Nebraska's $11 billion budget for 2025-27 advances to final round with $1.1 million to spare
State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, chair of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee. May 12, 2025. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers gave second-round approval Monday to a series of budget bills for the next two years, moving one stage away from closing a projected deficit of more than half-a-billion dollars.
The mainline budget bills, Legislative Bills 261 and 264, dominated debate Monday with a handful of changes. Other budget bills to appropriate additional funds to agencies for this fiscal year (LB 260) and to appropriate salaries for state senators (LB 262) and constitutional officers (LB 263) advanced last week with little debate.
Also advancing Monday were LB 513, from State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, to give all judges in the state a 1.5% salary increase in each of the next two years, and LB 534, from State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, to cover about $2 million in legal claims against the state.
With no further amendments expected, lawmakers will vote one last time on the budget bills Thursday, the final day to pass the budget, and send them to Gov. Jim Pillen, according to a scheduling announcement by Speaker John Arch of La Vista. Lawmakers will have $1.1 million to spare.
However, using the one-time fixes in cash fund sweeps and borrowing from the state's 'rainy day fund' to close the budget gap for the next two-year budget mean that lawmakers for the following biennium would be at least $110 million in the hole, current projections indicate.
Pillen retains his veto pen, including for line items, which could change the final figures. It takes 30 votes to override a veto.
The narrow positive balance will make it difficult to pass other senator priority bills this year with a revenue impact or cost, such as to reduce the state's inheritance tax (LB 468), ban most tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products in the state (LB 316) or crack down on adversarial nations' 'agents' (LB 644).
State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, chair of the Legislature's Appropriations Committee, confirmed the hundreds of millions of dollars moved to close the projected deficit through June 30, 2027 — in cash fund transfers, reduced spending and taking from the state's 'rainy day' fund — is the most he's seen in his ninth year on the committee.
He said appropriators shifted hundreds of millions of dollars in 2017, too, but had more time to respond, rather than this year's 'devastating' economic forecast that came in April.
'I'm pleased with the results of the budget,' Clements said after the debate. 'I'm glad that we have a balanced budget again.'
When lawmakers returned in January, they faced a projected $433 million shortfall for the next two years, a number that has since grown. Lawmakers have shifted funds or cut spending by $850 million to cover the deficit since it was identified last November.
A large part of the deficit, but not all, came because the state's economy, measured by per capita income, is doing well compared to other states. As a result, the federal government pulled back on the percentage of Medicaid costs it covers in Nebraska, passing on a cost of about $55 million this fiscal year and nearly $300 million next year.
Blame for the remaining deficit largely differs by political ideology in the Legislature, with conservatives blaming shaky economic forecasts and progressives, such as State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, blaming 'inequitable, unaffordable tax cuts' passed in 2023.
By Jan. 1, 2027, Nebraska's income tax rate for corporations and for individuals making $18,000 or more will fall to 3.99%. At that point, there will be three individual tax tiers, rather than four.
Conrad blamed Pillen and his legislative allies for the tax cuts, stating the economic forecasts are not like a 'weather forecast' and that economic projections are lower 'not by fluke, not by accident, not by surprise, but by design.' She said 'chickens are coming home to roost.'
State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, a member of the Appropriations Committee, alleged Clements and other committee members didn't do their work or properly vet all the proposals before the Legislature. Instead, she said, senators gave a 'rubber stamp' to many budget cuts and fund transfers that Pillen and his staff requested.
'We have cooked the books,' Cavanaugh said. 'This isn't real. This isn't real money.'
Echoing Cavanaugh, State Sen. Ashlei Spivey of Omaha, a freshman on the Appropriations Committee, cautioned that one budget-balancing measure — sweeping an estimated $24 million in unspent agency funds by this June 30 — also isn't reality. She said at least $7 million of those funds intended to be swept from the Nebraska Department of Education are already obligated and will be spent.
However, State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte told colleagues not to get 'too carried away' on what he termed as 'demagoguing' of 'the sky is falling.' He pointed to possibly rosier forecasts in the state's future that opponents rejected as natural wage growth.
Clements, too, has said lawmakers knew getting to 2027 would be a 'pinch point.'
'Let's focus on real numbers. Let's focus on the numbers we know,' Jacobson said.
Conrad, a former eight-year member of the Appropriations Committee, said she was 'intimately familiar' with the budget and told Jacobson and others she would 'not be mansplained by anybody in this body how the state budget works.'
State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair described what he viewed as a federal 'carrot becoming a stick' for state spending cuts and that lawmakers should be looking at 'tightening our belts as best we can.' He noted federal proposals in Congress to cut spending, particularly to Medicaid.
'It's not about tightening our belt, as it is, we might be having to lop off limbs in order to help pay for our budget,' Hansen said of the future.
Cavanaugh has suggested lawmakers might need to come back for a special session, which some Republicans rejected publicly but quietly acknowledged is possible. If state revenues don't bounce back, lawmakers who are set to adjourn in less than a month could be back sooner than next January.
After the budget bills pass, Pillen has set his sights on additional property tax relief that, with the final budget balance, would likely only come with increased sales or 'sin' tax revenue, such as through currently exempt goods or services, a proposal that failed to gain traction last summer.
Throughout Monday, the budget deficit fluctuated as lawmakers approved final cash transfers and additional spending. Lawmakers closed the last remaining gap by taking $5 million more from the state's 'rainy day' cash fund.
'It's the 'rainy day' fund, and folks, it's raining,' said State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, who secured $3 million more for the Nebraska Supreme Court.
Holdcroft framed his proposal as investing in the Nebraska Supreme Court's 'core judicial services that are delivering results' and uplifting public safety, such as problem-solving courts and probation services that court officials said could be in jeopardy without additional funds.
Problem-solving courts are intensive court programs bringing individuals and families together with one-on-one interactions with judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, law enforcement, court officials and more to help Nebraskans.
This includes Adult Drug and DUI Courts, Veterans Treatment Courts, Reentry Courts, Juvenile Drug Courts, Young Adult Courts, Mental Health Courts and Family Treatment Courts.
Each year, it costs the state about $4,400 per participant in problem-solving courts, Holdcroft said, compared to $41,000 for incarceration.
Clements and State Sen. Rob Dover of Norfolk said the courts had enough funds for the next year, citing the Legislative Fiscal Office, but that if the courts needed additional funds, officials could request more funding in January for the following fiscal year.
State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, an attorney, said that even if that was true, the fiscal office doesn't make policy. He told senators to listen to county attorneys and others 'who are running around like their hair is on fire' to promote a 'need,' not a 'want.'
Holdcroft said he understood that all senators were looking for ways to close spending but that they needed to distinguish between 'cost savings' and 'cost shifting,' which he said would fall to county jails, emergency responders, the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services and families or communities 'already under stress.'
If the programs were cut, Holdcroft said, the people who need the programs 'don't disappear.'
'They simply fall through the cracks into more expensive and less effective systems,' Holdcroft. 'If we let that happen, we are not saving the state money. We are making the problem worse and paying more for it down the line.'
State Sen. Bob Hallstrom of Syracuse also made a deal to take $8 million out of the state's Affordable Housing Trust Fund to preserve $4 million each in the Middle Income Workforce Housing Fund and the Rural Workforce Housing Fund.
Hallstrom said some projects in the workforce housing funds were put 'in limbo' with the pending cuts, echoing Dover that 'a house built today is much better than delaying the building of that house until a later time.'
'I will pledge to use whatever is at my disposal to try and avoid the ultimate transfer a couple years down the road from this fund,' Hallstrom said.
Conrad said lawmakers budget for two years, not one, and shouldn't 'backfill.'
Another major change, but not to the state's bottom line, came in Bosn earning support for $3 million in each of the next two years to support domestic violence services for survivors.
Bosn said the 'life-saving interventions' are required under state law but that it has been a 'critical funding failure' as a previous 'fix' fell short in actually getting dollars to survivors. She said federal funding in this area has also been cut.
'This amendment is about making sure survivors are not turned away,' Bosn said.
Conrad, in a tense exchange with Bosn, asked whether she voted for Trump and envisioned the cuts coming. Bosn said she did vote for Trump but didn't expect the cuts.
State Sen. Jason Prokop of Lincoln had brought similar legislation this year, LB 348, seeking to find a long-term fix for domestic violence services.
The solution fell on the Medicaid Managed Care Excess Profit Fund, a cash fund that collects excess Medicaid dollars for use in other areas, such as supporting new moms and babies.
However, that's the same fund that Clements and a majority of his committee targeted for $10 million to help rightsize the budget.
Taken together with Bosn's changes and others this session, fiscal estimates show the fund would be depleted next fiscal year for a variety of services.
In other changes to the state's main budget, State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha clarified that lawmakers could sweep only $4 million in unspent funds for work on broadband, rather than a planned $5 million transfer. Clements and State Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus, chair of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, confirmed the situation.
DeBoer identified the error Monday morning after continuing to review a last-minute 'murder sheet' of additional cuts last week.
'If this was a road, I'd be all over it,' Moser said, praising DeBoer.
State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil restored $264,488 of a larger planned cut to Educational Service Units in a 42-0 vote. An earlier amendment from Murman that didn't specify where the funds would come from failed 17-26 before he refiled the amendment to use general funds.
Murman, chair of the Education Committee, said ESUs might have made up the cut by increasing property taxes.
Dover secured $1 million for the Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska 'to support water and agricultural research and existing collaborative initiatives to implement best practices in water conservation.' A vote to preserve the funding in committee stalled 4-4, with Dover missing the vote for a doctor's appointment.
State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area, chair of the Revenue Committee, said the state funding was critical in the public-private partnership to not 'run-off' private investors.
Clements said that NU could find the funding elsewhere as he noted its set to get more than $13 million more in the next biennium, which is less than the NU Board of Regents requested. NU President Jeffrey Gold has said tuition increases could be in the future.
Lawmakers rejected an amendment from Conrad, to restore $500,000 in a Nebraska State Patrol cash fund for equipment, and State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, to continue diverting at least $20 million in interest from the proposed new state prison and proposed Perkins County Canal to economic recovery.
McKinney said the previous deal was transferring interest for three years, not two, and that 'a deal is a deal and a deal should be honored.'
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
7 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
A U.S. territory's colonial history emerges in disputes over voting and citizenship
WHITTIER, Alaska — Squeezed between glacier-packed mountains and Alaska's Prince William Sound, the cruise-ship stop of Whittier is isolated enough that it's reachable by just a single road, through a long, one-lane tunnel that vehicles share with trains. It's so small that nearly all its 260 residents live in the same 14-story condo building. But Whittier also is the unlikely crossroads of two major currents in American politics: fighting over what it means to be born on U.S. soil and false claims by President Trump and others that noncitizen voter fraud is widespread. In what experts describe as an unprecedented case, Alaska prosecutors are pursuing felony charges against 11 residents of Whittier, most of them related to one another, saying they falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when registering or trying to vote. The defendants were all born in American Samoa, an island cluster in the South Pacific roughly halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. It's the only U.S. territory where residents are not automatically granted citizenship by virtue of having been born on American soil, as the Constitution dictates. Instead, by a quirk of geopolitical history, they are considered 'U.S. nationals' — a distinction that gives them certain rights and obligations while denying them others. American Samoans are entitled to U.S. passports and can serve in the military. Men must register for the Selective Service. They can vote in local elections in American Samoa but cannot hold public office in the U.S. or participate in most U.S. elections. Those who wish to become citizens can do so, but the process costs hundreds of dollars and can be cumbersome. 'To me, I'm an American. I was born an American on U.S. soil,' said firefighter Michael Pese, one of those charged in Whittier. 'American Samoa has been U.S. soil, U.S. jurisdiction, for 125 years. According to the supreme law of the land, that's my birthright.' The status has created confusion in other states as well. In Oregon, officials inadvertently registered nearly 200 American Samoan residents to vote when they got their driver's licenses under the state's motor-voter law. Of those, 10 cast ballots in an election, according to the Oregon secretary of state's office. Officials there determined the residents had not intended to break the law and no crime was committed. In Hawaii, one resident who was born in American Samoa, Sai Timoteo, ran for the state Legislature in 2018 before learning she wasn't allowed to hold public office or vote. She had always considered it her civic duty to vote, and the form on the voting materials had one box to check: 'U.S. Citizen/U.S. National.' 'I checked that box my entire life,' she said. She also avoided charges, and Hawaii subsequently changed its form to make it more clear. Amid the storm of executive orders issued by Trump in the early days of his second term was one that sought to redefine birthright citizenship by barring it for children of parents who are in the U.S. unlawfully. Another would overhaul how federal elections are run, among other changes requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship. Courts so far have blocked both orders. The Constitution says that 'all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.' It also leaves the administration of elections to the states. The case in Whittier began with Pese's wife, Tupe Smith. After the couple moved to Whittier in 2018, Smith began volunteering at the Whittier Community School, where nearly half of the 55 students were American Samoan — many of them her nieces and nephews. She would help the kids with their English, tutor them in reading and cook them Samoan dishes. In 2023, a seat on the regional school board came open and she ran for it. She was the only candidate and won with about 95% of the vote. One morning a few weeks later, as she was making her two children breakfast, state troopers came knocking. They asked about her voting history. She explained that she knew she wasn't allowed to vote in U.S. presidential elections, but thought she could vote in local or state races. She said she checked a box affirming that she was a U.S. citizen at the instruction of elections workers because there was no option to identify herself as a U.S. national, court records say. The troopers arrested her and drove her to a women's prison near Anchorage. She was released that day after her husband paid bail. 'When they put me in cuffs, my son started crying,' Smith said. About 10 months later, troopers returned to Whittier and issued court summonses to Pese, eight other relatives and one man who was not related but came from the same American Samoa village as Pese. One of Smith's attorneys, Neil Weare, grew up in another U.S. territory, Guam, and is the co-founder of the Washington-based Right to Democracy Project, whose mission is 'confronting and dismantling the undemocratic colonial framework governing people in U.S. territories.' He suggested the prosecutions are aimed at 'low-hanging fruit' in the absence of evidence that illegal immigrants frequently cast ballots in U.S. elections. Even state-level investigations have found voting by noncitizens to be exceptionally rare. 'There is no question that Ms. Smith lacked an intent to mislead or deceive a public official in order to vote unlawfully when she checked 'U.S. citizen' on voter registration materials,' he wrote in a brief to the Alaska Court of Appeals, after a lower court judge declined to dismiss the charges. Prosecutors say her false claim of citizenship was intentional, and her claim to the contrary was undercut by the clear language on the voter application forms she filled out in 2020 and 2022. The forms said that if the applicant did not answer yes to being over 18 years old and a U.S. citizen, 'do not complete this form, as you are not eligible to vote.' The unique situation of American Samoans dates to the 19th century, when the U.S. and European powers were seeking to expand their colonial and economic interests in the South Pacific. The U.S. Navy secured the use of Pago Pago Harbor in eastern Samoa as a coal-refueling station for military and commercial vessels, while Germany sought to protect its coconut plantations in western Samoa. Eventually the archipelago was divided, with the western islands becoming the independent nation of Samoa and the eastern ones becoming American Samoa, overseen by the Navy. The leaders of American Samoa spent much of the late 19th and early 20th centuries arguing that its people should be U.S. citizens. Birthright citizenship was eventually afforded to residents of other U.S. territories — Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Congress considered it for American Samoa in the 1930s, but declined. Some lawmakers cited financial concerns during the Great Depression while others expressed patently racist objections, according to a 2020 article in the American Journal of Legal History. Supporters of automatic citizenship say it would particularly benefit the estimated 150,000 to 160,000 nationals who live in the states, many of them in California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Utah and Alaska. 'We pay taxes, we do exactly the same as everybody else that are U.S. citizens,' Smith said. 'It would be nice for us to have the same rights as everybody here in the states.' But many in American Samoa eventually soured on the idea, fearing that extending birthright citizenship would jeopardize its customs — including the territory's communal land laws. Island residents could be dispossessed by land privatization, not unlike what happened in Hawaii, said Siniva Bennett, board chair of the Samoa Pacific Development Corporation, a Portland, Ore.-based nonprofit. 'We've been able to maintain our culture, and we haven't been divested from our land like a lot of other indigenous people in the U.S.,' Bennett said. In 2021, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to extend automatic citizenship to those born in American Samoa, saying it would be wrong to force citizenship on those who don't want it. The Supreme Court declined to review the decision. Several jurisdictions across the country, including San Francisco and the District of Columbia, allow people who are not citizens to vote in certain local elections. Tafilisaunoa Toleafoa, with the Pacific Community of Alaska, said the situation has been so confusing that her organization reached out to the Alaska Division of Elections in 2021 and 2022 to ask whether American Samoans could vote in state and local elections. Neither time did it receive a direct answer, she said. 'People were telling our community that they can vote as long as you have your voter registration card and it was issued by the state,' she said. Finally, last year, Carol Beecher, head of the state Division of Elections, sent Toleafoa's group a letter saying American Samoans are not eligible to vote in Alaska elections. But by then, the voting forms had been signed. 'It is my hope that this is a lesson learned, that the state of Alaska agrees that this could be something that we can administratively correct,' Toleafoa said. 'I would say that the state could have done that instead of prosecuting community members.' Thiessen, Bohrer and Johnson write for the Associated Press. Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska, and Johnson from Seattle. Claire Rush in Portland and Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu contributed to this report.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bill lays out options for transferring small businesses
BOSTON (SHNS) – Warning that a 'silver tsunami' of Baby Boomer businessowners looking to sell in the next 15 to 20 years could lead to vanishing local small businesses, advocates asked lawmakers Thursday to provide incentives for employee ownership structures. John Abrams, who said his business was employee-owned for 40 years and has written two books on employee ownership, said about three million American small businesses including about 70,000 in Massachusetts have founders older than 55 and are likely to transition ownership in the next two decades. 'Some of those companies will be passed down in families, but less than in the past. Many will unceremoniously close their doors finding no buyer, leaving holes on Main Street. Others will be targeted by strategic buyers and private equity. They may be absorbed, bundled, relocated, carved up, sold for parts, their mission and culture undone. Jobs will be lost,' he said as part of a panel organized by the Coalition for Worker Ownership and Power. 'While many founders wish to preserve the businesses they devoted much of their life to, they and their advisors, financial planners, succession consultants, business brokers, accountants, know little of the employee ownership options available that can accomplish that.' Coalition members pitched the Joint Committee on Economic Development on a bill (H 503 / S 305) they said would make it easier for employees to buy the businesses they work for during ownership transitions, including by giving employees a right of first refusal, making technical assistance available and incentivizing the selling owner by exempting sales of less than $1 million (or the first $1 million in sales of a greater value) from the state capital gains tax, according to a committee summary. Halsey Platt, the owner of a residential construction business based in Ayer, told the committee that he is in the process of converting his business into an employee cooperative. He said he has been building the business for 33 years. As he begins to think about exiting the business, he said 'the notion of being able to have my employees be able to build generational wealth was incredibly appealing to me.' 'I think by the Legislature enacting these laws, it will make my choice and that business transition more normalized. And I think if the Legislature moves forward with this, part of what happens here in Massachusetts will be that it changes the landscape, that then employees get educated about what an employee cooperative is and they are able to start to think about that,' Platt said. 'This bill is not restrictive in terms of the owner of the business who wants to sell. It is simply giving those employees the opportunity to match that offer.' WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘We made a mistake': Pillen accepts responsibility for failed vetoes to Nebraska budget
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen. Dec. 10, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner) LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has accepted responsibility for mishandled line-item vetoes to the state's next two-year budget while reiterating that many of the suggested cuts will be reconsidered in 2026. Pillen, speaking with the Nebraska Examiner after the Legislature adjourned for the year, said the veto process includes 'human beings' in his office, the Clerk of the Legislature's Office and the Secretary of State's Office. On May 21, his office delivered Legislative Bill 261 and LB 264 with line-item vetoes to the Secretary of State's Office, which is the right place for the bills to go when the Legislature is out of session, but not to the Clerk of the Legislature's Office on the other side of the Capitol, which is where bills must be returned when senators are in session. The Governor's Office says LB 261 was line-item vetoed at 1:08 p.m. on May 21 and LB 264 at 1:10 p.m. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office said the bills were delivered to that office around 5 p.m. the same day. The Legislature did receive a separate letter from Pillen the night of May 21 detailing the line-item vetoes, as well as a copy of the bills with the inscribed vetoes, but lawmakers contended the next day that a line-item veto is constitutional only with the inscribed vetoes on the actual bills. Those bills remained at the Secretary of State's Office until morning. The Nebraska Constitution requires vetoes to be returned within five days of being presented to the governor, excluding Sundays. The bills passed May 15 and went to Pillen's office at 1:12 p.m., so the deadline was by the end-of-day May 21. Pillen said the mistake on the night of May 21 was 'a miscommunication on where it was supposed to go.' Pillen was in Washington, D.C., the following day, for a 'Make America Healthy Again' event at the White House. 'Bottom line: We made a mistake. I'd have thought, because we all work together, that a flag would have been thrown and said, 'Hey, let's do X,' but there wasn't, and then the glass of milk was spilled the next morning,' Pillen told the Examiner. The intended vetoes targeted $14.5 million to the state's general fund and $18 million in repurposed cash funds for improvements at Lake McConaughy. He sought to save $14.5 million that the Legislature's budget aimed to use from the state's 'rainy day' cash reserve by trimming spending — $152 million from the rainy day fund went to help balance the budget. The Nebraska Supreme Court, which faced about $12 million of Pillen's proposed general fund reductions (83%), has said the loss of those funds could close vital court services. This was Pillen's second two-year budget — he vetoed $38.5 million in general fund spending in 2023 for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 fiscal years. Lawmakers restored about $850,000 of the trims. Pillen, Secretary of State Bob Evnen and Speaker of the Legislature John Arch have pledged to clarify the line-item veto process for the budget ahead of 2026, and they've agreed that the suggested reductions should be considered when the budget is adjusted next year. Arch has said that to his knowledge, nothing like this had happened before. Pillen, whose office now insists the matter is resolved, said, 'As I told our team, we look in the mirror, we accept responsibilities. I've not met a human that doesn't make a mistake yet.' Pillen and his staff have declined to detail exactly what happened the night of May 21. Rani Taborek-Potter, a spokesperson for Evnen, said no one from the Secretary of State's Office delivered the actual LB 261 and LB 264 with the line-item vetoes to the Clerk of the Legislature's Office, 'nor is it our office's responsibility to do so.' 'When bills are vetoed by the Governor, the vetoed bills are delivered directly to the Clerk of the Legislature's Office by the Governor's office, as was the case for LB 319 and LB 287 to the best of our knowledge,' Taborek-Potter told the Examiner, referring to the two other bills vetoed this session related to expanding SNAP benefit eligibility and fighting bedbugs in Omaha. Taborek-Potter confirmed the Governor's Office delivered the budget bills to the administrative assistant in the Secretary of State's Office just before 5 p.m. on May 21. The Examiner on May 23 requested all records and communications regarding the line-item vetoes from when the budget bills passed May 15 to the date of the records request. The request sought texts, emails and digital messages. It also asked for communications within the executive branch and between Pillen's office and the legislative branch, including staff and state senators. Documents provided in response indicated that Pillen's veto letter detailing his objections was ready by 6:05 p.m., when the state budget administrator, Neil Sullivan, sent it to Pillen's staff. Around 6:27 p.m., Kenny Zoeller, director of the governor's Policy Research Office, the main research and lobbying arm for Pillen, confirmed the letter among gubernatorial staff. 'We are handing this off back to the Legislature POST adjournment,' Zoeller wrote of next steps. 'I will text when it's handed off.' Laura Strimple, the governor's primary spokesperson, sent a draft news release regarding the vetoes at 8:21 p.m. to Sullivan. It was sent to reporters around 11:23 p.m. The Legislature adjourned at 9:20 p.m., and a reporter could see legislative staff discussing the veto letter. Through much of the day on May 22, legislative leadership met off the floor, including Arch. Several emerged just before adjournment at 2:37 p.m. when Arch announced the vetoes could not be accepted and that the Legislature had concluded they were constitutionally improper. Some members of the Appropriations Committee hugged, threw fists in the air and smiled after. Pillen's spokesperson, Strimple, sent a statement to reporters at 4:48 p.m. stating it was the governor's position that Pillen 'clearly took the legally required steps to exercise his veto authority by surrendering physical possession and the power to approve or reject the bills.' She said the Governor's Office would consult with the Attorney General's Office and other counsel. The Policy Research Office, executive branch budget staff and other members of the governor's staff met around 5 p.m. on May 22. Strimple sent her statement on the governor's position to all members of the governor's staff at 5:23 p.m., then to lawmakers at 5:53 p.m. On May 27, the next legislative day, Pillen, Arch and Evnen released their joint statement around 2:54 p.m., ending the possible constitutional dispute and returning to their respective corners, with no one taking blame for the situation until Pillen spoke with reporters this week. Pillen's office asserts that it searched texts and digital messages as part of the public records request but found no responsive records, including from Zoeller, who had pledged to text after delivering the veto letter in one of the emails. The Governor's Office provided no records reflecting communications with the legislative branch. None of the records indicate what happened to the bills after being delivered to Evnen's office. Evnen, speaking with the Examiner on Friday, reiterated that the Secretary of State's Office's role with legislation is to file it, and 'when it's brought to our office and we're asked to file it, that's what we do.' 'There's a certain amount of confusion, really between the legislative branch and the Governor's Office, about those line-item vetoes, and I think that what we will do is sit down and talk through together how that will be handled. That's a really good thing to do,' he said. Multiple lawmakers beyond Arch have quietly teased the suggestion with the Examiner, asking how much clearer the process can be. Asked if there was a reason the original bills in the Secretary of State's Office by about 5 p.m. could not be delivered by midnight on May 21, Evnen said: 'You would have to ask the Governor's Office.' Strimple, asked about the remaining timeline on May 21 and May 22, said that with the Arch-Evnen-Pillen joint statement, 'The matter is concluded.' One of the top targets of Gov. Jim Pillen's intended line-item vetoes to the state's budget bills was about $12 million in spending earmarked for the Nebraska Supreme Court. Corey Steel, state court administrator for Nebraska, told lawmakers that the line-item vetoes to the courts could eliminate various services, including three problem-solving courts in Lancaster and Sarpy Counties, a drug court in Gov. Jim Pillen's home of Platte County, transition living reimbursements for certain adults and non-statutory services for juveniles on probation. Pillen told the Examiner that while he has the 'utmost respect' for the separation of powers between Nebraska's branches of government, he believes each one must look at government differently. He said the courts have significantly increased spending and have money sitting around. Steel, as well as Chief Justice Jeffrey Funke, have said that position isn't accurate and that increased spending has been in part due to legislation that came without new funds. The judicial branch leaders have said that the 'money' held in various funds is now exhausted. However, Pillen said he's not backing down and that the reductions will be considered in 2026. 'We have to be fiscally responsible,' Pillen said, 'and that's all we're asking.' — Zach Wendling SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
