LINCOLN — State budget tensions boiled over onto the floor of the Nebraska Legislature Thursday in the aftermath of lawmakers’ rejecting a $50 million proposal to increase the state’s cigarette tax.

Lawmakers appear to be in a standoff over options to help fill the state’s projected budget deficit, which is listed at $125 million but in reality is closer to $140 million.

Senators have plenty of avenues to solve the issue, but do any of them have enough support to pass?

“My greatest concern is that we’re going to look like Washington D.C. before we get done with this session,” said Speaker of the Legislature John Arch of La Vista.

On Wednesday, the cigarette tax proposal, Legislative Bill 1124, failed to advance to a second round of floor debate when a filibuster-ending cloture motion failed in a 31-10 vote. Cloture motions require 33 votes to pass.

The bill would have increased Nebraska’s cigarette tax by $1, moving from 64 cents per pack to $1.64. The same measure would have increased taxes on vape products, too. State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, chair of the Appropriations Committee, has said the bill would have generated up to $50 million in revenue per year, and lessened the deficit by the same amount.

The failure of the bill came as a sting to some proponents who thought they had reached a compromise just before the vote. Lawmakers approved an amendment that would have removed the increase to the cigarette tax and kept the increased tax on vape products, lowering the potential new revenue stream to about $6 million each year.

The amendment’s adoption became moot a few minutes later when LB 1124 failed the cloture vote.

On Thursday, several lawmakers expressed frustration over Wednesday’s vote. State Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams, who sits on Appropriations, said he plans to propose several options in committee that he previously did not support and feels he has no other choice but to back.

“Some of these other things I will vote for now that I had voted against,” Dorn said.

Among the options Dorn listed was pulling back $3.5 million for school choice scholarships, and he said he might support increasing transfers out of the Nebraska Environmental Trust and the Nebraska Board of Educational Lands and Funds (BELF).

He also threw out the possibility of furloughing all state employees for 20 hours, noting that roughly two decades ago, lawmakers furloughed state employees for 40 hours in order to balance the budget.

State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, who led the filibuster on LB 1124, called out Dorn for his speech, describing it as a “threat” to hurt low-income Nebraskans further if lawmakers don’t agree on the presented options. She argued that alternatives proposed by progressive lawmakers often get immediately shut down or trapped in committee and are not given serious consideration.

“The fact that the reaction after the vote — rumbling on the floor, and now the group chat histrionics that have spilled into the legislative record from the right — are present and clear on the mic,” Conrad said. “If you Democrats, and you hard-right conservatives don’t get in line, the result is we’re going to hurt the poor more. That’s your philosophy that you’re proud of?”

Kenny Zoeller, director of Gov. Jim Pillen’s Policy Research Office, said Wednesday that if LB 1124 failed, it may require “across-the-board cuts” to balance the budget. State Sen. Rob Dover of Norfolk, an Appropriations member, spoke against this approach Thursday, calling it “an easy political out.”

Dover expressed frustration over how debate on LB 1124 ended, saying it shouldn’t have happened the way it did. He argued that increasing Nebraska’s cigarette tax would only impact people who choose to partake in an unhealthy habit and warned lawmakers that more painful cuts could be on the way if they can’t agree.

“This could be a nuclear event, everyone,” Dover said.

State Sen. Tony Sorrentino of the Elkhorn area, who introduced LB 1124, said he has witnessed a desire to bring back his proposal for another vote, but that he wasn’t yet sure of the correct bill to attach it to.

State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, another Appropriations member, opposed some of the transfers Dorn proposed from the Environmental Trust and BELF, arguing that moving more money from those cash funds would invite a lawsuit because of constitutional protections.

Cavanaugh advocated instead for pausing the last step of the state’s phased income tax rate reductions, saying that would generate enough revenue to fix the current deficit and help future state budgets. However, Dorn and several other Appropriations members have called that option “a non-starter.”

State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth introduced LB 171, which would pause the phased reductions. Nebraska’s income tax rate has been gradually lowering for several years, and is set to stop in 2027 when it reaches 3.99%.

The current income tax rate is 4.55%. Brandt estimated that pausing the final reduction would generate about $200 million per year.

While Brandt is a registered Republican, he said he hasn’t heard much interest from other Republicans to adopt LB 171, and he doesn’t plan to push for it unless he hears more support.

State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington, a registered Democrat, expressed support for his option Thursday. She argued that the state’s deficit problem has grown severe enough that lawmakers should consider options they previously resisted.

“If everything is on the table, then everything needs to be on the table,” she said.

Arch encouraged the body to be more willing to find compromise and urged senators against filibustering every proposal that has opposition.

“We, this Legislature, have the responsibility to present a budget,” Arch said. “We have the responsibility to appropriate. We cannot abdicate that because we can’t come to agreement.”

Cavanaugh noted that Republicans currently hold a majority in the Legislature and have been in control of Nebraska’s state government for decades, and she believes their leadership has led to the current problem. She further argued that Republican lawmakers don’t want to consider progressive ideas. They just want progressive lawmakers to agree with their ideas, she said.

Republicans’ idea of compromise, she said, is for “Democrats to do what they want.”

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2026/03/05/tensions-mount-in-nebraska-legislature-over-disagreement-on-answers-to-deficit/