The Nebraska Legislature nears the 11th hour having completed day 77 of this year's 90-day session on Friday of this week.
Sine Die is scheduled for June 2nd, but Speaker Scheer did indicate this week that it could be pushed up to May 26th, if the Governor works with the Legislature on vetoes, which he has indicated he will.
Lawmakers worked "late nights" four nights this week and were able to move the budget bills from General File, to Select File and then to Final Reading, with some of the budget bills, those dealing with funding salaries of the Legislature and constitutional officers, as well as appropriating funds for capital construction and property acquisitions appearing on Final Reading on Monday of next week.
Speaker Scheer also announced that the remaining budget bills, including the mainline budget bill will be on the Legislative Agenda on Tuesday of next week. Hopefully this will give Appropriations Chair, Senator John Stinner, and the other members of the committee time to muster up the needed 33 votes to pass the budget on Final Reading since it contains the Emergency Clause. All bills containing the Emergency Clause need 33 votes on Final Reading to allow them to become effective upon the Governor's signature. If any bill, containing the Emergency Clause, is passed without 33 votes, they then become effective 90 days after the end of the Legislative Session. In the case of the budget bills this cannot happen because the state's next fiscal year begins on July 1, 2017 and without the budget bills being law, the state would have to shut down for the lack of funding.
Action by The Legislature This Week at A Glance
The following seven bills make up the "budget bills", all of which have been advanced to Final Reading:
- LB149, is a bill to provide, change and eliminate appropriations is a laundry list of adjustments to the 20016-2017 budget.
- LB327, aka, the mainline budget bill appropriates funds for expenses of Nebraska State Government for the biennium ending June 30, 2019. Was advanced to Final Reading this week on Thursday and is scheduled to be on the Legislative Agenda on Tuesday of next week, at which time it will need 33 votes to become effective with the Emergency Clause to avoid a government shutdown.
Some major highlights of what is contained in LB327 are:
- $62.4 million for the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA);
- $35.6 million for Medicaid;
- $15.4 million for staffing, programs and equipment for the state Department of Correctional Services;
- $11.4 million for the courts under the Justice Reinvestment Act and;
- proposed cuts of $24.7 million to state agencies ($13 million to the university system and $9 million in foster care contracts with private providers of kinship placements for state wards).
- LB328 - Appropriate funds for salaries of the members of the Legislature.
- LB329 - Appropriate funds for salaries of constitutional officers,
- LB330 - Appropriate funds for capital construction and property acquisitions
- LB331 - Create funds transfers, change provisions governing finds, and change the reserve requirement.
The bill was amended by AM1278 to decrease, for two years, the state's minimum cash reserve from its current level of 3% to 2.5%. This allows the ½% (approx. $3 million) to be used in helping to balance the next biennium budget without forcing further cuts after the forecasting board handed the Appropriations Committee an additional $55 million shortfall last week. This decrease was needed in addition to making some other transfer from other cash funds.
- LB332 - Change Cash Reserve Fund Provisions. The bill saw several hours of debate this week and on Thursday an attempt by Senator Bob Krist was made through AM1332 to amend the bill to:
- transferring an additional $75 million to the state's Property Tax Credit Program;
- repeals $30 million of tax credits to "new markets", job creation, and Mainstreet revitalization/historic projects;
- repeals resident apportionment of multi-state pass through income from S corporations and LLCs, along with capital gains on the sale of employee-owned stocks from Nebraska taxable income and;
- accessing ag land values, for tax purposes to an income based approach.
After some lengthy and contentious debate on the amendment, Senator Krist withdrew it and the bill advanced to Final Reading by voice vote.
LB461,
the Governor's tax reform package, designed to provide property and income (corporate and individual) tax relief failed to get the needed 33 votes to invoke cloture (MO117), only obtaining 27 "yes" votes, 9 "no's", and 13 present but not voting.
It appears by not obtaining the needed votes for cloture the bill is dead for this session, but there have been other attempts to amend other bills (see LB327) to at least yet find property tax relief this session.
LB98,
is a bill that would have extended the maximum three cent levy authority for fully or over appropriated districts (NRDs), as determined by the Department of Natural Resources, from FY 2017-18 to FY 2025-26. The Levy can only be used to implement ground water management activities and integrated management activities under the Nebraska Ground Water Management and Protection Act.
After several hours of floor debate, Senator Friesen, the bill's sponsor filed a motion to invoke cloture, coming up two votes short of the needed 33 to cease debate, thus most likely ending any further action on the bill this session.
LB415
, a bill to provide and change notification requirements and duties and benefits for certain retirement system members, change certain annuity and disability benefit provisions, and provide duties for school districts and the Public Employees Retirement Board relating to retirement saw several hours of floor debate this week.
The bill attempts to eliminate or reduce the practice of teachers "double dipping" or returning to work after taking initial retirement.
The bill, as drafted, would have made changes to the "Rule of 85" (years of service plus age) to a "Rule of 90", adding that one may not retire until reaching the age of 60 at least.
A committee amendment, adopted 38-0, changed the "rule" to the "Rule of 85", retaining the minimum age of 60 to retire.
The bill also includes language to: "eliminate exemptions that allow intermittent voluntary or substitute service during the 180-day separation of service after termination; define early retirement inducement and service in any capacity; require a three-year (changed to 2yrs by AM1211) break in service if an employee received an early retirement incentive; and require a member to certify under oath that he or she does not have a verbal or written pre-arranged agreement with a new employer prior to termination." (Unicameral Update - May 5, 2017).
Senator Kolterman, Chair of the Retirement Committee, and sponsor of the bill, said that the change to 180 days is necessary to compile with IRS regulations requiring an employee to have a "bona fide separation of service".
After several hours of debate and senators offering a couple different amendments on the appropriate number of days of separation, Senator Kolterman and those opposing the bill agreed to advance the bill and look at a compromise on the number of days of separation that will meet the IRS regulation.
LB632
is the omnibus bill of the General Affairs Committee and the committee's priority bill seeks to make changes to the following:
- clarifies the definition of "bottle club" including them under the liquor act;
- requires third-party shippers to report to the Commission when they are delivering out-of-state alcohol directly to someone in Nebraska, and grants the Commission the authority to suspend licenses for any second or subsequent offenses of any violations;
- defines, for responsibility of the payment of excise taxes, the "at rest" provision of beer that is delivered from a craft brewer to a wholesaler's warehouse;
- requires that craft brewery's licensee wholly own the craft brewery's satellite locations, also requiring that production take place at each location, grandfathers in existing locations;
- limited Special Designated Licensees (SDLs) to 12 per calendar year, restricting the Liquor Control Commission from waving a requirement that the SDL go through the three-tiered system;
- increases the size of growlers from 32ozs to 64ozs for Class C licenses (on and off sale);
- and finally includes language to address issues with the Music Licensing Act and firms claiming to have copyrights to songs that may or may not have been performed at a licensee's venue.
The bill was advanced from the General Affairs Committee on Friday of last week and being the committee's priority bill is most likely to see floor time yet this session, as all other priority bills that are able to advance have, leaving time to deal with LB632 prior to sine die.
LB44
, collection of sales/use tax on internet sales, saw continued debate on Select File and after three hours, with no vote being taken, appears to be dead for this session.
The bill contained provisions from a South Dakota law, that has been found unconstitutional in a court challenge, and provisions from a Colorado law that was just recently found constitutional by the court in a separate challenge.
A written opinion from Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson stated that the bill as written was considered unconstitutional do to the language in the bill from the South Dakota law under its collection provisions, violating the commerce clause.
The introducer of the bill, Senator Dan Watermeier, was attempting to incorporate, by amendment, some of the suggested language changes to the bill by AG Peterson to remove his concerns, but the bill was filibustered by Senator Chambers over his concerns that the bill's "cumbersome" enforcement requirements were not financially feasible for the State of Nebraska to pursue retailers who choose not to compile.
While the bill will see no further action in the 2017 session, it will carry over to the 2018 session on Select File.
One bill of some interest was the passage of LB346, a bill that eliminates the requirement for a motor vehicle, motorcycle, or trailer salesperson license. The bill was introduced by Senator John Lowe at the request of the Governor as part of the Governor's occupational licensing reform package.
The Governor had several bills introduced on his behalf to eliminate similar occupation licensing requirements to "lessen" the burden and cost for putting people to work.
The bill awaits action by the Governor.
Additionally, the following bills were signed by the Governor on April 27th and reported to the Legislature this week.
LB339
merges the Department of Aeronautics and the Department of Roads to form the Department of Transportation. Nebraska now joins the rest of the states in having a department of transportation.
LB271
provides that the Department of Transportation may, consistent with federal law through a memorandum of understanding, assume all or part of the responsibility of the United States Department of Transportation (Federal Highway Administration) for determining if federal- aid projects are excluded from federal environmental requirements and for any environmental review, consultation, or action required under federal law.
Consistent with the provisions of federal law, the delegation of authority requires that the state waive sovereign immunity from any lawsuit in federal court for decisions made by the state in reviewing and approving federal environmental documents under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The passage of LB271 should help in moving road projects ahead sooner.
Next week to bring Final Reading on all the budget bills
As previously mentioned, the following less controversial budget bills will be debated and hopefully passed on Final Reading on Monday.
- LB328 - Appropriate funds for salaries of the members of the Legislature.
- LB329 - Appropriate funds for salaries of constitutional officers,
- LB330 - Appropriate funds for capital construction and property acquisitions
- LB149, a bill to provide, change and eliminate appropriations is a laundry list of adjustments to the 20016-2017 budget.
Also on Monday's Legislative Agenda is a motion to attempt an override on LB75, a bill that would restore voting rights upon completion of a felony sentence or probation for a felony.
Rounding out the agenda is Final Reading on about half (25) of the Consent Calendar bills.
Tuesday's Agenda
will see the remaining budget bills, per Speaker Scheer, and of major concern is obtaining 33 votes on the mainline budget bill, LB327.
It is also anticipated that the remainder of the Consent Calendar bills will appear next week as well.
LB447.
