By Russ Pankonin
    The Imperial Republican
     Water issues will continue to grab the focus of 44th District Senator Mark Christensen of Imperial when the Legislature reconvenes next week.
     If legislators thought they addressed water issues in the Republican Basin last session with the passage of LB 701, they've been proven wrong.
     One of the major provisions of the Christensen-sponsored bill allowed natural resource districts (NRDs) in the basin to collect an additional 10-cent property tax levy and assess an occupation tax of up to $10 per-irrigated acre.
     These funds could be used to purchase surface water and pay for other activities to help Nebraska stay in compliance with a 2002 settlement with Kansas over Republican River water use.
     This fall, a McCook-based group called Friends of the River filed suit in Lancaster District court, challenging the constitutionality of the LB 701's funding mechanisms.
     As a result, surface water districts which sold their water to basin NRDs this past summer still haven't been paid, to the tune of about $8.8 million.
     The NRDs anticipated selling bonds to pay for the water purchases but the bonding company will not issue bonds with a lawsuit pending.
     The suit is scheduled for trial Jan. 24 so Christensen said he wants to see what happens there first before bringing ideas back to his colleagues on how to get the surface water districts paid.
     LB 701 created the governor's water fund, which will receive $2.3 million from state funds through 2012.
     Christensen has floated an idea of asking the Legislature to move some cash reserves into the water fund. In turn, this money would be loaned to the Department of Natural Resources to pay the surface water districts.
     Then, NRDs can use the funds collected under LB 701 to repay the loan. This, of course, assumes that the constitutionality of LB 701 is not overturned.
     But regardless of the outcome, both sides have indicated they will appeal the decision if it does not go in their favor.
     Since constituents have gotten their tax statements with the additional levy and the occupation tax, he said he's been fielding plenty of questions.
     When people realize that the basin would have been looking at irrigation allocations of no more than five inches of water if nothing had been done, they begin to understand the impact, he said.
     "I hate my tax statement, too," he admitted, but added the economic viability of the whole basin was as risk and remains so going forward if funding issues can't be resolved.
    Other bills to address water
     Christensen said he wants to address several other water issues.
     LB 701 included a vegetation control project 100 feet from the center of the stream. He wants to see that limit extended to 1,320 feet on each side of the river.
     In addition, he wants Russian olive trees designated as a noxious species so it can be controlled along with salt cedar.
     The senator also wants to protect the purchase of surface water from downstream use.
     This past summer, NRDs got only about 50 percent credit for the surface water they purchased because DNR allowed some downstream diversion for irrigation use.
     DNR claimed surface use runoff would return to the river. However, Christensen believes it was unlikely that little, if any, surface runoff made it back to the river.
     As a result, he wants to craft legislation to prohibit any purchased or leased surface water from being diverted for downstream surface irrigation.
    Other bill involvement
     Christensen said he plans to introduce several other bills and push bills introduced last session.
     A concealed weapon carry bill passed last session but allowed municipalities to adopt their own bans.
     Christensen said the law must be clarified to exempt streets and highways in municipalities that adopt their own ban.
     Otherwise, law-abiding citizens who are properly permitted to carry concealed weapons would be breaking the law just by driving on the streets or highways in those municipalities.
     The senator also wants to pass legislation to allow cities to bond for dormitory construction.
     Curtis wants to help fund new dormitories at the university's tech school there but doesn't have the authority to do so.
     The economic impact of adding new dorms would be big for the community and would allow the university to spend capital improvement money on teaching facilities.
     Presently, non-profit hospitals that operate rural health clinics pay state income tax on clinics if they are not within a 35-mile radius of the hospital.
     Christensen wants to exempt all rural health clinics, regardless of the distance.
     In areas of new highway construction, Christensen will introduce a bill to require no new tree growth following construction.
     He said roadside trees create a traffic hazard and that can be limited by allowing no new growth.
     Areas with trees designated as scenic routes will not be affected.
     Christensen is also seeking to limit where businesses that sell sexually-related items, movies or dancing can locate.
     He will continue to push his bill banning cloning for research. He will also push for passage of his bill to require marital counseling or a couple must wait 10 days before being wed after a license is granted.
     Both bills are currently held in committee.
    Senator a full-time job
     Christensen said he didn't realize how much time being a state senator would take. "I want people to realize this is a full-time job," he said.
     He said it's not unusual to attend three to five meetings per week during the recess period.
     He said the current pay of $12,000 for state senators means senators have to be independently wealthy, be retired or have another job to afford to be a state senator.
     A proposed ballot measure this year to raise the salary to $22,000 would help but it's not enough, Christensen said.
     As a result, the middle class gets no representation in the Legislature, he said.
     The salary should be raised to $70,000 annually, which would eliminate the need for term limits because more people could afford to run, he said.
     Christensen is among a number of new senators who have noted the financial sacrifice to serve in the Legislature.
     With near-record commodity prices, Christensen said his commodity trading brokerage is not doing the amount of business as compared to when grain prices were low.
     Farmers don't need as much assistance with marketing when the prices are as high as they are now, he noted.
     "I'm just trying to survive," he said. "I don't want to leave the Legislature but I'm session to session based on my business."
    Second session opens Jan. 9
     The Legislature will reconvene for the 60-day session of the 100th Legislature on Wednesday, Jan. 9. The 90-day session last year ended May 31, 2007.
     All bills introduced in the first session, unless already killed, carry over to the 60-day session. As a result, senators will be acting on bills right away.
     In addition, new bills can be introduced through Jan. 24.
     Any bills not acted on during the 60-day session automatically die.