LINCOLN, Neb. (Nebraska Examiner) — A legislative committee advanced an amended bill Thursday aimed at providing “economic recovery” grants to areas of Omaha disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and generations of poverty.
Legislative Bill 1024 drew support from a long line of leaders from North Omaha earlier in the 2022 session. They described it as providing a “steroid shot” in spurring development.
The amended bill now includes census tracts in South Omaha. Leaders from that area testified Monday insupport of a similar bill.
LB 1024 would prioritize grants in North and South Omaha for housing projects, job training programs and business development and would create a new “Economic Recovery Division” within the Nebraska Department of Economic Development to award the grants.
An advisory committee would be established to help review the fund requests.
“This is our canal project,” said State Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha, who is the main sponsor of LB 1024. That is a reference to Gov. Pete Ricketts’ proposal to spend $500 million to build the long-forgotten Perkins County Canal to draw water from the South Platte River.
“If we are going to recover and save North and South Omaha, we need a project like this,” the senator said.
LB 1024 advanced from the Legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee, which Wayne chairs, on a 6-1 vote.
The bill seeks $450 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act relief funds for the grants, though Wayne acknowledged Thursday the amount was “very fluid.”
The bill is competing with dozens of other proposals to spend the state’s $1.04 billion allocation from ARPA. The Legislature’s Appropriations Committee is still reviewing those proposals. Ricketts allocated $12 million for a plan to rejuvenate North 24th Street in Omaha in his budget recommendations.
The only vote against advancing LB 1024 came from Kearney Sen. John Lowe, who said he was uncomfortable voting yes when the final fiscal impact of the proposal wasn’t known.
Albion Sen. Tom Briese said he voted “yes” to advance the bill based on the belief that the fiscal impact would be less than $450 million in funding.
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