Nebraska lawmakers often remind each other there is only one thing they have to do: pass a budget,
It says so in the Nebraska Constitution.
But at least one lawmaker insists this year's budget, proposed by Gov. Pete Ricketts, shouldn't make anyone happy. Not the right or the left.
State Sen. Justin Wayne, Omaha (D): "I don't know how Democrats can vote for this budget. I don't know how you're gonna come to north Omaha and campaign. I don't know how you're gonna come to Lincoln and campaign for votes...when you're leaving a group of people, groups of people behind. I don't know how conservatives vote for this budget. You look at the spending without any real pathway forwards. And you believe pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. I don't know how you vote for this budget when we are literally growing government in areas just to make sure we take care of stuff; like not even stuff that we need. We're gonna build a lake."
Wayne noting a 4,000 acre lake between Omaha and Lincoln, with a price-tag in the tens of millions of dollars.
There is also a plan by Ricketts for a $270 million prison, replacing the 150-year-old State Penitentiary in Lincoln.
As the budget debate continues Wayne has pushed for a once-in-a-lifetime $450 million North Omaha investment, paid for with the federal government's COVID relief package that finds the State of Nebraska receiving $1 billion.
