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Krusin' the Capitol

By Nebraska State Senator Lowen Kruse

2003
Week 20
May 24, 2003

Hi-

The budget deed is done. Confronted with a gap of $761 million, we cut $430 m. and raised revenue for $343. [$10+ m. margin is required.] We left $112 m. in the Reserve Fund and we and the governor have agreed to add the federal payout for states of $108 m., for a total of $220 in our "rainy day" fund.

For those who consider the reserve a lot of money, remember that we have one million taxpayers in Nebraska. If each of us had a savings account of $220 to fall back on in emergency we would not consider that extravagant. It is one month's expenses.

The governor will announce Monday if he will veto any part of the three major bills. Given that we have spent months negotiating as we hammered out this compromise, I would assume we will stay with it. No one likes it all, but it does represent the widely varied interests of Nebraskans.

A few programs are really crippled. However, if the economy proves to be stable we could have small funds next winter to help heal what we find to be the most serious errors in our projections. Since greatly increased aid to schools and cutting taxes are considered to be the major causes of our crisis, this group of legislators will not be likely to be bold in those areas again!

Medicaid and Corrections are the two other budget busters and will continue to go up faster than our income if we do not make structural changes. The current budget has consumed our time, but I consider our most important task to be long-range planning which will confront the budgets of the future. If we are not successful there our future tax increases will be large indeed. Next week I will list the areas which will claim my attention in the interim study time.

The World-Herald had a ridiculous editorial this week, written by someone who is not paying attention. Other editorials have talked about the pain caused by cuts, and have protested many of the cuts we have made. This one mentioned only the pain of taxpayers. That is a real concern, but hardly compares to the pain caused by the cuts. For one example, how about the excellent student who will have to drop out of college because of increased tuition and less student aid? Incidentally, that affects all of us. Our economic development is nicked, dropping future revenue.

The W-H today also objected to the shortness of debate on our proposed closing of the Lincoln Correctional Center. Point well taken! I doubt it will close after further review, but we have been totally frustrated in trying to get the administration and corrections to take seriously our call for parole reform. They keep sliding off the point and doing as they have done for years, putting offenders straight out on the street without any supervision.

A funny thing happened on the way to the forum with my priority bill. We got beat up and agreed to postpone further discussion until January. Two senators, who do not like prosecution of alcohol impaired offenders, kept talking about how complicated DUI statutes are. Indeed. Always have been. Everything they quoted has been in statute for ten years. Not one reference to what my bill does. Argh.

We ran out of time. But no more Mr. Nice Guy on the compromises I accepted to try to get it moving this spring. I will take them all back. The Speaker and the Committee chair were so unhappy with the delay they promised the bill will get early discussion next year without my using another priority slot.

I had two fourth grade classes come to see us this week. That is always a delight. Very few classes from north Omaha come down. One student asked how old the capitol building is. I said it is as old as I am. Wow. They thought that was really old. Of course they think anyone over 25 is really old. The capitol is old enough to be getting a multi-million dollar facelift. Mortar in the sags. Hmmm.

Happy Aging,

Lowen

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