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Legislative Update

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LEGISLATIVE UPDATE -- MARCH 5, 2010


The days for law-making are longer, fewer in number, and priority bills begin to move.



URGENT! TUITION REIMBURSEMENT: LB1071 was advanced to General File on Wednesday, March 3, as an Education Committee priority bill. Now the dilemma relates to timing. The State Board of Education must wait until 30 days after a bill is signed into law to proceed with a public hearing on a rule change. In brief, LB1071 needs the Governor's signature no later than Friday, April 2, 2010, in order for the State Board to take action at their meeting scheduled for May 4-5, 2010. The State Board does not meet in June 2010, which makes the timing very critical.


LB1071 would also change the state aid certification date from Feb. 1, 2011, to April 1, 2011, and to March 1 in years thereafter.



ACTION REQUESTED: Please contact Speaker Mike Flood (mflood@leg.ne.gov) and your senator, to express urgency in getting LB1071 to the Governor's desk before April 2, 2010, thus allowing teachers wanting to take Summer 2010 courses to participate in the tuition reimbursement program.


Further, send an email to the Education Committee to thank them for their support of LB1071:



STATE AID: On March 10, the Nebraska Department of Education will release certified state aid figures for school year 2010-11. Rumors of unofficial numbers are seeping into local conversations. Instead of weighing in on the rumors, here's a brief review of state aid appropriations for FY2010-11 and 2011-12.


2008-09 2009-10 Increase
$839,390,581 $933,850,727 $94,460,146
2009-10 2010-11 Increase
$933,850,727 $949,000,000* $16,000,000*
(*Estimate. Not yet certified, Final certification on March 10, 2010.)


CONTINUE STATE CONTRIBUTION TO RETIREMENT FUNDS: Sen. Jeremy Nordquist's LB899, which helps ensure security of the state retirement system for both active and retired teachers, remains in committee, but not much longer. Thanks to Sen. Nordquist and Retirement Committee Chair, Sen. Dave Pankonin, compromise was reached that would extend the sunset to June 30, 2013. The Committee will take a vote early next week on the compromise. LB899, with that change, would be amended to LB950, which is a committee priority.


This compromise on the sunset extension is a result of member activism! Members have been contacting Retirement Committee members by phone and email in support of LB899. A very well-organized member attendance at the Cass County Republican dinner impressed both the Governor and Sen. Pankonin. Thank you!


LB899 is a top priority for NSEA and requires your attention:
Please contact Retirement Committee members and thank them for supporting the LB899 amendment to LB950 and sending it to the full Legislature.



REDUCTION IN REQUIRED SIGNATURES FOR PETITION INITIATIVES: LR300CA (Sen. John Nelson) reduces the signature threshold needed to place a statutory or Constitutional initiative on the ballot. The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee advanced LR300CA to the full Legislature with an amendment to leave the threshold at 10 percent for Constitutional initiatives and reduce from 7 percent to 4 percent the number of signatures needed for statutory changes by ballot initiatives. NSEA is opposed to LR300CA because it means that a special interest group can buy their way onto the Nebraska ballot for less than $50,000.


Previous hearings, interim studies and court cases have identified significant fraud in the signature-gathering phase of the petition process. NSEA does not want to see more deceptive and illicit practices used by petition circulators and their sponsors in order to change Nebraska State Statutes or the Nebraska Constitution.


Please contact your senator to express opposition to LR300CA.



STIMULUS AND THRIFTINESS: The Nebraska Economic Forecasting Board revised growth estimates in state tax receipts for FY2009-10 and FY2010-11. Here's the bottom-line: The State of Nebraska has a $30 million short-fall for the current biennium 2009-2011. The State will use $18 million in federal Medicaid stimulus funds, which brings the biennium budget short-fall to $12 million. Appropriations Committee members now must decide how to address the short-fall, which may include cash fund transfers, reserve fund transfers and/or additional budget cuts.


The Board relies on national economic reports that state the national recession of 2007-09 has ended, and likely did so in the third quarter of 2009. While the Board made an adjustment to the estimated total receipts, which shows growth of 5.2 percent from FY2009-10 to FY2010-11, the state's budget remains fragile.

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