Senators introduced five bills in special session Thursday, aimed at saving money for the state or saving money for a particular program.

Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery introduced a resolution (LR4) that would have agencies use furloughs rather than layoffs of state workers if needed to meet across-the-board budget cuts.

Limited furloughs would meet the requirements for budget cuts, Avery said, and layoffs would pose a far greater threat to public confidence in its state government.

Averting layoffs would also preserve essential state services, the resolution said.

Gerry Oligmueller, budget director for Gov. Dave Heineman, said in a hearing on the governor's budget recommendations that agencies had indicated they could manage reductions this year through staff vacancies and other savings.

Next year, if all reductions were made through personnel changes rather than other areas of savings, roughly 400 positions could be affected, he said.

Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton introduced a bill (LB11) that would disallow the transfer of agricultural checkoff funds.

Dubas said District 34 in Southeast Nebraska is one of the largest grain producing districts in the state. Farmers there are concerned, she said, that taking money from the checkoff, as Gov. Dave Heineman has proposed, would result in killing the funds used for research, education, promotion and development of agricultural products.

Farmers are telling Dubas they want the state to leave that money alone, she said, because they are not tax dollars. Dubas and farmers are concerned about the precedent that taking that money would set, she said.

She has heard that a number of farmers who put money into the dry bean fund, for example, are asking for that money back.

Dubas said she understands the budget problems the state is facing, and that every possibility needs to be discussed. But taking checkoff money would put the future of those funds in jeopardy.

Thirteen other senators signed on to the bill.

Omaha Sen. Brenda Council also introduced a bill (LB8) that would prevent about $3 million set aside for job training from being transferred to the general fund.

Job training is one of the state's successful tools used to help people find employment, she said. She cited a program in north Omaha in which people were trained as customer service representatives for Mutual of Omaha and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. About 26 people ended up with jobs that paid living wages, she said.

Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash's bill (LB10) would reduce funding for workers who do inspections of community-based facilities serving people with developmental disabilities.

Coash said the Department of Health and Human Services had been given money to hire eight such inspectors, or surveyors, this year, but had been able to find only one.

Coash is proposing taking back the money for the seven positions that have not been filled this year, and for four more that would have been funded next year. That would save about $180,000 this fiscal year and $290,000 next year.

There is a perception, he said, that community providers are not regulated. But an absence of surveyors does not mean an absence of oversight.

"It doesn't mean nobody is keeping an eye on vulnerable people," he said.

Every developmentally disabled person who gets services has a service coordinator, he said. And that coordinator follows the person to any provider, such as a group home.

As someone who works in human services as a trainer and staff developer, Coash said he believes the community providers, such as group homes, have appropriate oversight.

Reach JoAnne Young at 473-7228 or jyoung@journalstar.com.