issue.

Sure, and walking into a crowded theater and screaming fire should probably be litigated. But it is also a stupid thing to do.

Halloran has made it clear he isn’t going to resign, as some have called for. Sadly, any apology he has issued so far has been lame. He needs to do that with the same boldness in which he read from the book.

I don’t know what you were thinking Senator, if you were even thinking. But you’ve gone too far.

If you survive the censure vote and are adamant about not resigning, at least listen to Thumper. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.”

J.L. Schmidt has been covering Nebraska government and politics since 1979. He has been a registered Independent for 25