By PAUL HAMMEL and ZACH WENDLING
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — State lawmakers gave first-round approval to Gov. Jim Pillen’s school-aid proposal Tuesday after rejecting attempts to amend a key part of “the package.”
Legislative Bill 583 advanced on a 39-3 vote but only after overcoming an eight-hour filibuster and rejecting amendments to adjust state aid distributions and require universal free lunch in Nebraska schools.
‘Eliminated weaknesses’
On a 29-17 vote, legislators voted down an amendment introduced by State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth that he said “eliminated weaknesses” in the governor’s bill.
The amendment, crafted by a school board member from Milford, would have spread out the state aid increases called for by Pillen by distributing slightly more aid to urban school districts and smoothing out wide disparities in property tax levies among rural school districts.
For instance, under the amendment, Brandt said, the Millard Public Schools would get $17.2 million in additional state aid, as opposed to an additional $13.7 million under the governor’s plan, while the Elkhorn district would get $10.9 million instead of $6.4 million. For the Omaha Public Schools, the difference was $29.7 million versus $35.8 million.
Seward Sen. Jana Hughes lent her support to the amendment, saying it would remedy a problem in her district in which property taxes on farmland in the Centennial School District is half the level of taxes on land across the fence in the Seward district.
But supporters of the governor’s plan criticized the amendment — which had been introduced as LB 320. They said that changing LB 583 would disrupt “the package” of proposals crafted by the governor not only to increase state aid to K-12 schools, but also to reduce income taxes and provide property tax relief.
“I appreciate that rural Nebraska likes this bill,” said Elkhorn Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, a major ally of Pillen’s plans. “But this is a little overboard.”
Albion Sen. Tom Briese, who served on a pre-session committee formed by Pillen to craft the state aid/tax relief bills, questioned where the extra $100 million required under the Brandt amendment would come from.
The amendment would rely on utilizing unclaimed state income tax credits for property taxes which, as of September, added up to $200 million. But Briese said taxpayers will gradually realize they’re missing out on tax credits, and those funds will dry up.
“We have a negotiated package here, and it’s time to respect that package,” said Briese, who is sponsoring the governor’s property tax plan. “This isn’t the place to insert these ideas at this hour.”
While other senators agreed that they didn’t have time to digest such a change on such a complicated subject, other senators, including Omaha Sen. Wendy DeBoer, said that first-round debate is when all 49 senators get to debate a bill and suggest changes.
But backers of the Pillen package — which has support of many school groups — won out.
Senators also rejected an amendment from Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh that would have required that all K-12 public school children be provided a free lunch every day.
‘Universal’ school lunch
Such “universal” school lunch has been passed in three states and matches LB 99, which was proposed by Cavanaugh but has not been voted out of the Education Committee.
Cavanaugh and supporters of the amendment said nutrition is critical to students’ success.She noted that the Education Committee unanimously advanced similar legislation in 2021, and supporters included Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, current committee chair.Sen. Megan Hunt of Omaha said families could focus on other economic aspects of their lives such as “being able to have quality time with their families.”Lawmakers voted the bill down along party lines, 30-16.Linehan, however, pointed out that the Legislature may have already addressed the free lunch issue by advancing a bill from Fremont Sen. Lynne Walz that seeks to maximize federal funds available for free school lunches for qualifying schools in low-income areas.