Discussion about more pandemic support, in Nebraska State Budget

BEATRICE – The Nebraska Legislature’s new session is scheduled to begin January 6th and some state agencies are in contact with individual lawmakers about budget issues and increased workload that they’ve had during the coronavirus pandemic.

State Senator Myron Dorn says with current CARES Act funding expiring at the end of December, that concern is expected to come up often as the state formulates a new two-year state budget.

Dorn is a member of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.

"How we handle that may be on an agency or case basis, but I do believe at least talking with some other senators that it sounds like there may be some talk of helping some entities out or maybe funding them at a greater rate than they've been funded at."

This year, the legislature appropriated an additional two million dollars toward public health services. Dorn says public health districts and health care staff have been overloaded with duties, following a second surge in coronavirus cases in the fall.

"We've had a surge every bit as great, or greater than we had last spring, so the workload has not lessened for a lot of that. They have been troopers through this whole thing, the amount of work they've done, the contact tracing, being a resource for information....how some of the guidance from the state...answering a lot of those questions. I visit with them probably once a week or every other week...and you can tell as this pandemic has gone on for a lot of people, the stress there is getting more and more...the same with our medical workers."

Dorn says with vaccine now being distributed, there is “light at the end of the tunnel” with the pandemic, but he points out we’re not there yet.

In recent days, the number of hospitalizations in Nebraska due to the coronavirus has been declining. Since the pandemic began, there have been 156,382 total cases and 1,486 deaths from Covid-19.