LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen line-item vetoed $14.5 million in general fund appropriations from Nebraska’s legislatively approved budget for the next two years late Wednesday, 83% of which was earmarked for the Nebraska Supreme Court. In his veto letter returning Legislative Bill 261, the general spending budget bill, and LB 264, a bill allocating various state cash funds, Pillen thanked lawmakers for closing a major projected budget deficit for the next two years while making investments in education, developmental disability support, and national security.
He returned four items he said are “necessary to honor our commitment to fiscal restraint,” and that the small number of objections reflects “the depth of fiscal conservatism” in the budget. “It is critical that we continue to treat nickels like manhole covers, and I urge you to sustain four additional reductions to improve our fiscal position,” Pillen wrote. If the vetoes are sustained, the Legislature would still finish the budget with a positive balance of $1.1 million, because Pillen’s approach would reduce spending instead of using as much money from the “rainy day” cash reserve fund. His approach reduces by about $14.5 million a transfer from the cash reserves. The lawmaker-approved state budget calls for transferring $147 million from cash reserves to help close a half-billion-dollar projected budget deficit.
Gov. Jim Pillen has also squashed, at least for now, a legislative effort to help Omaha public housing residents get rid of a persistent bed bug problem, vetoing an Urban Affairs Committee bill pushed by a North Omaha lawmaker.
LB 287 sought quicker and better remedies to bedbug infestations and other concerns voiced by low-income residents of the Omaha Housing Authority, primarily those who live in publicly subsidized apartment towers. The proposed intervention followed public outcry by OHA residents and advocates, including a class-action lawsuit led by a group of current or former residents of 10 public housing high-rise apartments and represented by attorney and former State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha and two Iowa lawyers who specialize in bedbug cases.