LINCOLN, Neb.—Nebraska taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars so far this year on their state senators, but the money didn’t go toward politicians’ salaries or office expenses.
It went to lobbyists.
An Associated Press review of figures from a recent state lobbying report shows that cities, counties, school districts and other public government bodies across the state spent about $515,000 on legislative lobbyists during most of the recently completed legislative session.
Money spent by government groups in Lincoln and Omaha accounted for roughly half the total amount. The biggest spender was Millard Public Schools, which spent more than $39,000 from Jan. 1 through March 31. The legislative session ended in mid-April.
The report came from the Clerk of the Legislature’s Office.
Millard Superintendent Keith Lutz called the $39,000 spent on lobbying a minuscule piece of the district’s $175 million budget, adding that lobbyists are needed because “K-12 education is one of the biggest benefactors of state money, and the stakes are always really high.”
The district began spending more money on lobbyists when it was embroiled in a boundary war triggered by the Omaha Public Schools’ attempt to take over 25 suburban schools in the Millard and Ralston districts. Those suburban districts complained loudly after the Omaha district unveiled its “one city, one school district” plan in 2005.
That plan was eventually scrapped in favor of a so-called learning community that makes partners of districts in Douglas and Sarpy counties to increase diversity and equalize educational opportunities.
The second-biggest government spender itemized in the report was the city of Lincoln, which paid lobbyists about $38,000.
The city of Omaha’s lobbying-related expenses totaled about $27,000.
Government spending on lobbyists is nothing new. Cities and counties are routinely affected by state lawmakers’ actions so have paid lobbyists to do their legislative bidding and generally keep an eye on developments at the Capitol.
But school spending on lobbyists seems to have grown the past few years, starting in 2005 with the Omaha boundary proposal, said longtime lobbyist Jack Moors.
“Before that, I can’t remember it happening,” Moors said.
More and bigger checks written by school districts to lobbyists may have started with the Omaha boundary war, but now they cite another reason for hiring Capitol guns.
The formula that determines how much each district gets from a pot of roughly $850 million in state money has become increasingly complex, superintendents say, requiring a lobbyist to stay on top of how changes to the formula might affect them.
Columbus Public Schools went without a lobbyist for a decade before deciding to hire one this year at a cost of nearly $8,000.
“There are so many different parts to (the formula) and so many additions for special interests in districts, we felt we needed to at least be knowledgeable of what was being proposed and the impact on us,” Columbus Superintendent Paul Hillyer said. “The school funding formula has gotten so complicated. Depending on where we are in one part of it, it can cost a lot of money.”
Lutz also cited the complex formula as a reason for having a lobbyist.
Fourteen school districts, most of them in the eastern part of the state, reported paying lobbyists for the time period covered in the report.
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