106B LB1193 LPS Testimony

Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee

Senator Tom Brewer (Chairperson)

Senator Carol Blood
Senator Matt Hansen
Senator Mike Hilgers
Senator Megan Hunt
Senator Rick Kolowski
Senator Andrew La Grone
Senator John Lowe

Good afternoon Senator Brewer and members of the Government, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee:

My name is Kathy Danek, and I am a board member with the Lincoln Board of Education. I am also representing the Nebraska Association of School Boards. I am speaking in opposition to LB1193 because requiring elections to be tied to state or municipal primary or general elections will not best serve our taxpayers, our voters or our students.

First, I would like to speak to the issue of voter participation. For an example this afternoon, I am going to use the election results from the LPS 2014 bond special mail in election that was held on February 11, 2014 because I have the data for voter turn-out for both the special election and the primary.

In the copy of my testimony that you have in front of you, you will see the Lancaster County election results from the special mail-in bond election that was held in February and the primary that occurred later that spring. The special mail-in bond election had a 7.25% greater turnout rate and nearly 7,000 more voters shared their voice.

February 11, 2014 https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/cnty/election/results/resul14hick.htm

• Voted 58,862
• Voter Turnout 36.0%

May 13, 2014 https://www.lincoln.ne.gov/cnty/election/results/resul14m.htm

• Voted 52,008
• Voter Turnout 28.75%

On the back page of the testimony, you will see a chart of all of the spring elections in Lancaster County from 2006. Five of the top eight turn-outs have been special elections, including the Lincoln Bond issue that passed last night with a 34.10% turn-out. It seems clear that special elections not only do not suppress voter turnout, they encourage greater participation than most other spring elections.

Second, I want to share the negative impact of this bill on taxpayers and students related to the timing of the construction season. If a school district holds an election in May, rather than February, it would be unlikely that the school district could have work scheduled and bidding completed in time to maximize the summer construction season.

This has a financial impact on school districts. Just figuring Inflation and other changes in construction that occur in delaying projects up to a year increases what a district spends for the exact same project. In Lincoln, we have found this to be true even when calculating the cost of the special election. For our 2020 bond issue, LPS is expected to save $2-3 million in construction costs by capturing the full 2020 summer construction season because it held a February special election.

Capturing the summer construction season has an impact beyond cost savings. It also has an impact on the learning environment of our students. Initiating construction sooner means that additional capacity can be brought on line sooner and more quickly relieve existing schools’ capacity issues. For instance, the passage of our bond issue last night in a special election will allow our new high schools to be built a year earlier and help relieve our current high schools, which are at 115% of capacity.

To better serve our taxpayers, our voters and students, we oppose LB1193. Thank you for your time this afternoon. I would be happy to try and answer any questions.