Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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I first want to start this week’s update by expressing my gratitude to our state’s congressional delegation with regards to the recent passage of Senate Bill 1478 in Congress. This bill would designate U.S. Hwy 20 in the states of Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Massachusetts as the “National Medal of Honor Highway.” While then-Governor Ricketts approved the renaming of U.S. Hwy 20 in Nebraska as the “Nebraska Medal of Honor Hi...
This past week, the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee held an interim hearing to discuss the status of highways and broadband in Nebraska. The Committee first heard from Director Vicki Kramer of the Nebraska Department of Transportation who testified that the impact of inflation is presenting challenges to fulfill future highway construction and maintenance projects. Nebraska’s current highway needs for the next 20 years currently sit at $16.9 billion, but when inflation is a...
In the past three weeks, I outlined all six ballot initiatives and referendum measures that will be on this year’s general election ballot. This editorial is dedicated to my personal perspective on two ballot measures: Initiative Measures 434 (Protect Women and Children) and 439 (Protect Our Rights) relating to abortion. In my mind, we should strive to do the most good and preserve human life. This is why I am encouraging pro-life voters in Nebraska to consider voting for Initiative Measure 4...
This week, I will be discussing Initiative Measure 437 and Initiative Measure 438. Both of these initiatives revolve around the issue of cannabis and propose a framework to legalize medical cannabis in the state. Should these two ballot initiatives pass, the Legislature will likely play a role in shaping some of the finer details of implementing medical cannabis in this state, much akin to the implementation of casino gambling in 2021-22. Initiative Measure 437 proposes to create a new law...
I would first like to express my gratitude to the first responders who quickly handled the explosion and fire at St. Patrick’s Parish in O’Neill earlier this week. I am thankful that there were no catastrophic injuries or loss of life and am hopeful that the parish, Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital and St. Mary’s School can quickly recover. I have been in contact with other state officials to help coordinate state resources to ease the recovery of Avera St. Anthony’s, which sustained damage. I...
The Legislature concluded the special session that was called to relieve property taxes on Aug. 20. After a contentious start, senators agreed to compromise on legislation that will frontload the Nebraska Property Tax Incentive Act credits from LB1107 (2020) directly onto taxpayer’s property tax statements, trim and adjust the state budget by $185 million and tighten existing property tax levy caps for counties, cities and villages to the greater of inflation or 0%. Of the 81 bills and 24 r...
This week, the Legislature took up the issues of property taxes and adjustments to the state budget. Much of the focus remained on the package crafted by the Revenue Committee and attached to LB34 by Senator Brewer in place of LB1 and LB9. In a long day of constant changes, LB34 was originally intended to resemble LB1 and LB9. During debate, several concerns were raised, including counties and municipalities who opposed the proposed caps, schools that were hesitant that the Legislature could...
This week, the Legislature concluded bill introduction and public hearings in this special session. Generally, in a special session, few bills are introduced and public hearings are finished in a couple of days. In this special session, a total of 81 bills and 24 constitutional amendments were introduced during three days of bill introduction, the most proposed during any special session since 1937. The large number of introduced proposals required six days of public hearings. Speaker Arch...
As expected, the governor called the Legislature into special session on Wednesday, July 24 to enact legislation relating to property tax relief and school funding. The Legislature convened on Thursday, July 25. Deviating from the preannounced schedule, Speaker Arch chose to not bring the Legislature back into session on Saturday to allow the Revisor of Statutes’ Office more time to prepare new drafts of bills and constitutional amendments. The governor’s package is composed of three bills: LB1...
As you may have read or heard, Governor Pillen announced his intention to call the Legislature back in special session relating to property taxes beginning July 25 until “unfinished business” is resolved. On the last day of session, the Legislature did not take a final vote on the session’s property tax package since that bill’s introducer did not believe they had the votes necessary to overcome a filibuster. Since the Legislature adjourned, senators, including myself, have spent countless hours...
On April 18, the Legislature completed its work for this 60-day legislative session. Although the last day is typically reserved for veto overrides and closing remarks, the Legislature also took action on 15 bills remaining on Final Reading. Notably, the governor’s proposed property tax package contained in LB388 stalled when it became clear that the bill did not have the votes to break a filibuster. LB388 was then passed over on the agenda at the request of the introducing senator, meaning t...
Although the Legislature was only in session for three days this week, senators were productive in moving legislation to Final Reading. This year, there was not enough time to take up every bill that was sitting on General File due to the time a bill must lay over for review by the Revisor’s Office. Much of the remaining time was spent on legislation that was on Select File or Final Reading. After the 59th day, the Legislature will be in recess for a few days to allow the governor to sign or v...
The beginning of April brings us closer to the end of this year’s legislative session. There are many bills still left to debate and little time to consider all of the priority bills brought forward this year. The week began with the resumption of debate on the governor’s proposed property tax relief package: LB388 and LB1331. LB388 initially proposed an up-to-1% increase of the sales tax, from the current rate of 5.5% to possibly as high as 6.5%, and raising taxes and eliminating tax exe...
Last week, the Legislature gave final round approval to the two mid-biennium budget adjustment bills: LB1412 and LB1413. The two bills will increase the state budget by 2.7% in this two-year period, which is up from the 2.3% approved last year. The primary factor for this growth is due to an additional $94.1 million increase in state aid to schools, which accounts for actual education spending now that LB583 has taken effect. LB583 was passed last year as a revision to the TEEOSA school-funding...
This week, my personal priority bill, LB1301, was put before the Unicameral for the first stage of consideration. LB1301 would modernize our state’s existing laws relating to foreign land ownership. The bill would add greater oversight and tighten restrictions on so-called restricted entities or their agents, trustees or fiduciaries, referenced in two federal lists: the persons and entities designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the six countries designated as foreign a...
The Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board met on Feb. 29, to review the forecast for the current fiscal year and the next fiscal year. The board increased the previous forecast for fiscal year 2023-2024 by $575 million and decreased the previous forecast for fiscal year 2024-2025 by $525 million, for a total net increase of $50 million over the two-year period. Most of the increase can be attributed to increased receipts from corporate income taxes relative to individual income taxes sinc...
We are now two-thirds of the way through the 60-day session and have completed public hearings for the year. Senators will now meet in full-day sessions for floor debate. Discussion will focus on bills that have been given priority status either by a senator, a committee, or the speaker. The Legislature is scheduled to adjourn April 18. LB1087 by Sen. Jacobson would adopt the Hospital Quality Assurance and Access Assessment Act. This bill would have Nebraska join 44 other states in obtaining...
This week saw the Legislature in session for only three days to conclude public hearings on more than 600 bills and resolutions introduced this year. It is also at this point in the legislative session when only bills with priority status make the agenda. Every senator is authorized to designate one bill as his or her personal priority bill. Committees are allowed to select two bills, while the speaker of the Legislature can designate up to 25 bills as speaker priority bills. Since committees...
This week marked the halfway point of the 2024 legislative session, meaning the remaining time will be spent on senator, committee and speaker priority bills. Given the time left in the session, I will be focused on my priority bill for the year, LB1301. LB1301 would adopt the Foreign-owned Real Estate National Security Act, put guardrails and protections in place on foreign ownership of ag land and help safeguard sensitive military installations from threats posed by foreign adversaries. I...
Much of this week’s activity focused on broadband and the Nebraska Department of Transportation, along with some controversy relating to education policy. The Transportation and Telecommunications Committee heard three of my bills this week. LB1038 would make a small change to the membership requirement of the Nebraska Information Technology Commission, which develops and reviews our state’s information technology plans. The commission currently has nine voting members and one member from the...
This week, I presented my priority bill for this year before members of the Agriculture Committee: LB1301. This bill would adopt the Foreign-owned Real Estate National Security Act and bring our antiquated foreign land ownership statutes up to date. Our statutes were first enacted in 1889 and many sections were last updated only in 1943. The bill would modernize these statutes by restricting federally-designated foreign adversaries from owning agricultural land, empowering the attorney general...
We are now over a third of the way through this short session of the biennium. This week focused on hearings and debate on railroads, daylight saving time, kratom, hemp-derived THC and many other issues. The Legislature has spent its days engaged in debate and committee hearings as per usual, yet that does not mean we have avoided filibuster this session. LB31, put forward by Sen. Jacobson, would require railroads to have a minimum of two individuals on their crews. Three days of debate were...
Chief Justice Michael Heavican delivered his annual State of the Judiciary address this past week. As part of a longtime tradition, I was selected to be a member of the committee to escort the Chief Justice into the legislative chamber; I felt it was a great honor and privilege to be able to serve as a member of his escort committee. In his address, Heavican noted that judiciary staffing has returned to a pre-pandemic level. He also said there was a 27% increase in problem-solving court...
On Thursday of this past week, Governor Pillen delivered his State of the State address. The governor began his speech by thanking members of law enforcement, first responders and road crews who have worked countless hours in recent days in the brutal winter weather conditions across the state. He next touched on his priorities for this year, which included property tax relief, reducing the regulatory burden of state government and protecting Nebraska from foreign adversaries. He lent support to...
This past week, senators commenced floor debate on possibly amending the rules adopted by the Legislature last year. Following a public hearing, the Rules Committee considered 34 rules proposals and advanced 17 of them to the floor for deliberation. Several of the proposals are purely technical in nature and aim to improve the overall process within the body, such as changes to when bills involving judges’ salaries or transfers from the Cash Reserve Fund are scheduled. Other proposals aim to t...
