By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — A leading state senator is expressing opposition to one of Gov. Pete Ricketts’ top priorities: setting aside $500 million to build a canal off the South Platte River.
State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, who chairs the powerful Appropriations Committee, said he cannot agree with earmarking that much in state funds for the Perkins County Canal.
However, Stinner, speaking Wednesday, said he would support spending a smaller amount on a feasibility study for the project.
“This canal is a complicated, long-term project that deserves to be looked at,” the senator said.
But, he added, the $500 million that would be set aside for the canal — $400 million in cash reserve funds and $100 million inAmerican Rescue Plan Act monies — could be put to better use now.
Stinner’s opposition to the $500 million earmark is a significant blow to the canal proposal. Ricketts and others in his administration have portrayed the long-forgotten canal as the only way for Nebraska to get all the water it is supposed to under a 99-year-old compact over the South Platte’s flows with the State of Colorado.
The governor has said the project is urgent, citing water development plans in Colorado that he maintains will consume 90% of the South Platte’s flows. But officials have also said it might take up to a decade for the canal to be designed and built.
The Appropriations Committee is putting together its final budget recommendations, as well as its final suggestions on how to spend Nebraska’s $1.04 billion allocation from ARPA. Debate on those proposals by the full State Legislature will come later in this year’s 60-day session.