Nebraska budget bill fails for second time in a row due to impasse over private school vouchers

LINCOLN — For the second time in a row, Nebraska’s mainline budget bill failed to advance due to disagreements over controversial policies included in the legislation, outside of the traditional lawmaking process.

Legislative Bill 1071, from Speaker John Arch of La Vista and led by State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood as Appropriations Committee chair, failed Wednesday to a filibuster 27-15. It needed 33 votes to shut off debate after four hours, a procedural motion known as “cloture.”

Arch said he plans to schedule LB 1071 for a third try at this stage of debate, at which point lawmakers will likely consider removing the controversial provisions from the bill entirely.

LB 1071 stalled for the first time last week on a 19-10 vote. Budget bills had failed to secure enough support to advance past a cloture vote four times before in the Nebraska Legislature. This year’s two failures are the only times such budget bills received fewer than 30 votes for cloture.

But Wednesday isn’t the first time the budget has failed to reach cloture multiple times. In 2018, the budget failed to reach cloture twice during its second round of floor debate, before advancing on the third try.

This year’s impasse centers on whether to remove or include a new proposed $3.5 million school vouchers program, largely to use state funding to offset some costs of attendance at private K-12 schools for the students who started attending under a school choice law that voters repealed in 2024. The proposal had also included an additional $150,000 in administrative costs.

The “bridge” program came at the request of Gov. Jim Pillen, who originally set the funding at $7 million in his early session budget proposal. The Appropriations Committee halved the funding, citing cost concerns as lawmakers sought to fill a $646 million projected deficit.

Clements chose to remove the provision on his own before LB 1071’s first failure, believing it lacked enough support to pass. When the bill failed to advance anyway, lawmakers chose to add the voucher program back in through a separate amendment that was debated Wednesday.

Some supporters of the voucher proposal aired grievances about the inclusion of LB 304 from State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Bennington in the budget. The policy would permanently extend income eligibility for the state’s child care subsidy program at 185% of the federal poverty level, rather than letting it fall to 130% this October. According to figures from the Appropriations Committee, that change would cost $10.71 million this budget cycle.

State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair said adding the voucher program back into the budget was an attempt at “bipartisan compromise,” noting that both the vouchers and the child care subsidy proposals had similar levels of opposition and support. He urged lawmakers to advance LB 1071 with both proposals, saying that not allowing the bill to progress could lead the Legislature to a path of “mutual destruction.”

“If there was a time to hold our nose a little bit, this is the time to do it,” Hansen said.

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Hansen argued that the $3.5 million voucher program would help low-income students continue attending private schools for one year before a federal tax credit Pillen embraced kicks in to provide financial aid.

Several opponents to the proposal argued that the students are not at risk of being kicked out of school, as private school officials have promised to keep the students enrolled who had previously used the program.

State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, who has repeatedly stated he will not support the voucher program, said the only way to move the budget forward is to remove the provision. Brandt argued that the students benefiting from state help to attend private schools could still receive financial support through private donations.

“That is a solvable amount of money,” said State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha.

State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward argued that neither the voucher program nor the child care subsidies should be included in the budget. The child care subsidy proposal exists in separate legislation and should be debated as a standalone bill, Hughes said, while the voucher proposal had no separate legislation, which she argued is an even bigger issue.

Brandt said that neither the vouchers nor the child care subsidies had enough votes to allow LB 1071 to advance, so he argued that both should be removed.

Hansen shared a similar thought that the budget can’t move forward unless both provisions are included — or neither. He argued that the lawmakers who voted against Wednesday’s cloture motion were effectively saying they were OK with removing the child care subsidy proposal.

Hansen said he expects Thursday’s debate of LB 1071 will consider the possibility of removing both proposals from the bill.

Through the advancement of LB 1072 — the second budget bill — last week, Nebraska’s projected budget deficit stands at about $45 million. Legislative Fiscal Analyst Keisha Patent has said filling the deficit will require the passage of several revenue bills alongside the budget bills.

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​This story is provided by States Newsroom, a nonprofit state news network and Blox Digital content partner.