Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has replaced three of his four appointees on the nine-member board that sets the state’s official revenue forecast, a consequential shake-up before the panel’s Oct. 30 meeting and the next budget cycle.
The new members are former state senators Lou Ann Linehan and Tom Briese and retired accountant Tim Wilson. Flatwater Free Press reported that this is the first time in the board’s four-decade history that a governor has replaced one-third of its members at once. Pillen’s office said the appointments coincide with expired terms and bring experience that will strengthen the forecasting process.
The timing matters because the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board’s projections determine how much lawmakers can budget. An official Legislature survey says the board develops a consensus projection of economic activity and forecasts General Fund receipts for the operating budget. The governor appoints four members and the Legislature’s Executive Board appoints five. Members serve rotating four-year terms and must demonstrate expertise in tax policy, economics or economic forecasting.
The board will meet as Nebraska faces a significant fiscal gap. The Legislative Fiscal Office’s July General Fund status showed a $208.6 million shortfall from the statutory minimum reserve for the current biennium and an estimated $846.7 million shortfall for the following biennium under then-current assumptions. The October revenue forecast will therefore be a major input when the governor prepares a budget proposal for lawmakers in January.
The appointments have prompted scrutiny because Linehan and Briese helped advance major tax reductions while serving in the Legislature. Critics interviewed by Flatwater Free Press, including Democratic state Sen. George Dungan and former Democratic Gov. Bob Kerrey, said the scale and timing of the changes risk politicizing a board created to keep revenue estimates independent. Their comments are concerns about the process, not evidence that the new members have altered a forecast.
Linehan and Briese both said they would evaluate the data objectively and independently of the governor. Wilson spent more than three decades as a certified public accountant, according to the report. Pillen spokesperson Laura Strimple said the outgoing members did not apply for reappointment; former board member John Kuehn said he had not understood that a new application was required.
The immediate test will be whether the reconstituted board reaches a consensus that lawmakers, the executive branch and the public regard as credible. The board does not make tax or spending policy, but its forecast establishes the revenue baseline against which those choices are made. With the state’s projected reserve shortfall already exceeding $200 million, even modest revisions could materially affect the size of spending cuts, transfers or other budget measures considered in 2027.
The October meeting will also offer the public its first opportunity to compare the new members’ assumptions with the staff forecasts supplied by the Revenue Department and Legislative Fiscal Office.
