As Gov. Pete Ricketts completes his 100th day in office, his relationship with the Legislature is entering a new and more challenging phase.
The more relaxed and informal days of getting-to-know-you are being followed now by emerging conflicts over issues and legislative bills, with approaching vetoes in sight just over the horizon.
Ricketts said Friday he is confident that he and state senators can navigate those rougher waters together without damaging the goodwill that he has worked hard to establish since -- and even before -- he took the oath of office on Jan. 8.
"It's all about communication," the governor said as his van glided down U.S. 77 on the way to an economic development announcement tying clean energy to entrepreneurship and private investment at the Nebraska Public Power District's Sheldon Station near Hallam.
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"Part of it is not making it personal,"Â Ricketts said, arguing that disagreements need not damage his relationship with senators.
"I don't agree with my wife on everything and our marriage is in its 18th year," he said.
"Every bill is a new bill and a senator and I may be on the same side on the next one. We will agree or disagree and make our case on whether it is good or bad policy."
Vetoes already have been promised on bills that raise the state gas tax and abolish the death penalty if they reach the governor's desk.
Other vetoes presumably could be coming on a bill to allow the children of immigrants who settled illegally in the United States to acquire Nebraska driver's licenses, a measure to protect workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, and perhaps an amended bill to enact some criminal sentencing reforms.
Ricketts has expressed concerns about those issues, but said he will wait to see what reaches his desk and in what form.
One example of that, he said, is a sentencing reform bill (LB605) that was amended to add a provision that minimum sentences for all crimes no longer could be greater than one-third of the maximum sentence.Â
"I support a clean bill," Ricketts said, endorsing the original language that would begin to point the state toward moving nonviolent offenders down a path to probation rather than prison while increasing penalties for some violent and sexual offenses.
"I do not agree with the one-third rule," the governor said.
As the Legislature moves ahead with corrections reform during this session, Ricketts said, "I certainly understand they have been working on this for a longer time and that we're new."
While he's open to considering this year's legislation, he said, "I hope they will give us an opportunity" to also craft an executive branch plan.
Newly-appointed Correctional Services Director Scott Frakes will not have a plan ready until this fall, the governor said, after the 2015 Legislature has adjourned.
Corrections reform will be "a multiyear effort," Ricketts said. "It won't get fixed overnight."
With a busy day ahead of him, the governor was in a relaxed mood, chatting for a few minutes about the first-place start of the family-owned Chicago Cubs, and exclaiming "Yay, rain!" as a brief early morning shower splashed the windshield just before his vehicle turned toward Hallam.
Ricketts reviewed a prepared text of his speech to the gathering on his iPad as the van approached the NPPD site, processed it mentally and then delivered his remarks without any reference to notes.
Back in the vehicle, Ricketts said he personally contacts senators to express his views when he is concerned about legislation that still is being debated and may be headed his way.
"We talk about the issues," he said. "I lay out my case. But I do not expect senators to vote with me just because I'm governor."
Ricketts said he also is counting on Nebraskans to make their views known.
In Nebraska's unique one-house legislative system, "the people are the second house," he said.
Ricketts said he is "very pleased" that the Appropriations Committee ultimately agreed with his budget recommendation to increase the state's property tax credit fund by $60 million a year during the 2015-17 fiscal biennium.
Tax reduction will remain a Ricketts administration priority, he said, and keeping annual budget growth to 3 percent a year will pave the way.
"We need to do more to reduce taxes," he said.
State income tax reduction "absolutely is on my radar," Ricketts said.
"I haven't given up hope yet" that something could be accomplished this session, he said, "but we're obviously running out of time."
Reform of the troubled Department of Health and Human Services will occur after newly-named CEO Courtney Phillips has a chance to get her feet on the ground and survey the landscape, Ricketts said.
"She needs an opportunity to organize," he said. "I imagine she will make some changes."
His goal, Ricketts said, is to "deliver services to the most vulnerable citizens (and) not have people falling through the cracks."