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(Lincoln, NE) Gov. Dave Heineman tonight issued nearly $23 million in line-item vetoes to LB 1060, the mainline budget bill advanced by the Legislature. While signing the overall budget bill, the Governor raised consistent, line-item objections to spending allocations unlikely to be needed and where he believed state costs should be absorbed by agencies.
“These vetoes return the general fund budget to less than the amount passed last year,” Gov. Heineman said. “I began this legislative session with a call for tax relief and spending restraint, because I believed we had made the necessary investments in our future. Upholding these reasonable line-item adjustments would be an important step toward increased stability and a state recognition of finite resources.”
The Governor allowed the Legislature’s addition of $5.1 million in current-year transitional utilities funding, with specific instructions for agencies to track actual utility costs and direct any unspent allocations toward only future energy costs.
Requests for a second year of anticipated utility costs were a consistent line-item veto throughout the budget bill, with the Governor echoing his call for state agencies to begin reprioritizing their budgets to account for the increased volatility of energy prices. Among the vetoed second-year utility costs were $4 million from the University of Nebraska; $215,400 from the Nebraska State College System and $56,650 from Nebraska Educational Telecommunications. The Governor’s vetoes also reduced the Legislature’s two-year energy cost allotments to the Capitol Commission and the Department of Administrative Services by $481,514 and $468,184, respectively.
“I understand the difficulty of internalizing such costs, and that is why I left enough for this first year, but I also understand that the private sector adjusts every season, and taxpayers have a right to expect that responsibility from government,” Gov. Heineman said.
The Governor followed through on his pledge to prioritize spending restraint, vetoing $2 million in new funds for the Nebraska Arts Council, $1.2 million in additional funds for the Nebraska Scholarship Program, and $125,000, or half of the new funds earmarked for the Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired. The Governor supports each program, but said he could not grant the additional funding over more immediate needs.
Approximately $2.8 million in projected savings were vetoed from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Children’s Health Insurance Program, and those funds were redirected to provide $1.9 million in aid for public health departments’ preparations for emergencies, as well as for funding $855,616 in increased costs for community-based behavioral health services required under the state behavioral health reform law.
Gov. Heineman’s $1.38 million in line-item reductions to Community Corrections leaves $4.4 million in new funds to fully finance statewide drug courts, probation day and evening reporting centers, as well as add evaluation and substance abuse treatment for offenders.
Other reductions include $2.67 million from a significant funding increase to the Capitol Masonry Project, leaving $3 million for FY 2006-07, including enough for repairs to the Legislative Chamber and other renovations; $1.5 million from an increase to current-year mass transit aid; $217,000 in savings from the Department of Correctional Services; and $198,515 from the Office of the Secretary of State for relocating records.
The Governor also vetoed $643,436 from HHS for a retroactive pay-rate equity increase for the Developmentally Disabilities Aid program, asserting that a retroactive rate increase could not be uniformly applied to current and former employees. The veto of current-year funding allows for implementation of the rate increase during the next fiscal year.
Among the Governor’s other significant vetoes was $318,563 in spending for four new staff positions at the Department of Education. The Governor approved the addition of the positions, but asked that the department reprioritize its budget to fill them.
“I agree with the need to dedicate positions to the enrichment of the minority educational experience,” Gov. Heineman said. “I also know that Nebraskans would not want additional money to be spent on the educational bureaucracy without first seeing whether the department could make do by rearranging its own internal operations.”
In closing, the Governor said, “If we are to continue on our course toward lower taxes and a more efficient government, state government needs to find effective ways of doing more with less. It is my hope that the Legislature will consider these reductions and continue working to prioritize the needs, not wants, of Nebraskans.”
Veto Letter (PDF 135k)
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