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The Legislature wrapped up deliberations for the year on the May 29, the 87th day of the 2009 session.

Highlights of the session include approval of:

LB 164 (Sen. Abbie Cornett): An update to the state's economic development incentives, this including extended sunset for the Nebraska Advantage Act to 2015, included sales of tangible personal property as qualified business activity, and clarifies that qualified employees include those who perform work on military bases.

LB 555 (Sen. Tom White): This increases the research and development credit to 35 percent of the allowed federal credit when R&D activities are conducted at campus or facility owned by a college or university in Nebraska.

LB 561 (Sen. Steve Lathrop): This will allow debt financing to be used to secure investment in community based energy development (C-BED) the projects. This also allows power districts to agree to limit their use of eminent domain powers when entering into (C-BED) projects and allow local governments to participate in such projects.

LB 124 (Sen. Tom Hansen): Extends the deadlines for transferring unobligated balances from the Job Training Cash Fund to the Cash Reserve.

LB 160 (Sen. Tim Gay): Authorizes the Papio-Missouri Natural Resource District to issue bonds, financed with current revenues, to construct flood control facilities.

LB 636 (Sen. Heath Mello): Appropriates $250,000 from state tourism funds for promotion of the Senior Open golf tournament in Omaha.

The 2009 session did see a number of extended debates and compromises, including:

The two-year state budget was approved 46-2 and signed by the Governor without any line-item vetoes. The budget provides for General Fund expenditures of $3.375 billion in FY 09/10 and $3.550 billion in FY 10/11.

Numerous sales- and income-tax exemptions were considered, though most remain in committee or we killed outright as senators continued the lengthy debate the policy of such exemptions as raised by proposals introduced by Sen. Rich Pahls (LB 385 and LB 386).

The Revenue Committee chose not to advance LB 615, legislation intended to provide state funding for a proposed baseball park in Sarpy County.

On the business regulation front:

LB 403 (Sen. Karpisek) will require businesses with public contracts to use the federal E-Verify system to ensure a prospective employee's residency status; require businesses to "electronically verify" that employees are legally in the US in order to receive economic development incentives; require governments to utilize the Department of Homeland Security's system for verifying employment status of aliens.

LB 630 (Business and Labor), a multi part Workers Compensation bill, was approved. It includes a provision for streamlining lump sum distributions. A provision for annual increases in total disability benefits for those whose payments are based on the state's average weekly wage was amended out of the bill.

LB 622 (Sen. Nordquist) concerns 50-percent late-penalty fees for workers compensation recipients if payments are not made within 30 days of a Worker's Compensation Court decision for any portion of an award that is not being appealed. This was subject to two lengthy rounds of debate before having further consideration delayed until 2010.

LB 554 (Sen. White) would prohibit a business with more than 50 employees from requiring an employee to use paid vacation or sick leave when that employee is qualified for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. This bill remains in committee.

LB 557 (Sen. Nantkes) would require non-union public employees to contribute a "fair share" for a union's collective bargaining activities. That also remains in committee, as does LB 563 (Sen. Lathrop), which would create the Employee Classification Act to define employee and independent contractor; LB 564 (Sen. Lathrop), which would require independent construction contractors to be licensed; and LB 593 (Sen. Dierks), which would prohibit corporate and LLC ownership of agricultural land to the extent constitutionally possible.

Interim Studies:

Over the summer and fall, the Legislature will conduct numerous interim studies on myriad issues ranging from taxes to transportation to economic development to education.