Beginning on May 6, 2025, the Nebraska Legislature will begin floor debate on the 2025-2027 biennium state budget. The budget bills, LB261 through LB 264 were advanced by the appropriations committee and will be debated and amended by state senators in order to pass a balanced budget by May 15, 2025.
Prior to advancing the budget bills, the appropriations committee faced a $396 million dollar deficit. The committee cut that deficit by approximately $133 million when the legislature passed a pair of bills to roll back tax incentives and teacher retirement plan contributions. The legislature still has significant work to do to balance the overall budget.
In a win for union members, the appropriations committee recommended funding all the salary increases that NAPE/AFSCME members negotiated at the bargaining table with the Governor’s office. This includes a total increase of $82,226,684 in salary increases for all state employees over the biennium.
The appropriations committee is also recommending an increase in funding for state employee health insurance costs by 11% in each year of the biennium. This is a significant increase from recent years. You can read more about the historic insurance increases here.
Open enrollment is taking place in May. Health insurance rates will increase 8% for state employees on regular insurance plans, and 11% for wellness plans. While this is a higher than usual increase, it’s important to put the rate increases in the context of actual dollar cost.
A state employee on regular single coverage insurance will see their cost increase $7.27 per paycheck. A state employee on regular full family coverage will see their cost increase $25.84 per paycheck. The state is self insured, and our claims pool saw a significant increase in catastrophic claims in the past year which led to higher than usual increases.
Our union will continue to monitor the budget debate carefully, but we expect all salary increases to be funded by the legislature and signed into law by the governor.
