Krusin' the Capitol
By Nebraska State Senator Lowen Kruse
Vol. 2 #8
2002
Hi--
O my, it was all budget this week. We did some other things, but were doing
study and hearings on the budget in every crack of time.
As Nebraskans have read, the action of the feds to accelerate depreciation
for corporations caused an additional revenue shortfall of $35 million. Our
tax form is coupled to the fed form. We were told Friday night, as we were
preparing to adjourn, with sleet and snow beginning to fall. We quickly
agreed we had made all the cuts we could and "Revenue has a new problem."
What a downer.
We had worked for weeks and had cut over $170 million from the budget [total
of fall and winter]. The revenue committee is to come up with a similar
figure, for increases in revenue. We had debated and disagreed on figures as
small as a thousand dollars. We had hurt about everything we could hurt, but
hopefully had not crippled delivery of services or fulfilling constitutional
duties of officers. We were tired and cranky.
Background: some may not be aware that the governor has a fiscal staff and
the legislature has a fiscal staff. Each are about 9 persons, and they
duplicate each other. They are good! Each side evaluates every section of
the budget, every agency, every cash fund--without knowing what the other is
finding. Definitely helps find more gaps. Agencies tell the executive
branch a different story than they tell us.
Humor: on one cut which the governor requested but we could not support, one
of the senators, who mercifully shall remain nameless, said, "The governor
must know something." We responded with info that obviously his team had
missed. Our man repeated, "The governor must know something." He soon
pressed harder and turned it around, "Doesn't the governor know something?"
Two of us turned to the press with a loud announcement that they should get
THAT senator's name spelled right.
I have said it before, but it became very real this week. We Nebraskans are
SO NEW at "crisis" services that we simply do not know yet how to do them
well. Who gives help to a family whose toddler has a disability? The state?
A for-profit group? A non-profit agency? Medicaid and disability services
were unimagined 40 years ago. They were unaccepted by the public 20 years
ago. They are now accepted -- even demanded -- by the public, but who
regulates and who pays? When and how do you avoid an entitlement status?
Most important, what is the BEST way to provide basic needs for our nearly
8,000 wards of the state? Good people are working at it, but find different
answers. If I add the 3,900 in prison, most of whom are addicts for whom we
can not afford treatment, I have in one paragraph told you the scariest part
of future tax increases. Trying to find effective options has become a full
time job for most of us.
Spring cometh. Yay!
Lowen
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