OMAHA — An Omaha entity tasked with helping revive some of the most depressed neighborhoods in Nebraska is at odds with state officials it said are refusing to release $11 million in state funds needed for programming.

The Omaha Inland Port Authority, which was authorized by state law and created by the city to promote economic development in northeast Omaha, said it may have to turn to legal action.

“It slows down our progress,” said State Sen. Terrell McKinney, who chairs the port authority board. “We had things on the table we wanted to launch.”

The North Omaha lawmaker, who helped champion port authority legislation, said the held-up funds should be boosting programming in the roughly 3,000-acre port authority district, including housing and entrepreneurial development.

“It seems like an intentional effort to make things hard,” said McKinney. “It doesn’t make sense — if they want economic development in the state. I just don’t understand it.”

‘Sufficiently Vague’

An Oct. 20 letter to the Nebraska State Treasurer’s Office outlines a back-and-forth that began in July, with the port authority requesting the funds it said it is due under law.

Correspondence obtained by the Nebraska Examiner referred to a Sept. 24 response from then-Treasurer Tom Briese saying state law was “sufficiently vague that an immediate release of these funds to the OIPA would not be prudent.”

McKinney contends that there is nothing vague about the language, and he believes Briese, who was a former lawmaker, had consulted with other state officials.

He said Briese “blatantly refused to release the dollars … going against the state statute which clearly outlines what he is supposed to do.”

Briese resigned as treasurer Nov. 3, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. Gov. Jim Pillen appointed Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg to replace him, and Spellerberg was sworn in three days later.

The Examiner on Wednesday sought Spellerberg’s response to the standoff. Noting he was just settling in, he said he had talked that same day with OIPA executive director Garry Clark to set up a meeting about the funding.

The stalled funding comes as the State of Nebraska faces a growing, $471 million deficit. The Legislature is to begin its next session in January, with the Pillen administration and others on the lookout for budget trims.

Projects within the OIPA boundaries have faced some criticism in the Legislature. With installation of its inaugural nine-member board in June 2024, the port authority essentially launched.

It oversees what many tout as the largest public investment of job and business creation in northeast Omaha’s modern history and has powers such as selling bonds to finance construction and infrastructure within its designated zone.

Omaha Mayor And

Chamber CEO Sign On

Clark was hired this past summer as the public entity’s first executive director. He is helping steer projects in the district, including a $90 million state-funded plan for a North Omaha business park and a $30 million grant from the state to seed an “innovation district.”

To help carry out Omaha operations, McKinney and then-State Sen. Justin Wayne, also of North Omaha, helped secure additional dollars for the Omaha port authority program by legislatively directing interest from state funding pots such as the Perkins County Canal and new prison projects.

As a result, the board had expected to receive an $11 million installment in July — the funds the port authority says are being withheld.

The Oct. 20 letter to Briese was signed by Clark, McKinney, Carmen Tapio, a North Omaha business owner who chairs the OIPA finance committee, Omaha Mayor John Ewing Jr. and Heath Mello, president and CEO of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

The group asked that the interest funds be released by Nov. 3 and named the applicable statute that governs the process.

“We are disappointed by your decision not to release these funds following our application sent on July 17, 2025. We are requesting a prompt response to hopefully conclude the matter without further delay.”

The group wrote that the state law provides for the grant award to be triggered by an application that is not subject to “further review” by the state treasurer so long as funds are available.

“There appears to be no legal reason to refuse the award,” it said.

The group endorsing the letter said the Legislature has had “ample opportunity” to debate and amend pertinent language and “chose not to, respecting the compromises, negotiations and work to arrive at the final law.”

This story was published by Nebraska Examiner, an editorially independent newsroom providing a hard-hitting, daily flow of news. Read the original article: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/11/28/port-authority-leaders-say-state...