Petition filed to repeal law moving Nebraska State Fair
Nebraskans may be able to vote on whether to move the state fair from its longtime home in Lincoln to Grand Island. A referendum petition to repeal a new state law authorizing the move was filed Monday with the Secretary of State’s office. The Grand Island Independent reports that seven people from Omaha and Lincoln filed the petition.
To get the referendum on the November ballot, about 60,000 signatures would need to be collected. According to the Secretary of State’s Web site, petitions to repeal a state law are valid if the signatures are received within 90 days of the adjournment of the Legislative session.
Lawmakers finished their work on April 17, which means the signatures are due in mid-July. In April, Gov. Dave Heineman signed legislation that will move the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island by 2010. The law was the culmination of months of deal-making between parties interested in having the fair, state officials and UNL.
Nebraska Unicameral Speaker: It Was A Good Session
The 2008 Nebraska legislative session was successful, said Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood of Norfolk. Funding for state roads was a contentious item, due to record high gasoline prices. The Unicameral transfered $14.5 million from the general fund for road projects. Those dollars will be matched by approximately $75 million in federal funds.
Sen. Flood said: “It’s a tough time for people, we recognize that. We didn’t want to make it any worse than we had to. At the same time, we maintained quality infrastructure across the state.” Flood added: “I think that the method of execution will be an issue next session.” The Unicameral will reconvene next January.
Area state senators reflect on Legislative session’s top issues
The second session of the 100th Nebraska Legislature was a short one, but it was jam-packed with big issues. Topics like highway funding and the future of the State Fair dominated discussion during the session, which ended Thursday. The Independent caught up with four Central Nebraska senators Dist. 33 Sen. Carroll Burling of Kenesaw, Dist. 35 Sen. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island, Dist. 41 Sen. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul and Dist. 34 Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton to find out their thoughts on Legislature’s hot topics this year.
Each of the four lawmakers was generally happy with the way their colleagues spent the state’s $475 million cash reserve. The state dipped into the reserve to move the State Fair, match federal funds for roads and pay Republican River irrigators. But the overall amount used was dwarfed by the amount legislators chose to save, something that pleased the area’s senators, who advised setting aside money for tougher economic times. None of the area’s senators were particularly excited about the Legislature’s compromise of using cash reserves to help match federal highway funds after Gov. Dave Heineman vetoed an increase in the state’s gas tax.
McDonald, Burling and Aguilar said they’d prefer to fund the roads primarily through a user fee, like a gas tax, which those passing through the state would help pay. In Central Nebraska, the Legislature’s true big-ticket item was its decision to move the State Fair to Grand Island. Naturally, all four senators were enthusiastic about the opportunity for the area. Dubas, on the other hand, acknowledged some surprise, even though she was a member of the Agriculture Committee that helped craft the bill. “I didn’t see it coming,” she said. “I really didn’t think the State Fair would leave Lincoln.”
Nebraska lawmakers give final approval to State Fair move
A proposal to move the State Fair to
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State Fair bill signing in G.I. tentatively rescheduled
The final reading and vote for LB1116, the bill that would move the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island by 2010, has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
The bill has been put on the schedule for Wednesday’s session, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. Assuming the bill passes through the final round, Heineman’s office has said the governor will make a trip to Grand Island’s Fonner Park at about 11 a.m. Friday.
Lincoln willing to give up State Fair for research park
The growing prospect of losing the Nebraska State Fair to Grand Island was described as a “victory for Lincoln’s economic future” by Lincoln leaders, with corn dogs and carnivals making way for research facilities and high-paying jobs. “This is absolutely a good swap,” Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler said. “We need the (research park). That’s our future.”
Moving the State Fair, established in 1868, from its longtime home was given a full head of steam when the Agriculture Committee voted 6-1 Monday to send the full Legislature a $42 million plan that would move the fair to Grand Island by 2010.
NU President J.B. Milliken said some companies already have voiced interest in locating to the Innovation Park, but recruiting would not begin until the bill becomes law. The bill is slated to go before the full Legislature on Thursday.
Legislature’s Ag Committee favors State Fair move to Grand Island
Lawmakers began nudging the Nebraska State Fair off it’s 106-year-old site in Lincoln and toward Grand Island on Monday. The Agriculture Committee advanced a bill (LB1116) to the full Legislature that would move the fair to Grand Island by 2010 at a cost of $42 million, with about half coming from the University of Nebraska and $5 million from the state’s cash reserve fund. But with the advancement of the bill Monday, Grand Island went from the one-time underdog to the front-runner, racing ahead of Lincoln in the competition for the fair.
Grand Island Chamber of Commerce President Cindy Johnson attributed it to the support Grand Island officials got from the fair board. “What we found is that Grand Island really had an understanding of what the state fair wanted and needed,” Johnson said.
In addition to $21.5 million from the university and $5 million from the state, Grand Island would pitch in private donations and public dollars totaling $8.5 million. The fair board would give another $7 million.
The university wants to use the land at State Fair Park in Lincoln to build a research campus where they envision university researchers and private businesses co-mingling to boost the state’s economy with high-paying jobs.
That project could include $300 million worth of new, public facilities and $600 million to $700 million worth of private facilities. One key player seemed satisfied with the cost breakdown. Gov. Dave Heineman quickly endorsed the Grand Island plan, calling it an “opportunity of a lifetime.”
NU’s tech park grows through land acquisition
While the city of Lincoln, state and University of Nebraska wrangle over a proposed future research park at the State Fairgrounds, the university s existing research and technology park has quietly expanded. The NU Technology Park bought an adjacent 12-acre parcel of undeveloped land from Universal Companies last fall.
Though the park s buildings are currently full, President Steve Frayser said that s not the reason the park bought the land. There are about 112 acres of buildable land in the 151-acre park, and only about one-third have buildings on them, Frayser said. He said the land purchase was seen as an opportunity to provide a buffer between the technology park and an industrial area to the west and prevent a use on the land that might have been less than desirable from the park s point of view.
The technology park, founded in 1996, is home to small start-up companies as well as large established companies such as Verizon Wireless and Cabela’s.
Grand Island eager to land State Fair
Grand Island is moving toward an agreement to host the Nebraska State Fair, but that movement could stall without a little more monetary grease, a leader in the effort says. Cindy Johnson, president of the Grand Island Chamber of Commerce, said the State Fair Board has asked her and other Grand Island officials to reduce the estimated $45 million cost of relocating the fair from Lincoln.
The Grand Island group hopes to present a lower cost estimate to the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee this week, Johnson said Wednesday. She and others involved in the negotiations also said that increased private donations could smooth the path for moving the State Fair. Meanwhile, Tonn Ostergard, one of the leaders of the Lincoln business organization called the 2015 Vision group, said it seems possible that Lincoln may get one victory — UNL’s proposed Innovation Campus, which university leaders say will eventually hold 17 research buildings, solve the university’s space crunch and help rev up Nebraska’s economy. “It’s really important that everybody know we have worked very, very hard to present a viable option for the fair (in Lincoln),”
Ostergard said. “But at some point it gets difficult to fit a square peg into a round hole.” Sen. Phil Erdman of Bayard, chairman of the Agriculture Committee, said no decisions on the fair’s future had been made. All three of the remaining options — move the State Fair to Grand Island, move it elsewhere in Lincoln, or leave the fair where it now is — are still possible. “No option is dead,” he said.
At least four from Ag Committee like Grand Island as fair site
At least four of the eight members of the Legislature’s Agriculture Committee regard Grand Island as the best site for the Nebraska State Fair if it moves from Lincoln’s State Fair Park. Sens. Vickie McDonald of St. Paul, Russ Karpisek of Wilber and Annette Dubas of Fullerton favor Grand Island.
Even Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, who has never made any secret of his indifference to the fair, said “if it is to have any relevance, it should be somewhere other than where it is now.” Committee Chairman Phil Erdman of Bayard, still working Wednesday to broker a deal that could convert the fairgrounds to a research campus, was not willing to state a preference for a new location.
Only one senator, Norm Wallman of Cortland, wants to move the fair to near the Lancaster Event Center in northeast Lincoln. Sen. Don Preister of Omaha wants to keep the event in Lincoln, although, he said, “I can live with Grand Island.” The eighth member, M.L. “Cap” Dierks of Ewing, is mostly worried about keeping the cost of any move in check. Erdman has not yet scheduled the executive session needed to advance a bill to the floor.
The committee’s current priority bill would require the university to offer $30 million in compensation for taking over State Fair Park, or its appraised value, whichever is higher. Various amendments are also possible, including an alternative advanced earlier by Sen. Ron Raikes of Lincoln that would remove the fair by 2012 and sort out its destination and any financial implications later.