LINCOLN — The specter of Budget Cuts Future got as much attention Tuesday as the reality of Budget Cuts Present when Nebraska lawmakers took up this year’s appropriations bills.
The day ended with the Legislature giving easy first-round approval to the budget package. No senators voted in opposition.
Among the bills approved was Legislative Bill 1106, which would make it possible to open school-based health clinics in the Omaha metro area.
Lawmakers made no changes in the budget package other than those proposed by legislative committees or by the Appropriations Committee chairman, State Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek.
The package reduces state general fund spending to $6.72 billion for the budget period ending June 30, 2011.
That’s down from the $6.74 billion spending level approved during a special budget-cutting session in November.
Before that session, the budget was $6.94 billion.
Heidemann and other members of the Appropriations Committee warned that more difficult decisions will be needed when lawmakers tackle the budget for the next two-year period.
The legislative fiscal staff projected a $670 million gap between revenues and expenses in the 2011-13 fiscal years.
“It is a concern,” Heidemann said. “When you look at the out years, it is a little bit daunting.”
Lawmakers can deal with the problem by cutting state spending, by using the cash reserve fund or by raising taxes.
Sen. John Wightman of Lexington warned that a combination of the three might be necessary to close the next budget gap.
Sen. Dennis Utter of Hastings worried that the Legislature should have done more to help citizens prepare for what might be coming.
“We need to try to avoid the moaning and groaning and gnashing of teeth that’s going to take place in January,” he said.
Utter pointed to an unexpected increase in state aid to schools as a special problem. State aid wound up being $18 million higher than anticipated in November. The final figure was even higher than the one Appropriations Committee members were given when finishing their budget early last week.
LB 1106, introduced by Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha, helped make the budget figures work.
The measure includes a provision to extend Medicaid coverage for prenatal care to pregnant women and children who are legal immigrants.
Currently, those women and children get care through a state-funded program. Covering them through Medicaid would allow Nebraska to get federal funds for their care. The change is possible under a new federal law.
The women affected by LB 1106 are not the same ones who lost coverage recently because of a change in state policy.
The change was forced when federal officials said Medicaid coverage must be based on the eligibility of the pregnant woman, not on the eligibility of the unborn child, as Nebraska had been doing.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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