Committee plans to finance a study, not the full $500M earmark
By PAUL HAMMEL
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts and the state’s top water official doubled down Wednesday on the need to build a $500 million canal on the South Platte River, saying that delaying the work would hurt Nebraska.
“Delay only benefits Colorado,” the governor said at a morning news conference.
Ricketts spoke to reporters as the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee is planning to allocate only $22.5 million in planning funds for the proposed Perkins County Canal and as Nebraska water officials are engaging in at least some talks with their counterparts in Colorado.
State Sen. John Stinner, chair of Appropriations, has said he can’t support earmarking a half-billion dollars in state funds to a project before a study has been done to determine whether it’s feasible.
But the governor and Tom Riley, the director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, told reporters Wednesday that any delay would just allow Colorado to move forward with more projects that consume Nebraska’s allocation.
Time to ‘push forward’
Ricketts said Colorado has responded to Nebraska’s effort to revive the long-dormant Perkins County Canal project by introducing legislation to accelerate water projects that draw water from the South Platte for the growing Front Range.
“Their philosophy seems to be that possession is nine-tenths of the law,” the governor said. “So the longer this is delayed, the more projects (in Colorado) get built … and the more difficult it is for us to get that water.”
“We’ve got to push forward and build this canal,” Ricketts said.
The governor called the news conference to lobby for his 2022 budget proposals as the Appropriations Committee works to finalize its proposed budget. Ricketts’ spending ideas include the Perkins County Canal, building a $260-million state prison and enacting a trio of tax cut proposals.
He said a recent state revenue forecast, which upped expected tax revenue by nearly $800 million in the next two fiscal years, provides plenty of money to fund the canal and prison, as well as the tax cuts.
Both Ricketts and Riley said the canal, which would begin in northeast Colorado, is the only way Nebraska can claim water from the South Platte that was set aside for Nebraska in a 1923 compact with the Rocky Mountain state.
‘A boondoggle’
A spokesman for Colorado Gov. Jared Polis told Nebraska Public Media recently that the Perkins County Canal was a “canal to nowhere” and a “boondoggle” that would never be built.
Ricketts said Wednesday he had discussed the canal project with Polis when they ran into each other in Washington, D.C., recently. Riley said he talked to his water counterpart in a Zoom meeting only yesterday.
When asked, Riley said the discussions have focused on Nebraska’s plan to build the canal, not on other alternatives to the $500 million project.