Tuesday – The water debate began.
Tuesday – The water debate began.
Mark Christensen did not vote for LB 701 to come out of committee because he felt that the things he needed to be in the bill were not in it. On Tuesday, he proposed an amendment to address his concerns. The Legislature voted to adopt his amendment 957 today. This amendment includes everything that Mark says he needs to be satisfied with the bill. Amendment 957 says that the NRDs cannot issue new bonds after the year 2023.
Mark Christensen now asks the Legislature to support the NRD amendment and asks that the Legislature adopt their version of 701.
The Committee Amendment, which is what the NRDs wrote, was divided into four pieces. This allowed four different Senators to carry the bill or to specialize in each of those four sub-areas.
Open Christensen
Amd 962 Flood - deals with per acre fees and bonding
Amd 963 Heidemann - taxing
Amd 964 Louden - DNR cleanup and surprise moratorium
Amd 965 Carlson - vegetation
Close Christensen
All parts need to pass to have the Bill go forward.
The Legislature adopted 962
The Legislature debated 963.
964 and 965 are slated for Wed discussion.
It appears to me that the NRD version of 701 is likely to pass the first round without modification. The second round is called Select File. There will probably be several serious amendments at that time. I have an idea of what some of the Senators want, but am not sure what the actual amendments will be.
There is a lot of verbal support for the idea of having the NRDs be accountable for the new taxing authority and causing them to cooperate; but I get the sense that the Legislature will trust the NRDs to deal with the problem with the understanding that, if they fail, the consequences will not be pretty.
From what I can tell, the effects of conservation, the problems in the Model, the percentage split between the State and the Basin, accountability, the requirement that there be a long term solution, etc are not being addressed in the current version of 701.