Food and finance in the Legislature's home stretch

Yahoo

05-05-2025

The Nebraska State Capitol. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)
While the country's chattering class buzzed about 100 days in office, lawmakers in the Nebraska Legislature passed that apparently important milestone several weeks ago without a blip of notoriety. Nose to the grindstone … as it were.
Its work continues until early June, so state senators are entering the home stretch. Whether their remaining days will be a slog, a sprint or something in between remains to be seen as an eclectic array of issues from food to finances still await them.
A sampler platter of policies passed, passed over and proposed reveals the 'vibe' of the 108th Session, a 90-day variety. A trio of subjects are instructive:
While a bill to certify the origins of your cheeseburger is working its way through the Unicameral — with some in that august body rightly wondering why — a recent, far more important discussion took place: Should Nebraska be using access to food as a behavior modification tool?
To their credit, senators have moved forward State Sen. Victor Rountree's Legislative Bill 314, a proposal to lift the ban on access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for certain former felons who have served time on drug convictions.
To date, proponents have been on the money in support of LB 314, arguing that addiction is not a moral issue but rather a disease. Plus, using food as a cudgel would continue the punishment of a crime for which offenders had already paid their debt to society. Rountree's bill appears to be heading for final passage, a welcome turn for the 1,000 or so Nebraskans affected by the current ban.
How all Nebraskans pay for the food they put on their tables has also been a topic of discussion as it relates to the Legislature's charge to carry out the will of the voting public who decided to increase the state's minimum wage a couple of years ago.
The debate over State Sen. Jane Raybould's LB 258 has been wide-ranging, rife with weedy details and occasionally personal, the overarching question here is just because the Legislature has the authority to alter what was decided at the polls, should it?
LB 258 changes the rate at which the minimum wage would rise starting in 2027 from the cost of living to a set percent each year. There are some exceptions for younger workers. The details are numerous and devilish, but the debate tone took an unfortunate turn last week.
That's when several senators argued that the solution for those earning a minimum wage was to forego dependence on government largesse and instead work harder, improve themselves, get an education or start their own business. The implication was that minimum wage earners are not hard workers, uninterested in self-improvement, uneducated and somehow in a position to open their own businesses.
'Inexplicable' comes to mind when distilling such comments, but I'd question that. I think it explicable: Being woefully out of touch with all wage earners across the state dealing with high prices, stubborn inflation and the nation's chaotic economic future.
State senators work hard and surely had Nebraskans' best interest at heart when they raised their right hands on January 8. While a serious and sometimes difficult task, all Nebraskans live by the Legislature's decisions. It is incumbent on them … indeed on all of us as voters, too … to have an understanding of not simply how legislation affects our lives, but also the lives of those with whom we have little or nothing in common, aside from geography.
Speaking of economic futures, now is a good time to remind ourselves of the words of Martin Luther King Jr. who said, 'a budget is a moral document.' Debate begins this week to address the state economic forecasting board's recent revision that adds $190 million over two years to the budget deficit. For an excellent primer on the details, read the Nebraska Examiner's Zach Wendling's piece here.
The sledding will be tough. That's because as we see on our nightly television news and in our morning papers, some are selling a rosy, tariff-driven future, but few economists and business leaders are buying.
Chaos and doubt have replaced certitude, a priceless commodity when paying for today, investing in tomorrow or both. The result? Roiling markets, talk of recession and a vague economic malaise among buyers, sellers and, most importantly, consumers. All of which affects Nebraskans and those with whom we have entrusted the state's financial plan.
To wit: Any budget discussion, debate and eventual decision seen through King's observation and ye shall know them by … how they spend our money.
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