Postcard Bill to Cost County

Jefferson County Commissioners are currently deep on budget discussions in what has been described by all three commissioners as one of their most challenging years due to a myriad of additional expenses.One of those expenses is postcards.Last years, the Nebraska legislature passed LB (Legislative Bill) 644, which was introduced by Senator Ben Hansen of District 16. The bill has been dubbed by some the “Postcard Bill” because, according to the bill’s statement of intent, “LB644 requires a postcard be mailed to all constituents in relation to the political subdivisions request for higher levy rates than cannot exceed the previous years request.”The bill was signed into law by Governor Pete Ricketts on May 26, 2021.County Commissioners met with Brian Blobaum, CPA, of Blobaum & Busboom PC in Fairbury, at a meeting on Tuesday, August 23, to discuss budgetary issues. The cost of the ‘Postcard Bill’ was one topic.Blobaum said, “So in our guess, it's going to cost $8,000 for the state to do the software and to produce the postcards. It’s probably going to be born mostly by you.”Commissioner Schoenrock concurred, “So we talked about this with NACO (Nebraska Association of County Officials) and we talked about that with Senator Hanson. The counties are going to bear the cost of all this and we don't think that it's really going to produce much positive at all.”Opponents of the bill included NACO and the League of Nebraska Municipalities.Local government entities have repeatedly expressed frustration over unfunded mandates, the term for laws, regulations or other requirements imposed by a higher level of government on a lower one, but without accompanying appropriations to cover the cost of compliance.A constitutional amendment intended to curb unfunded mandates that was proposed this year failed to make it out of the legislature. Had it passed, LR263CA would have required the state to pay the full costs of new programs or increased levels of service, either through general fund appropriations or an increase in state distribution of revenue to the impacted political subdivision.The bill was introduced by Senator Carol Blood (District 3) of Bellevue, who is currently running for governor of Nebraska on the Democratic ticket.Blood indicated unfunded mandates have increased in recent years and believes her proposal would help reduce property taxes in Nebraska, “When we place an unfunded or under-funded mandate on our political subdivisions, they really have few options when it comes to paying for those mandates outside of property taxes.”The Jefferson County Commissioners expressed their disappointment earlier this year at the amendment failure. Commissioner Schoenrock said at the time, “Oftentimes in the legislature in Lincoln, the way they solve their budget problems is by transferring the issue to the counties. Let the counties pay for it.”“I really don’t care if you have a D (Democrat), you have an R (Republican) behind your name. I’m after good government,” said Schoenrock. “So, we’re going to be back again in January for that, because it’s not fair to county government, and to you and I as county citizens, you know, to have things transferred to us that we have a responsibility for, but we never got the funds to do it.”

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