Legislative Update March 21, 2011
Posted March 21, 2011
Legislative Update
Tomorrow the Legislature will begin full-day debate. We have passed the half-way point of the legislative session, but the “real work” remains to be done. Committee hearings ended last week and the Legislature will now turn its focus to the budget, redistricting, and priority bills selected by Senators, Committees and the Speaker.
There were 103 proposals selected as priorities for this session. Of those, 36 remain in committee, 47 are sitting on General File, 15 on Select File, two are awaiting Final Reading, and three have been approved by the Governor. A listing of priority bills can be found on the Unicameral’s website at http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/session/priority.php Bills that did not receive a priority designation are unlikely to be heard this year unless they qualify for the “Consent Calendar.”
The Speaker will consider bills for the Consent Calendar if they are noncontroversial and do not have substantive amendments. Consent Calendar bills must adequately address opposition brought at committee hearings, have no general fund impact, and be on General File at the time a committee requests that they be placed on Consent. Finally, any Senator may have a bill removed from Consent by giving the Speaker a letter of request signed by three colleagues.
Senators will begin work on the State’s biennial budget the first week in May. The Appropriations Committee issued its preliminary budget report in February. It can be viewed via the following link: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/pdf/reports/fiscal/2011prelim.pdf. Spending growth in the Committee’s preliminary budget is 1.2% in FY12 and 3.4% in FY13 for a two year average of 2.3%. This is virtually identical to the Governor’s recommendation but significantly less than the pre-session estimate which had projected growth of 9.5% in FY11-12 and 5.6% in FY12-13 for an average of 7.6% over the biennium. Much of the decline in the projected spending growth is attributed to lower funding levels for K-12 school aid and various cuts made in operations and state aid.
The Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board met on February 25th and provided some optimism for the state’s revenue outlook. The Board projected that revenues for the current fiscal year would be $9.5 million less than predicted in October, but revised their outlook upward for FY2011-12 and FY2012-13 by $24 million and $30 million, respectively. Leading the higher revenue projections for the next biennium were sales tax revenues, which the board revised upward by $45 million. Holding revenue projections back were corporate income taxes, which the Board revised downward by $40 million over the next three fiscal years. The next meeting of the Board is Thursday, April 28, just before the Appropriations Committee budget is set to be presented to the full Legislature.
After senators debate and pass the budget, they will move on to what will likely be a rather lively and contentious debate - redistricting. District boundaries must be redrawn every 10 years to reflect population changes throughout the state. Boundaries for the U.S. House of Representatives, Legislature, Nebraska Supreme Court, University of Nebraska Board of Regents, Public Service Commission and state Board of Education will all be redrawn this session.
Senator Chris Langemeier, the Chairman of the Redistricting Committee, has stated that “Population equality - known as one person, one vote - is the most fundamental requirement.” With that in mind the Committee introduced a resolution that establishes criteria to be used during redistricting. Those criteria include:
- Use population data and geographical information from the 2010 U.S. Census;
- not dilute the strength of any minority population;
- create districts that are substantially equal in population;
- not favor a political party or consider the political affiliation of registered voters; and
- follow county lines whenever practicable and follow traditional districting principles of compactness and contiguity.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported Nebraska’s population at 1.83 million in 2010, compared to 1.71 million in 2000. Lincoln’s population of 258,379 grew by nearly 32,800, which was the largest increase of any Nebraska city. The state’s second largest city grew by 14.5 percent. Omaha’s population of 408,958 grew by nearly 19,000 people, or 5 percent. Bellevue, Nebraska’s third largest city, grew 13 percent to 50,137.
As the session progresses we will work to keep clients informed of developments on issues of interest. Things can start happening very quickly, especially as the session gets closer to the end. As always, we are just a phone call or email away. You can also access legislation, amendments, and live debate via the Unicameral’s web site at: http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov.
