LINCOLN, Neb.-
A multimillion dollar plan that relies heavily on new taxes and fees to try and shield Nebraska from potentially stiff penalties for not sending Kansas the water it is owed got first-round approval from the Legislature Wednesday.
The bill is described as a painful but necessary antidote for water-shortages in the Republican River basin that could help the state avoid potentially disastrous measures, including shutting down irrigation in the area.
The bill (LB701) now appears likely to be approved because only one senator, Ernie Chambers of Omaha, voted against the plan. But he could pose a formidable obstacle during second-round debate.
Broad new powers for natural resources districts in the Republican basin are a key part of the plan. Those boards would be able to impose a new tax levy of 10-cents per $100 of assessed property value on all residents of the basin and a $10-per-acre fee on irrigated land.
The property-tax tax levy and fee could raise up to $16 million a year. That would be used to buy and lease water to send to Kansas, reduce water-consuming vegetation along the river and possibly augment it with groundwater, among other things.
Discussion Wednesday, however, largely focused on what taxpayers statewide would pay. The bill includes a water fund filled with state general-fund dollars and new regulatory powers for resources districts statewide.
The so-called water cash fund, proposed by Gov. Dave Heineman to deal with problems in the basin and elsewhere, would receive annual appropriations of $2.7 million over the next decade.
“It’s not an option not to do anything,” said Sen. Lavon Heidemann of Elk Creek, chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee. “We have to, as a state, step up to the plate.”
Beginning in 2012, a 3/5-cent-per-bushel fee on corn and 1/2-cent-per-bushel fee on grain sorghum would be imposed to raise money for water issues. They could raise an estimated $7.4 million annually.
Sen. Philip Erdman and others forcefully sought to quiet concerns from some urban senators that there were no guarantees resource districts would collect the fees and taxes, while dollars from taxpayers statewide for the water cash fund would be assured.
Erdman said when the so-called checkoffs on corn and sorghum are combined with the new taxes and fees on residents of the Republican basin agricultural interests could end up paying more than 90 percent of the bill to help Nebraska comply with a three-state compact.
“There seems to be this idea you can’t trust these rurlies down in southwest Nebraska,” said Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, speaker of the Legislature and a main architect of the water plan.
But residents there are the ones that face the harshest potential consequences, such as reduced or no irrigation, of a possible ruling against the state for not abiding by the compact, he said.
“If they don’t fix it, they get shut off,” Flood said.
Driving the need for a water plan this year is a determination, set for August, on whether Nebraska has overused the amount of Republican River water it is allocated under a three-state, 64-year-old compact that includes Kansas and Colorado. Nebraska gets 49 percent, Kansas gets 40 percent and Colorado gets 11 percent.
A finding that the state is not in compliance is likely, which could make the state liable for damages to Kansas. But state officials hope that the plan could bring the state into compliance in the future and possibly soften punitive blows from Kansas officials and possibly courts.
Nebraska has overused its compact allocation the last three years, and estimates show the state could be short enough water to cover 200,000 acres of land—more than 300 square miles—with a foot of water.
New regulatory powers contained in the plan would allow resources districts to prohibit both the drilling of new irrigation wells and addition of irrigated acres for up to 180 days, without holding public hearings. During such moratoriums, the state Department of Natural Resources would be able to prohibit new allocations for surface-water irrigation for the same amount of time.
“They are needed. I would make the stays longer,” Sen. Gail Kopplin of Gretna said of moratoriums. A large increase in the number of irrigated acres over the past 40 years and thousands of new irrigation wells have caused sharp drops in water tables, he said.
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