On July 8, 2026, the Governor issued a memo to all state agency heads directing them to reduce their budget for the current fiscal year by an additional 5%. This is on top of hundreds of millions of dollars that were cut from the budget during this year’s legislative session. The memo also dictates that when a state job becomes vacant, it will not be refilled unless it is approved to be refilled by the DAS State Budget Division. Agencies have been further directed to prepare for additional budget reductions in each of the next two fiscal years.
NAPE/AFSCME members have united to protect public services throughout the past year. “We’ve already stood together to protect public services and our jobs from $500 million in budget cuts, and we’ll do it again,” said Executive Director Justin Hubly. “We’re committed to protecting the vital services our members deliver each and every day to their fellow Nebraskans.”
Currently, our union has not been given notice of any potential layoffs of current employees as required by our contract. Our union must be informed of layoffs in advance, and union members have a number of rights in the event of a layoff. If you missed our training regarding your rights in the event of a layoff, there is a December 2025 recording available here.
We are committed to working with the Governor at the bargaining table to improve efficiencies in state government. Our negotiations priorities include ways to make our government more efficient, like investing in current employee salaries to retain them and reduce turnover (which remains at 20%), remote work opportunities where feasible to reduce rent and other costs, and retirement incentives to reduce the state workforce by attrition, while recruiting a new generation of public employees.
If you are not a member of our union, will you join your union and stand with us to protect public services in Nebraska?