State help to aid paying off "Beatrice Six" judgement, advances from committee

BEATRICE – A legislative bill that would provide some state funding to help pay off the Beatrice Six civil judgment owed by Gage County, has advanced from the Appropriations Committee.

Gage County Board Chairman Erich Tiemann was told by State Senator Myron Dorn, of Adams….the sponsor…that the committee is recommending increasing the amount of state funding to help pay the more than $30 million judgment.

"The bill he was putting through the Appropriations Committee passed out of committee last night, unanimously, with one major change. Senator Erdman made an amendment to it to change the dollar amount from two-million dollars over the next two years, to five-million dollars a year, over the next two years."

Gage County has paid off about half of the judgment to six people wrongfully convicted in a 1985 Beatrice murder and rape. The county has been using a combination of property tax funds and a half-cent countywide sales tax, along with insurance settlement money, to make the payments.

It’s unclear how the full legislature will view the amended appropriation, or if it may draw a veto from Governor Pete Ricketts, if passed.