State Lawmakers Override Vetoes of 3 Bills by Ricketts
Nebraska lawmakers expanded Nebraska’s food stamp and heating assistance programs and ordered the state to take over the management of Omaha Public Schools’ troubled pension system last Wednesday, brushing aside the objections of Gov. Pete Ricketts.
Lawmakers overrode the Republican governor’s vetoes of all three bills on the second-to-last day of this year’s regular session.
The newly enacted laws will allow an additional 3,945 Nebraska families to qualify for federal food-assistance benefits, expand eligibility for federal heating assistance, and direct the state’s public-employee retirement agency to start managing the investments that pay for teacher pensions in the state’s largest school district.
In his veto letters, Ricketts argued that the food-assistance bill, Legislative Bill 108, would create a disincentive to work at a time when businesses are desperate for employees.
Ricketts said the energy assistance bill, LB 306, relied on a one-time infusion of federal money to permanently expand the benefit.
And he argued that the state’s managerial takeover of the Omaha Public Schools’ pension fund, LB 147, was part of a push by the district to eventually have the state assume responsibility for its $1 billion pension liability.
On each measure, lawmakers rejected the governor’s arguments.
The sponsor of the food-assistance law, Sen. John McCollister, said most people who qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, are already employed. And he said those who aren’t often suffer from serious disabilities or are caring for a relative.
McCollister said the proposal would give more families “a new lease on life,” by raising the cutoff to qualify. The law will temporarily allow families to qualify if their gross income is 165% or less of the federal poverty level — $43,725 for a family of four. Under current Nebraska law, the same family could only qualify if they make 130% or less of the federal level, or $34,450.
“Please remember that SNAP recipients are our friends, neighbors and fellow church members,” said McCollister, of Omaha.
The argument didn’t sway some conservative lawmakers, who viewed it as expansion of the welfare state, but lawmakers voted by the narrowest possible margin, 30-19, to override Ricketts.
“You want to do your good works with your neighbor’s tax dollars, because that’s what we’re doing here,” said Sen. Mike Groene, of North Platte.
Senators voted 32-15 to override the veto of the heating-assistance bill. The sponsor, Sen. Tom Brandt, of Plymouth, said allowing more people to qualify would solve a bureaucratic problem with the program.
Because the federal government requires states to return a certain amount of unused money, the state Department of Health and Human Services has been making extra payments to current Nebraska enrollees rather than sending it back to Washington. Brandt said he was “trying to stop unneeded extra payments to people” by spreading out the money among more recipients.
Ricketts countered that distributing the money to more people would eventually leave less for those who need it the most.
Senators voted, 31-18, to override the governor on the Omaha school pensions bill.
The sponsor, Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward, said he agreed with Ricketts that the state should not be responsible for the Omaha school district’s unfunded pension liability. But he argued that any effort to have the state assume that debt would face tremendous resistance from lawmakers.
“I might be wrong, but I don’t see that happening,” said Kolterman, the chairman of the Legislature’s Retirement Systems Committee.
The $1 billion pension liability was largely the result of speculative, non-traditional investments made after the 2008 recession by a trustee board with no professional investing experience. Kolterman said OPS is one of just 10 districts nationally and the only one in Nebraska that manages its own investments.
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