State Budget Cut Options Report Released

A 69-page Legislative report, titled LR 542 Listing of Options was released in December and is available on the Nebraska Legislature’s web site http://nebraskalegislature.gov/pdf/reports/committee/select_special/lr542final.pdf LR 542, adopted by the Legislature on April 13, 2010, created an ad hoc committee chaired by the Speaker of the Legislature, and comprised of the Executive Board Chairman and the chairs of the Legislature’s fourteen standing committees to review all programs of state government and each agency’s budget authority. Each committee was charged with identifying programs within their subject-matter jurisdiction that should be considered for reduction or elimination during the Legislature’s enactment of a budget for the following biennium during the 2011 Session. Speaker Mike Flood notes in his introduction to the report that “these lists are not recommendations of the committees, but, just as their title implies, are “options”—items that the committees believe need to be carefully considered when the Legislature crafts a budget during the 2011 session”.