Gov. Jim Pillen signs Nebraska budget adjustment bills without line-item vetoes

LINCOLN — After tough fights to approve adjustments to Nebraska’s two-year budget in the state Legislature, Gov. Jim Pillen signed both budget bills without any vetoes.

Tuesday was the deadline for Pillen to file line-item vetoes on this year’s budget bills, Legislative Bills 1071 and 1072. Budget bills are the only type of legislation that the governor has the power to line-item veto, but Pillen bypassed his opportunity this session, allowing the budget to be finalized without objections.

In a written statement, Pillen thanked lawmakers for their work “developing a fiscally conservative bipartisan budget.” The governor noted that the finalized budget package adopted 91% of Pillen’s initial budget recommendations.

“We must be responsible stewards of the public’s resources, prioritizing what is necessary over what would be nice to have,” Pillen wrote. “We have made extraordinary progress with this year’s budget reductions.”

Speaker John Arch of La Vista said the news came as a relief as lawmakers continue to debate a laundry list of bills left on the books in the final five days of the shorter 60-day session.

“I’m glad that the budget is behind us,” Arch said. “Because we still have a lot of work to do.”

This marks a rare occurrence of Nebraska’s biennial budget passing without any vetoes in either year. Pillen tried to line-item veto $32.5 million of the state budget bills passed last year, but his vetoes didn’t go through because they weren’t filed with the correct office within the five-day deadline.

Pillen later acknowledged that his team made a mistake, and Secretary of State Bob Evnen sent out a two-page memo in December detailing the steps a governor must take following legislative action.

Last year’s targets of Pillen’s would-be vetoes included:

• $18 million for recreational upgrades around Lake McConaughy.
• $11.9 million from the Nebraska Supreme Court.
• $2 million from public health departments.
• $511,972 from the State Fire Marshal for salary and health insurance premium increases.

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State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, chair of the Appropriations Committee, said he suspected the governor might again try to reduce funding for the Lake McConaughy project, as this year’s budget adjustments did not alter its appropriations. However, he believes Pillen was convinced of the need for the project in the months before the 2026 session.

Clements said he was “very pleased” both budget bills made it through without vetoes, though he was confident Pillen wouldn’t have any serious issues with the budget lawmakers approved. He said the Legislature didn’t allow any excessive spending, given that the majority of their work went toward filling a $646 million projected deficit.

“It seemed like a big hole to fill,” Clements said. “We were able to do it one day at a time.”

Working toward a balanced budget was a challenge that lasted nearly the whole session and ended with lawmakers passing both bills on Day 54 — the latest the budget has ever been passed in a 60-day session.

This was because LB 1071 failed to advance twice during its second round of floor debate, due to an impasse centered on the inclusion of a private school voucher program and a child care subsidy policy. The bill advanced easily on its third attempt after lawmakers agreed to remove both provisions.

Examiner reporter Zach Wendling contributed to this report.

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