May 22, 2012

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Johanns says export agreement with Columbia will give state big boost (AUDIO)

May 17, 2012 By

Sen. Mike Johanns says Nebraska agriculture in particular, and the state economy in general, will see a boost, now that the free trade agreement with Columbia has gone into effect.

Johanns says the agreement will be significant.

“It’s important to our economy. It’s important to insuring that we continue to produce the highest, best quality products; the best and safest in the world,” according to Johanns.

The USDA says farm exports will receive duty-free access on more than half the American products exported to Columbia with virtually all tariffs going away within 15 years.

Johanns says the country needs to seek more free trade agreements.

“I’ll continue to work on trade issues. I’ll continue to work with any administration on trade agreements and trade promotion authority,” Johanns says.

Columbia is South America’s third largest economy, according to the USDA. The Agriculture Department says the agreement gives duty-free access to more than half of the products America exports to Columbia. The USDA estimates that the agreement will increase United States’ exports by more than $1.1 billion.

AUDIO: Sen. Mike Johanns discusses impact of Columbia free trade agreement [:45]

Filed Under: Agriculture, Legislature & Government, News Tagged With:

State audit finds state employee health plan too costly (AUDIO)

May 14, 2012 By

State Auditor Mike Foley speaks at the news conference as his employees look on

A state audit discloses the health insurance program for state employees is far too costly with far too little oversight.

State Auditor Mike Foley today released an audit of the state employee health insurance plan administered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska. Foley says poor plan design and insufficient administrative oversight have allowed costs to exceed all other public health insurance plans in Nebraska as well as state employee health plans in Nebraska’s neighboring states.

Foley, during a news conference, said steps can be taken immediately to bring down costs.

“Well, they’ve absolutely got to do a better job of tracking who’s in this plan,” Foley said. “We can’t have state employees quitting their jobs, going off to the private sector or wherever and continue to walk about with a Blue Cross card and a prescription drug card and getting coverage. That’s costing us half a million dollars. Right off the bat, we ought to be able to fix that.”

Costs have escalated since 1999; sharply up since 2005. By 2011, the annual cost of insurance under the program totaled $27,058 per employee, nearly $12,000 more than the national average, according to the audit. Family coverage is the highest of any state in the nation.

The state pays 79% of the total premium. The state employee pays the remaining 21%.

To drive home the point about the plan’s design, Foley said that if the state plan required a higher deductible be met before a state employee could use a co-pay, it could save millions. He pointed out that that is the practice at the University of Nebraska.

“If we just mirrored the university plan, just on that one section, that would save the state $9 million,” according to Foley. “So, there’s a lot of money here to be saved.”

The audit also found the state pays excessive administrative expenses, pays too much for catastrophic coverage and holds too high a cash reserve.

Foley said changes can be made administratively to reduce costs. He said the legislature might also be interested to review the audit and consider action.

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha attended the news conference and said legislators likely will be interested in why the plan keeps $65 million in its cash reserve, a total far in excess of what is needed to cover expenses, according to the audit.

“We need to look at some of those things and take some legislative action,” Krist said.

The state employee health insurance plan is administered by the Department of Administrative Services. It covers approximately 29,000 state employees and their dependents.

For the full audit report, go to the State Auditor website.

AUDIO: State Auditor Mike Foley outlines audit of state employee health plan. [21 min.]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Legislature & Government, News

Nelson, Johanns disagree on how to keep student loan rates down (AUDIO)

May 14, 2012 By

College students might well see their student loan rates double this summer as Congress fails to reach agreement on a plan to keep them steady.

Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, criticizes Republicans for blocking debate on a Democratic plan to pay for the proposal to keep the interest rate on federal direct Stafford loans at 3.4%, rather than jumping to 6.8%.

“The bill would have kept student loan rates low and resulted in significantly less debt for millions of American college students and it would have been done so by closing a tax loophole,” Nelson says.

The United States Senate voted 52-45 on a plan proposed by Senate leader, Harry Reid of Nevada. The proposal needed 60 votes to move forward to floor debate. If Congress fails to act by July 1st, the interest rate on federal direct Stafford loans would jump from 3.4% to 6.8%. Approximately 7.4 million students would be affected, including more than 23,000 in Nebraska.

Reid proposed changing how certain corporate income would be considered, shifting it from profits to wages. Democrats say the proposal would close a loophole that has allowed corporations to avoid paying billions of dollars in owed taxes. Nelson says Republicans have supported closing the loophole in the past.

Sen. Mike Johanns, a Republican, says he’s not sure how Republicans have thought about the proposal in the past, but he opposes it. Johanns contends the proposal would divert the payroll tax from paying for Social Security and Medicare to subsidizing student loan rates.

“What you’re ending up with is a system where you’re trying to transfer that money to another use and I just don’t think that’s right,” Johanns remarks.

Republicans have suggested paying for the extension through doing away with a health care fund.

AUDIO: Brent Martin reports [:50]

Filed Under: Education, Featured Stories, Legislature & Government, News Tagged With: ,

Congressman Smith applauds reversal on rural post office closings (AUDIO)

May 11, 2012 By

Congressman Adrian Smith applauds the United States Postal Service’s reversal on plans to close around 100 post offices in rural Nebraska.

In an effort to stem a flow of red ink, the USPS had proposed closing about 13,000 post offices across the country, 111 in Nebraska; most small, rural post offices.

Smith says that if the Postal Service wants to stem its flow of red ink, it must tackle personnel issues, since the Postal Service workforce makes up 80% of its budget.

“So, you can close all of the post offices that the Postal Service is talking about and really achieve no savings, in terms of meaningful savings,” Smith tells Nebraska Radio Network.

Smith has proposed an amendment for the House to consider that would limit rural post office closings to 5% of the total post office closings. Smith says the proposal to close thousands of rural post offices never made fiscal sense.

“Because if you closed the 10,000 smallest post offices in the nation, if you closed all of them today, you would save 7/10th of 1% of the budget,” according to Smith.

The United States Postmaster General complained that a bill approved in the Senate restricted his ability to deal with $8.5 million in losses each year.

Smith says he understands that the Postmaster General doesn’t need Congress micro-managing its operations.

“I don’t want to see the Postal Service backed into a corner to where they lost market share and become even less competitive as a result,” Smith says.

The Postal Service is attempting to cope with a drastic drop in business. According to the USPS, mail volume has dropped off by 43 billion pieces, a 20% decline, as consumers switch to email and pay more and more of their bills electronically.

AUDIO: Brent Martin interviews Congressman Adrian Smith on Postal Service reversal [4:40]

Filed Under: Business, Legislature & Government, News

Johanns sees politics behind Obama same-sex marriage view (AUDIO)

May 10, 2012 By

Sen. Mike Johanns said today that he believes President Obama made a political calculation in announcing during a television interview that he supports same-sex marriage.

Johanns, a Republican, said he disagrees with the stance Obama, a Democrat, took.

“What you’re seeing here is the political process at work,” Johanns told reporters today during a conference call. “I’m guessing they polled this every which way they could and he decided that he needed to come out and state the position he did and, so, that’s where we end up.”

Johanns said he supports the traditional view of marriage. Johanns pointed out that no matter what the president says, the Defense of Marriage Act remains the law of the land, defining marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

“That is the law of the country until changed,” Johanns said. “So, I think that’s very, very clear. If somebody wants to change that they can make an attempt to change it.”

The Defense of Marriage Act won approval in 1996. It also exempts states from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states.

AUDIO: Sen. Mike Johanns reacts to President Obama’s view on same-sex marriage. [3 min.]

Filed Under: Featured Stories, Legislature & Government, News Tagged With:
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