Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen visits with members of the Nebraska National Guard he deployed to Texas in April to help that state patrol its border with Mexico. (Courtesy of the Governor’s Office)
LINCOLN — This year’s two border deployments ordered by Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen cost a combined $1.27 million.
The state says it paid $1.2 million of that total using interest accrued from the second wave of $48 million in federal pandemic relief funds that Congress set aside for rental assistance.
State taxpayers paid the remaining $71,675.23 in general funds, the Nebraska State Patrol confirmed. The Patrol and the Nebraska Military Department both sent people south.
The Examiner requested the costs of Pillen’s 2024 deployments a year after he spent nearly $1 million in pandemic-related funds and general funds on two similar deployments in 2023.
Not all are pleased with spending
Some legislators, including State Sens. Carol Blood of Bellevue and Megan Hunt of Omaha, have said those funds could have been better used on other in-state priorities.