Editorial

Governor happy; should we be alarmed?

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

When the governor thinks it's been "an exceptionally productive legislative session," should we be alarmed?

With nearly half of the 49 members freshman lawmakers, it is certainly worth a close look.

For one, the lawmakers couldn't muster the votes to override any of Gov. Dave Heineman's vetoes of $24 million in spending.

For another, they couldn't rally the votes to override his veto of LB658 which would, on the surface, at least, allow the reforming of Class I school districts, in line with Nebraska voters' repeal of the forced merger law.

"With this new freshman class, we had the right mix of new senators and veteran senators," The Associated Press quoted Heineman as saying. "New senators with energy and enthusiasm, with a new set of eyes and a new set of ideas -- they didn't understand they couldn't get something done."

That same story lead with our own Sen. Mark Christensen, calling him "baby-faced and fond of brightly colored suits," but noting that he was the key player in the multimillion-dollar water bill, LB701, to deal with the Republican River crisis.

"It ended up being a lot more fun than I ever thought it would be; it met a lot of my expectations and actually exceeded it in how people work together," he was quoted as saying.

But the legislative and the executive branches shouldn't spend too much time patting each other on the back. The judicial branch is likely to make itself heard, whether through legal attacks on LB701 from within the state or from Kansas because of the results.

But we have to admit the mix of new blood, forced by term limits, has broken up some logjams in Lincoln, and probably kept lawmakers more in tune with the voters who sent them there.

And, Heineman shouldn't expect such smooth sailing next year now that the new capital crew has one session behind it.

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