Legislature debates who should pay for state mandates

By Fred Knapp , Senior Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media

16 de Enero de 2026 a las 17:00 ·

Sen. Tanya Storer in debate Friday (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News) — Sen. Tanya Storer in debate Friday. (Fred Knapp/Nebraska Public Media News)

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Who should pay when the state orders local governments to do something? That was the question the Legislature asked on a couple of proposals Friday – and for which it came up with a couple of different answers.

Up first was a bill (LB463) by Sen. Beau Ballard that would require schools to have automated external defibrillators on school grounds and athletic venues, staff trained how to use them, and a plan for dealing with cardiac emergencies. Ballard said the proposal is important to save lives.

“Approximately 23,000 students under the age of 18 experience cardiac arrest outside the hospital, and is actually the leading cause of adolescent deaths in the United States, and about 40% of these include our sports related at a school activity. LB463 represents Nebraska's best chance to achieve lifesaving action when dealing with these incidents,” Ballard said.

Ballard acknowledged uncertainty about how to pay for his proposal.

“Right now we have a fund set up that does not have any dollars in it, but there are organizations around the country that are willing to put private dollars into these kind of support funds, or grant funds from federal government. So (we’re) just trying to find any way to make sure that this is not an unfunded mandate,” he said.

Sen. Mike Jacobson opposed the bill, calling it an unfunded mandate on schools that could increase their need for property taxes.

“Mandating them to do this, regardless of whether there's funding, there is wrong-headed, not something the Legislature should be doing. It's the opposite of what we should be doing,” Jacobson said.

Nevertheless, senators voted 25-15 to give the bill the first of three rounds of approval it would need before being sent to the governor. That’s the bare minimum number of votes it would need to pass. Supporters promised to work with opponents to try and shore up support before the next round of debate.

Then, lawmakers turned to a proposed amendment to the state constitution. It would require that if the Legislature imposed new requirements for schools or local governments to provide services, the state would have to pay the cost.

Sen. Rita Sanders, chair of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, introduced the proposed amendment.

“LR18CA rests on a simple but important principle: When the Legislature assigns new responsibilities to local governments, it must also provide means to carry them out,” Sanders said.

Sen. Rob Clements, chair of the Appropriations Committee that would be asked to approve such spending, opposed the idea. Clements gave the example of a law enacted last year that he said schools supported, to ban students from using cell phones during school hours.

“Now, if that's a mandate, they could say, well, we have to put those in a locker. We have to hire a new person to manage all the cell phones in every building. So that's a mandate you're going to have to pay for,” Clements said.

Sen. Tanya Storer accused senators of avoiding responsibility for the cost of policies they mandate.

“It does cost someone money, right? And so we just want to be sure it doesn't cost the state money, but we're admitting that because we have that concern it's going to cost somebody money. Well, those somebodies generally, are those political subdivisions that this addresses, and where did those dollars come from? Primarily property taxes,” she said.

If the state paid the costs, that would come primarily from income and sales taxes. Jacobson argued that would be bad, as well. And, referring back to the cardiac emergency bill advanced earlier in the day, Jacobson criticized senators who supported the proposed constitutional amendment.

“We just passed a bill in this Legislature that was an unfunded mandate, and nobody cared. I shouldn't say nobody cared. Twenty five people didn't care -- did not care that we were putting an unfunded mandate on school districts. All we're doing with this bill is saying now that's going to come back to the state, and they'll pick up the cost. We've got to stop doing this,” he said.

After a little over an hour of debate, 23 senators voted to advance the proposed amendment, with 20 opposed. Since it would have taken 25 votes to advance the proposal, that kills it for this year.