Former lawmakers weigh in on measure calling for Convention of the States

Enacting a Convention of the States and a balanced budget amendment would make it hard for federal lawmakers to help guide the nation through economic downturns, former Nebraska State Sens. Don Pederson, Vickie McDonald and John Harms wrote in the Lincoln Journal Star on Tuesday.

Calling a Convention of the States is the focus of LR 35, a measure currently before Nebraska lawmakers. Proponents of such measures want to call a convention to enact a balanced budget amendment.

Such an amendment would tie federal lawmakers’ hands regarding spending and borrowing decisions needed to face major challenges that affect our country’s well-being, wrote the former senators, who are members of the OpenSky Policy Institute Legislative Alumni Advisory Committee.

This would leave the $3 billion in federal funds that compose about 30 percent of the state budget, as well as the billions Nebraskans receive from programs like Social Security and farm subsidies, vulnerable to cuts, they wrote.

“As former lawmakers, we all served during recessions and we participated in making hard decisions – such as raising taxes and cutting funding for vital services like K-12 education and health programs,” they wrote. “These decisions are painful because you know they have profound effects on the people you serve.

“The restrictions on spending and borrowing discussed by proponents of a constitutional convention could leave policy makers at all levels of government making similar painful choices on a nearly continuous basis.”

LR 35 is likely to be debated by the full Legislature next week.