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Override fails for LB 12‑56; senators divided over emergency‑management clarifying language
Summary
Senators debated and then failed to override Gov. Pillen’s veto of LB 12‑56, a cleanup bill that would explicitly add snow/ice removal and flood management to emergency management statute language to permit localities to access emergency funds; final override vote was recorded as 23‑22 (motion unsuccessful).
Senator John Kavanaugh opened on LB 12‑56, explaining that the bill would add explicit language to the state’s emergency‑management definitions to include snow and ice removal and flood management, with the intent of clarifying eligibility for federal and state emergency funds and to reflect on‑the‑ground practice.
Kavanaugh and other backers said the bill was a technical clarification, passed unanimously on prior readings and designed to allow counties, cities and villages to use non‑property‑tax emergency funds when a declared emergency exists; they argued that sustaining the governor’s veto could limit access to reimbursements and thereby increase local property tax pressure.
The governor’s veto message, read earlier by the clerk, warned that such language could be used to circumvent levy caps and estimated a possible statewide property‑tax impact. Supporters countered that the emergency override language already existed in law and the bill merely made explicit what responders and local officials expect.
On the final recorded vote the Legislature did not sustain the motion to override (23 ayes, 22 nays); the motion is reported as not successful in the transcript.
