Lincoln, Ne – Lawmakers gave first-round approval this week to six components of the state’s roughly $10.8 billion budget package. The state budget is structured on a two-year basis, with the budget enacted during legislative sessions held in odd-numbered years.
Sen. Robert Clements, chairperson of the Appropriations Committee, said members were facing a $396 million shortfall after a late-April meeting of the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board lowered revenue forecasts for the current and upcoming two fiscal years.
“The state’s been hit with $630 million of reductions of revenues — $350 million more of Medicaid expense [and] $280 million in forecast revenues — and we have absorbed those without making drastic cuts,” Clements said…