Unicameral Update reports that “adjustments were made” to Nebraska’s 2010 budget package during second-round debate late last week.
The article notes that “the mainline bill” would “balance the state’s budget with cash fund transfers and an additional 2% across-the-board cut to agencies.”
According to the story, state senators “voted 35-0 to adopt the amendment before advancing the bill to final reading on a voice vote.”
Most state employees would get raises of 2.9% beginning this year and 2.5% next year under a contract proposal they will vote on Friday and Saturday. Union leader Mike Marvin, executive director of NAPE/AFSME Local 61, said there was no loss of vacation and no changes in the health insurance plan.
“For a lot of people this is a fair offer. But some of the bargaining units probably should reject it,” he said. Two years ago the union and state negotiators took their contract disagreements to a special master and then to the Commission on Industrial Relations. The result was some state workers received up to 7.5% increases in each of the past two years plus another 2.5% hike on their hiring anniversary.
As many as half of the Nebraska Legislature’s 16 top leadership posts — which are up for election today — will be occupied by state senators with only two years of experience in the Unicameral, a repercussion of term limits.
As many as six other leadership spots, including speaker and chair of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee, will be filled by senators with four years of experience under their belt. Chairmanships of the Legislature’s 14 standing committees and the posts of speaker and chairman of the Executive Board used to be reserved for the most veteran of lawmakers.
“In a vacuum, that sounds kind of daunting,” said Bob Sittig, a retired UNL political science professor and longtime observer of the Legislature. “But I’ll have to admit, last time around, it worked out pretty well.”
Sittig referred to 2006, when two-year veterans Mike Flood of Norfolk was elected speaker and Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek became chairman of the appropriations committee, two key posts. Both won praise for their leadership, despite their relative lack of experience. Committee chairmen can make or break a proposal through the scheduling of hearings and work on bill revisions.
Once a bill gets on the floor, the chairs are the main sellers of the ideas.
Interest in nuclear power and uranium mining is rising as the nation looks for cleaner, cheaper forms of energy that can be produced domestically. The debate in western Nebraska plays out over the Crow Butte mine, which produces about 800,000 pounds of yellowcake uranium each year.
Crow Butte is currently on course to greatly expand near Crawford, Neb. and to renew its 10-year operating license — proposals that local environmental groups oppose. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing a proposed 2,100-acre expansion on a site north of Crawford called the North Trend. The mine provides 66 jobs with an annual payroll of $3.6 million in a region where good-paying jobs are often hard to find.
“It’s a great thing for our economy. I don’t know what we’d do without it,” said Bev Witt of Crawford, a clerk at the town’s grocery store. Crow Butte officials say the mine operates safely and is constantly monitored to prevent any mixing of the water used in mining with surface or underground water used for livestock and humans. Crow Butte is one of about a dozen such uranium mines in the country.
Gary Homrighausen, a former rancher who’s worked at the mine for 12 years, said he was skeptical of its safety before he took the job. “A lot of people have turned around in their thinking about that,” he said, as he monitored computers tracking the mine’s pumping and extraction of the uranium solution. But the relicensing and expansion of the mine has drawn a litany of concerns from the Western Nebraska Resources Council, the Oglala Sioux Tribe and individuals and groups associated with the tribe.
Currently, about 20% of electric power in the United States is produced by nuclear plants such as the Fort Calhoun and Brownville nuclear stations in eastern Nebraska. The NRC has 26 applications for new nuclear reactors throughout the U.S. There’s also been renewed interest in mining uranium, spurred by a leap in uranium prices. Right now, the fate of Crow Butte’s expansion and new license lies in the hands of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Public hearings and hundreds more pages of written arguments and appeals are expected before the judges finally rule on whether Crow Butte will be allowed to expand.
Nebraska Govenor Dave Heineman has appointed Brian Dunnigan director of the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Dunnigan has been acting director since March. He is a professional engineer who has spent 23 years with the agency.
One of Dunnigan’s key challenges will be the water battle with Kansas, where officials have demanded millions of dollars and an irrigation shutdown for Nebraska’s overuse of Republican River water.
The State Department of Roads, based on consultation with the State Department of Revenue, certified late Friday that the state gas tax would rise slightly Jan. 1. It means that overall state gas taxes will rise from 26 cents per gallon to 26.4 cents per gallon.
As of October, Nebraska’s gas tax ranked No. 20 among all states, according to the American Petroleum Institute. That is about 3 cents under the national average, according to API, and about 22 cents lower than the highest state, California.
How do state trade and investment officials visit business and government leaders from 10 countries around the world all at once? If that state is Nebraska, you get those leaders to come to you. In September, Nebraska’s Gov. Dave Heineman and his economic development team hosted a Reverse Trade Mission that brought 130 delegates to the state from every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
Meanwhile, workers 25 miles north of Omaha now have employment options closer to home. Blair, the Washington County seat, won two key projects in 2008, each of which will hire about 100 people initially. Both Northstar Wind Towers and Denmark-based Novozymes expect to expand their Blair operations in the coming years. Talk about a global marketplace. The site-search team for Novozymes, which included a site consultant from an international service provider, considered several Midwestern states before settling on the Blair location.
The Blair plant will not be an R&D operation, but it will require a highly educated work force including chemical engineers, mechanical engineers and other professional resources, such as HR, environmental and safety resources and supervisory people and operators. “Our intention is to hire locally wherever we can. That’s our commitment to Nebraska and Omaha and to the City of Blair,” said Novozymes’ Mark Paige.
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