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Krusin' the Capitol

By Nebraska State Senator Lowen Kruse

2004
Week 11
March 20, 2004

Hi

The most pungent bill of the week was livestock waste.

Having spent many days of my youth loading and operating a horse-drawn manure spreader, I was taken by the new language. Years ago, our polite words were "Clean out the barn." Now we speak of "distributing nutrients on the soil."

Plus, today larger operators need plans and permits, in triplicate, which include the precise analysis of nutrients. Well shucks, we did some of that. Cleaning the horse barn related to a different field than cleaning the milk barn. Dad wanted more fiber (horse) on some soils and more nitrogen (cattle) on other soils. I do not want to even think about the pigs, which though very pungent were not the same process, as they are basically housebroken.

Daniel Freeman, the first homesteader in the nation as well as Nebraska, visited the rotunda this week to speak with school children. Daryl Draper is good, so I took it in. Acting as Mr. Freeman, he said he chose to leave the farm in Illinois because of all the plowing with horses. He was not attracted to a future of watching horses' rear ends. He said if that was his interest, he could have run for legislature -- looking at me and Senator Don Pedersen, who enjoys history and had also joined the kids.

(Dr. Freeman became a physician and was asked by the Union Army to go to Nebraska in 1860 to review the needs of the frontier, including the activities of the Native Americans. That duty excused him from service in the Civil War.)

It occurred to me that the many hours of watching horses' rear ends from the comfort of the seat on our manure spreader may have influenced my career thoughts more than I realized. It is a matter of record that on one trip back from spreading nutrients on the field I found a representative of Nebraska Wesleyan, Dr. Mickey, his foot firmly on our barn's wooden gate and wondering out loud if I would agree to go to college.

In the house, over coffee, my Dad said the farm was too small to support two families and my Mother nodded firmly. Not much option. I did hope to be a mechanical engineer. I said "Yes." However, we were too busy to go look at the campus or attend orientation. We drove in to Wesleyan on registration day. I had not one clue about how a library helps a student. Perhaps I should have taken my eyes off horses' bodies, as beautiful as they were to me, a day or two early.

Got a bill advanced today. Have been working on it for three years, so you will pardon a moment of celebration. This was about how to get the Roads Department to take responsibility for giving some oversight to the transportation needs of handicapped/elderly persons, both rural and urban. In general, Handicap vans are subsidized for villages and counties, and Omaha and Lincoln provide half fare rates.

Roads has distributed the subsidies from three funds, with no management thought or responsibility. I brought in a bill two years ago to bring some input on the matter, and caused consternation in the hearing because counties thought I was trying to take away some of their roads $$ to shift to their Handivan program.

The state of shock of all involved, especially that I would bring up the question, was a shock to me. I was informed that the legislature cannot talk about messing with roads $$ in any way. [Roads has been "giving" one million annually to the program for years and clearly did not want to review the system, even though through their process they have to assess the need once in a while.]

Anyhoo, as Pogo used to say, that was too much for this stubborn kid. New bill. Lots of consulting and work for my staff. Voila. We will soon have the process in place to have all $$ in one fund, managed by the legislature, with Roads caring for it. Saves a half million from our General Fund, which should not be paying for bus service. Buses reduce traffic and affect street building, so should be related to gas tax.

To cap it off, I will move for a study during the interim on how we look at Public Transportation, how rural communities can be served, how we get stranded homebound to medical care without resorting to taxis, how city bus companies shall best help us and the guidelines Roads can use for serving us all. I predict they will talk about elderly/handicapped transportation after all.

Selah.

Lowen

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