Pillen vetoes in limbo after being submitted to the wrong office

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed the $11 billion state budget for fiscal years 2026 and 2027 Wednesday night, but there's a question as to whether four line-item vetoes he intended to make are valid.

The governor's office apparently submitted the budget and the vetoes to the wrong place, sending them to the Secretary of State's Office rather than the clerk of the Legislature as is required by the state constitution.

"The bills were sent to the Secretary of State and they were still there on the fifth day, which is the deadline the Constitution says they should be returned to the Legislature to the clerk by midnight of the fifth day. They were returned on the sixth day to the clerk, which is today," said Sen. Rob Clements. "And so we are told that missed the constitutional deadline of five days. There still could be a challenge to that. They'll have to look and see if there's precedent in the past for an inadvertent missing of a deadline, a midnight deadline."

But Laura Strimple, the governor's spokeswoman, said Pillen made all of his veto actions Wednesday afternoon shortly after 1 p.m. and submitted them in a timely manner to the Secretary of State.

"As has been past practice, copies of the actions and the bill were made and delivered and received by the Clerk’s Office on the evening of the 21st. The timely transmittal of line-item veto items to the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office yesterday was not only consistent with past procedural practice for such actions, but also with the express and specific logistical requests of those offices," Strimple said in an emailed statement. "Through this process, the Governor clearly took the legally required steps to exercise his veto authority by surrendering physical possession and the power to approve or reject the bills."

"It is unfortunate that the Legislature is giving up its opportunity to take action on the Governor’s veto and has, by unilaterally returning the mainline budget to the Governor, created an impasse," Strimple said in the email. "We will consult with the Attorney General’s Office and other counsel on next steps to effectuate the law."

In the news release announcing the vetoes, Pillen called the decision “necessary to honor our commitment to fiscal restraint.”

The biggest veto from a funding standpoint is an $18 million cut to a cash fund reappropriation for recreational upgrades at Lake McConaughy. Pillen pointed out that his spending cut still leaves $37 million in state funds for an upgrade to a marina at Lewis and Clark Lake in northeast Nebraska.Pillen veto letter.

Perhaps the most significant veto is a $12 million total cut over two years to appropriations for the Nebraska Supreme Court. Pillen said the cut will leave the court with the same rate of increase as the University of Nebraska system.

He also noted that the proposed increase for the court was more than double what had been proposed for both the governor’s office and the Legislature.

The governor also vetoed about $500,000 for the state Fire Marshal’s office and $1 million for the state’s public health departments.

“As with all current decisions surrounding our state budget, as stewards of the public's resources we must prioritize what is necessary over what would be nice to have,” Pillen said in a statement. “We must be conservative in good times as well as during fiscally challenging times. Reducing spending is hard work, but Nebraskans expect us to exercise common sense and discretion in achieving a balanced, fair and operative budget.”

If the vetoes are sustained, the Legislature could still override any or all of them, if at least 30 senators vote to do so.

Sen. Danielle Conrad noted there have already been cuts to the state court system, including to problem-solving courts and veterans courts, which she said save taxpayer money.

"So I'm hopeful the Legislature will stand by the budget and will override the governor's misguided vetoes on those critical programs," she said.