Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen focused on addressing the state’s tax system, improvements to the state’s school funding system, the state’s water quality and quantity and more in his annual address Wednesday.
Pillen also urged lawmakers to pass the winner-take-all bill during this legislative session. He also discussed the need to protect children and the state’s farmers and producers.
He said his budget includes shrinking state spending by half a percent over the next biennium. The budget leaves $755 million in the cash reserve, calls for $100 million in cuts to about $5.3 billion in general fund appropriations in 2025-26 and $5.4 billion in 2026-2027.
It solves a $432 million budget shortfall, and still provides for $672 million in additional property tax relief, which the governor addressed in his speech.
Pillen said he was grateful for State Sen. Tom Brandt for introducing a measure to combine the Department of Environment and Energy and the Department of Natural Resources and establish the Department of Water, Energy, and Environment to help protect the state’s quantity and improve its quality of water.
He also backed State Sen. Kathleen Kauth’s Stand With Women Act, which builds upon his executive order to establish a women’s bill of rights last year.