Senators began the second round of budget debate Wednesday morning with a heated exchange between Sens. Mike Foley of Lincoln and Ernie Chambers of Omaha on an almost successful vote on banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in state agencies. More Session 2005 stories

Then senators spent the rest of the day and into the late evening on a mini spending spree, adding another $25.9 million to the $6.1 billion, two-year general fund budget before giving it second round approval at 10 p.m.

Sen. Don Pederson of Lincoln got laughs late Wednesday night when he said, "I was just looking up at the board and it says LB425 (the budget bill). It does not say ATM."

Yet Pederson, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, sponsored the biggest new spending item added during the day — $15 million over the two years for job training programs for new or expanding companies.

In fact, Lincoln Sen. Chris Beutler pointed to the riff in the Appropriations Committee ranks, which traditionally shows a united front against adding spending to its budget plan.

"I have never seen an Appropriations Committee whose leadership came out here on the floor and agreed to a $25 million hole in the budget," said Beutler about Pederson's agreement to several large additions to the budget on Wednesday.

He said what had happened was "not good for the Appropriations Committee process and not good for the Legislature."

The job training funding and another $10 million for state aid to special education and increased funding to grants for early childhood education programs were the major pieces added to the budget during the long day.

The morning fight erupted as senators discussed a Chambers amendment to the budget bill that would provide homosexuals some protection against discrimination.

Foley and Chambers are on opposite sides of the issue. Chambers believes the state should provide some protection against the discrimination that he says occurs against homosexual people. Foley doesn't think there should be any additional protected classes.

During discussion of that issue, Foley accused Chambers of incorrectly implying that the Catholic Church was subsidizing Foley and his family.

"You made some comments that the Catholic Church was in some way subsidizing my service in the Legislature," Foley said.

But Chambers answered that he had been talking about himself — that he had never been subsidized by any agency or organization.

"I said what I said. … And if it doesn't apply to you, it doesn't apply to you. Is that clear?" Chambers said.

"It does not apply to me. Let's make that clear," Foley answered.

Then he suggested Chambers owed him an apology.

Shortly after the exchange, senators voted 23-12 to reject Chambers' proposal.

Chambers expects to offer a more limited discrimination ban on one of the other budget bills (LB426). But senators didn't get to that bill Wednesday.

In fact, they spent almost 12 hours on more than a dozen amendments to the main budget bill that would increase state spending for specific programs. Senators approved these changes to the budget:

• Adding $33,000 to print Blue Books for this year. The official book on state government is printed every two years. But because of budget cuts it was offered only on CD-ROM this year.
• Adding $817,000 for the two years to increase the jail reimbursement program, money that goes to counties to pay for housing people who end up in a state prison but have spent time before their conviction in a county jail.
• Adding $15 million over the two years to beef up a state job training program.  Beutler argued that senators should first improve the training program law before adding more money to the program than has been spent over its lifetime.

Senators refused to increase funding for the gambling addiction assistance program, provide more money for beginning employees who work with adults with developmental disabilities, or increase state aid to small population counties for property tax relief.

Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.