The Nebraska Legislature begins its 2025 session Wednesday facing a projected budget shortfall that has lowered expectations for what the state senators might accomplish.
State Senator Jana Hughes said, “Clearly, the major issue is that we're in a deficit, so we will have to address that. I think that'll overshadow everything, honestly."
By law, senators can’t appropriate any money that doesn’t leave at least a 3 percent reserve compared to projected state revenues. With income tax changes and lagging sales tax collections, the state is projected to fall $433 million short by the end of the next two-year budget cycle.
That means less money available for everything from schools to prisons and health care to law enforcement.
Speaker of the Legislature John Arch said times have changed, without the federal money influx from coronavirus-directed programs, so this year “appropriation bills will be very limited.”
At the same time, Sen. Danielle Conrad said people’s needs are growing.
“Nebraskans are working really, really hard and finding it harder to keep their head above water,” Conrad said. "So we need to really get serious about coming together to focus on things like housing and workforce development and child care."
That tension between needs and resources is evident in how people talk about what has been a dominant issue in recent years – property taxes. Gov. Jim Pillen said they remain a crisis that must be lifted.
Pillen wants the state to pay for all schools’ operating expenses, saying, “The best way to have the strongest K-12 is to make sure that all school districts are funded appropriately from the state."
Pillen’s idea of the state taking over school funding, and paying for that by broadening sales taxes, went nowhere in last summer’s special legislative session.
Hughes, who is running to lead the Legislature’s Education Committee, favors a more modest approach, by taxing a few luxury items, like swimming pool cleaning services, to chip away at property taxes.
*Additionally, South Dakota Congressman Dusty Johnson is reintroducing the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act.
The act preserves a section of the land on the Pine Ridge Reservation where hundreds of Lakota were massacred by the U.S. Army in 1890.
The bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives in 2023, but was never signed into law.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe purchased the land together in 2022. The two tribes then signed a covenant saying the land should be held and maintained as a memorial and sacred site.
The bill grants continued outright ownership to both tribes and applies restricted fee status to be held by the tribes. That status grants some protections to the land, like restricting taxation from state and local governments.
Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Chairman Ryman LeBeau thanked Congressman Johnson for his continuing support to advance the bill and “bring the truth to light in honor of the original stewards of these sacred lands."
“This critically important bill protects and secures the grounds of Wounded Knee Memorial site, which we consider to be hallowed land where hundreds of our unarmed ancestors were chased down by the United States military and brutally murdered in the dead of winter," LeBeau said.
*In other news, more farmers reported higher levels of stress last year compared to 2022.
It’s one of the findings from the latest Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll, which surveyed nearly 950 farmers across the state. Most of the respondents were men and 66 years old on average.
J. Arbuckle, an Iowa State University extension sociologist, led the poll.
“There was a very big shift in the level of personal stress that was reported. And you know, I think that also kind of aligns with the kind of the decline in economic conditions leading up to the survey time,” Arbuckle said.
Farmers were surveyed last February and March when crop prices and farm sector forecasts were declining after historic highs that occurred from 2021 to mid-2023.
Nearly half of the participants said they had medium-level stress. Seventeen percent said they had high or very high stress levels.
Arbuckle says these ratings can help indicate mental health needs in the state.
*Additionally, the first dormitory to be built at the Wayne State College campus in nearly 60 years will have a public open house on Wednesday.
Stearns Hall events will run from 3 to 6 pm, with guided tours running periodically throughout the open house. It is located on the east side of campus, across the street from the Center for Applied Technology building.
Stearns Hall is the first residence hall built since the construction of Bowen Hall in 1966. The four-story structure has housing for up to 276 students.
Wayne State named the new residence hall in honor of Sheila Stearns, who served as the 10th president of the college from 1999 to 2003. She was the first woman to lead the institution, and died on May 23, 2023.
