Housing needs highlighted; casinos and prisons subject of bills

Jan. 10, 2023, midnight ·

Senators Tony Vargas and Tom Briese at a housing briefing Tuesday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)
Senators Tony Vargas and Tom Briese at a housing briefing Tuesday (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)

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An influential group says Nebraska needs a big increase in housing for households making less than $75,000 a year. And senators continue to introduce proposals that will be considered by the Legislature this year.

The Strategic Housing Council is a group made up of government and housing industry officials whose work has been endorsed by former Gov. Pete Ricketts and new Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen.

In a report released in December, the group says housing is unaffordable in Nebraska. It says 44 percent of Nebraska households who earn $75,000 per year or less spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

Dave Rippe, who worked on the report, told a group of senators and others at the Capitol Tuesday that renters in particular are suffering.

“Sixty four percent of all rental households in Nebraska are experiencing housing burden, which means they’re spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Which means there are fewer funds available for, I don’t know, sales taxable items. Kind of comes back to our budget, right?” Rippe said.

That budget, and the big reserves the state has accumulated, could be used alleviate the problems, senators heard. Shannon Harner of the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, a core team member of the Strategic Housing Council, told senators at Tuesday’s briefing a unified effort is needed.

“The importance of this and the education we’re trying to do now is to get Nebraska, for the first time ever, all on the same page, rowing in the same direction, on a plan that we can agree on,” Harner said.

Sen. Tom Briese personalized the issue, saying his son and daughter in law, both accountants, had almost been prevented from moving back to his hometown of Albion.

“They ended up building a house out in the country closer to us, which we’re thankful for, but spending a lot of money having to do that. And you know, the lack of affordable housing in our area of rural Nebraska almost kept him from moving back and helping grow our rural community,” Briese said.

Briese introduced a bill Tuesday, LB249, to spend another $20 million on rural workforce housing. And Sen. Tony Vargas, who represents south Omaha, says the Legislature should devote a lot more to housing this year, across a number of programs.

“At least somewhere between $20 million to $50 million for rural workforce housing, for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, for middle income workforce housing,” Vargas said, confirming that the total would be over $100 million.

More bills are yet to be introduced, including some that could ease zoning regulations to cut building costs. But Rippe warned against cutting quality in construction.

“There are things that we can attack to try and understand how to eliminate some costs. But if we do it at the sake of quality in our housing and we’re just building tomorrow’s slums, we’re not getting ahead at all,” he said.

Meanwhile senators have continued to introduce bills on other subjects ranging from casinos to prisons.

Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte wants to exempt western Nebraska communities from a requirement that future casinos at racetracks have to wait until 2025 for a market study before they can apply for a license. Jacobsen’s bill, LB148, says that requirement won’t apply west of the 100th meridian – that’s the one that cuts through Cozad.

“This would leave North Platte, Ogallala, Kimball, Scottsbluff – all would be eligible for ‘racinos,’” Jacobson said. “I’m not suggesting that there should be one in each of those locations. I’m just saying that they should get their hearing before the racing commission. The Racing Commission should be allowed to approve them.”

And Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha introduced a bill, LB163, which, among other things, would limit how much of a markup county and city jails and state prisons could charge prisoners for things like snacks. McKinney said he’s trying to address a basic issue.

“Our prisons and our jails are upcharging incarcerated individuals way too much, and it seems exploitive, and I want to try and address that. Basically so if someone inside wants to buy a snickers bar, for example, if it costs a dollar, prisons or the jails could only charge the extra 10 percent,’’

McKinney says his bill would also try and bring down phone charges and seeks to delay further prison construction, although that issue is more likely to be decided when the state budget is debated.