When’s the last time you shelled out $100,000 and got nothing— that’s right, nothing— in return?

Well that’s the picture facing taxpayers squarely in the face as Lawmakers squabble over the future of Nebraska’s so-called blue dot and new voting boundaries for senators.

As we’ve reported, lawmakers have until Saturday to advance both measures, or else Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers has promised to end their special session, forcing them to resume the debate during their next regular session in January.

And that decision comes with a price-tag. The special session is costing taxpayers $9,300 per day; under Hilgers’ Saturday deadline Lawmakers would have put in 11 days for a total of $102,300.

Hilgers has since indicated that Republicans and Democrats—who are trying to draw maps that benefit their party—understand the fall-out of a stalemate and have “energy” to find an answer agreeable enough to break the logjam. According to Hilgers, the Legislature, “did make a lot of progress yesterday.”

As NCN reported earlier, a back-to-the-future scenario is getting some traction in the battle over the blue dot, the 2nd Congressional District electoral vote won by Democrats Joe Biden in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008.

At the start of the session, neither the Linehan (State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan) Republican map or the Wayne (State Sen. Justin Wayne) Democratic map had enough votes to pass, initiating talk of a new map that is aimed at keeping both Sarpy County and Douglas County whole: All of Sarpy would move to the 1st Congressional District and all of Douglas remaining in the 2nd Congressional District, with Washington and Burt Counties joining Douglas.

Delaying the new maps until next year would force state officials to reschedule the primary and create major hassles for county election officials and candidates, and of course there’s that six figure taxpayer payout as well.