Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Sorted by date Results 26 - 48 of 48
In a rare move, seven months into the Jim Pillen reign, I'm going to suggest we cut the new guy some slack. Seems that a social media tweet raised concerns about First Amendment rights and dredged up the decades-long discussion on brain drain. Pillen tweeted from the governor's official account that he hoped the 31 Nebraska high school graduates who had perfect scores on the ACT would "return and utilize your talents here" after college. Remember, it was Twitter and other social media that...
Disclaimer: I have never owned, driven or ridden a traditional two-wheel motorcycle. I sat on one owned by my late brother. But in more than five decades as a reporter I have covered numerous accidents involving motorcycles with any variety of other vehicles. I have seen dead bodies and spent time waiting and praying in hospital emergency rooms. I have also covered countless hours of debate about repealing the helmet law. That said, I must admit I was surprised that the 2023 Legislature passed...
It slipped in on an uneventful Tuesday this year, although many towns celebrated on Monday the Third just to give the holiday a long weekend type feel. Maybe it was a little bit easier to remember the true historic origins of the holiday this year, given the drought and all the caution about fireworks lighting up more than just the night sky. July 4, 1776, was the day when the Continental Congress sought to take the upper hand in the relentless power struggle with the British monarchy over...
The new governor says, jubilantly, the honeymoon cruise with the Nebraska Legislature was a huge success. Sorry governor, I'm seeing flags. Red flags. The cheering I hear is, "See you in court!" So, let's wait until the lawsuits are filed and the petition drives are all launched before we get too excited. In a "report card" from his office, Governor Jim Pillen said he was elected to office "with a clear mandate to make transformational change in the areas most important to our future: our kids;...
So, this is prison reform? At this point, it's something and we'll cling to every little bit of it while the Republican majority anticipates the building of a new prison, which will do little, if anything, to alleviate overcrowding An omnibus bill sponsored by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne and signed into law by Governor Jim Pillen creates several programs intended to improve the state's criminal justice system, including a program to expand problem-solving courts, a pilot program to establish parole-...
The 108th Legislature First Session was a hot mess. The fact that three senators could derail the work of 46 others in the nation's only one-house, allegedly nonpartisan Legislature, speaks volumes. What went wrong? Most everything that could. There were 17 new senators (two of them who served terms before being reelected in November). A new clerk of the legislature stepped up after two years as an assistant. A new governor and a new lieutenant governor who is the presiding officer of the...
The voter ID measure, a solution in search of a problem, has been thankfully watered down in legislative action that clearly indicates the wheels on the Republican juggernaut are wobbly, if not ready to come off. Turns out the chief opponent to the bill and an amendment that came from the Government Committee was Republican Sen. Julie Slama, who was the poster child for a ballot initiative that got the topic before lawmakers. The initiative was largely funded by recent-Governor Pete Ricketts'...
Amid nasty debate about social issues, filibustering and theater playing out in the legislative chamber, lawmakers did manage to meet their constitutional obligation and pass a balanced budget on day 80 of the 90-day session. The two-year budget calls for about $5.3 billion a year in spending, with an average increase of 2.2%. It sets aside a generous amount for cuts in state income taxes and increases in tax credits for property taxes, as well as allocating the final funds for a $366 million...
As the days in the George W. Norris Legislative Chamber dwindle down to a precious few, the Republican majority continues to trip over each other patting themselves on the back while the Democrats dig their trenches a little deeper and promise to give the home folks one to remember. There are still 32 Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Legislature and they are a mostly conservative lot. The Democrats are down to 16 with the recent defection of Omaha Sen. Meghan Hunt, who now identifies...
With less than two weeks left in the session, the 108th Legislature is dragging an overburdened $12.975 billion budget to the finish line. Passing the budget is the only thing lawmakers are constitutionally required to accomplish. As introduced by the Appropriations Committee, the budget proposal would result in a projected ending balance of almost $715 million above the 3% required minimum reserve. This amount would be available to fund proposals pending before the Legislature this session....
As if propping up the school aid formula to historic proportions wasn't enough, the new governor appears to be getting his way in the Legislature with a package of tax changes that could cost the state more than $3 billion over the next six years. The plan would increase Nebraska's two property tax credit programs, cap school property tax growth and eliminate almost all community college property taxes. Oh, and this bill works in concert with one that would cut the state's top income tax rate...
It seems way too easy a solution to a problem that has plagued the Legislature for years, school funding. But lawmakers have advanced Governor Jim Pillen's proposal for the state to pay public school districts $1,500 in foundation aid per student beginning with school fiscal year 2023-24. The measure - LB583 - would also increase state aid to school districts to help cover their special education expenses. It's all part of a larger package that includes income tax cuts, property tax relief and...
The Legislature's Appropriations Committee has signed off on providing the funds to build a $366 million prison in the Lincoln-Omaha area just as the Department of Corrections brings on a new director who appears to favor programming and investing in the humanity of the incarcerated. That brings some hope to a small but fierce band of senators who don't think building is the best way out of the problem for the nation's most overcrowded prison system. The money is a big part of the budget which...
If you listen carefully, you can hear the strains of that favorite carol "O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree" echoing through the George W. Norris Legislative Chambers. It has been a few years, but that age-old almost end-of-session practice is back in vogue. It has been around since before most of the young senators complaining about it were born. It's a simple practice, attaching bills that have survived the committee process and been sent to the floor to bills that are further along in the...
Let's talk about the embarrassment formerly known as the Nebraska Legislature. The 49 elected senators are now 60 days into the scheduled 90-day session and the scoresheet is mostly bare. There are two bills awaiting "final reading," the last of three rounds of debate by the full Legislature. Two bills have been killed, nine have been withdrawn and 614 are being held by committees. According to headlines in the New York Times and other national media outlets, the Nebraska Legislature has passed...
Where is the governor and what is he doing? We probably shouldn't be surprised that stealth candidate Jim Pillen, who refused to debate and was elected governor anyway, hasn't been releasing information about his public schedule. No schedules, nor press releases, little or no comment about issues. A staff that is tight-lipped and covers for him. The way it's going, the Columbus pig farmer could be spending his days running Pillen Family Farms and showing up at the state Capitol from time to...
Just one more term. Yes, lawmakers are once again considering giving themselves 12 years instead of eight to figure out how things work and try to do something for their constituents. On a good day, I think term limits should be eliminated as they were until 2006. On a bad day, I think a monthly contract seems too gracious for some of the babbling, bumbling idiotic things that state senators do. Norfolk Sen. Robert Dover has offered LR22CA, a proposed constitutional amendment that potentially...
The consumption tax, or the transaction tax, or maybe it's the EPIC tax, has reared its ugly, shortsighted head again. Call it what you will, but elimination of the highly sustainable three-pronged tax system that has been on the books since 1976 and cost Governor Norbert Tieman his political future, is simply not a good idea. First introduced in the 1990s as the so-called brainchild of a McCook businessman, the "transaction tax" never got out of committee. A couple years ago it came back as...
The state of the state on its 156th birthday. It's still a very red, heavily conservative and largely Republican mecca situated in one of those mostly square states out west that a lot of people couldn't find on an unmarked map. And we like it that way. Well, a lot of us seem to. Might that change? Could Nebraska be the place where high school and college graduates want to stay? Could it become a magnet for young people and innovation? Progress in that direction is slow but it could happen....
Many people touted this year's legislative session as a Republican-dominated conservative body that could easily work with the Republican administration to get things done. They reasoned that 32 Republicans in the officially nonpartisan body would win out over the 17 Democrats. They tried valiantly to get 33 Republicans elected, a so-called "magic" number that could withstand filibusters by the dissenters and pave the way for a conservative agenda. Observers sighed relief when the number fell...
The new governor says his proposed tax cuts are historic. Critics say they are not sustainable. Rookie mistake by the pig farmer politician who is backed by his Republican party and most of the 32 Republicans in the Nebraska Legislature. Maybe it’s all of them, I haven’t taken a poll. Somebody forgot to explain to Governor Jim Pillen that the $1.9 billion excess funds he claims will make all this work are “projected” to be in the state coffers. That means the so-called strong tax receipt...
Every session of the Nebraska Legislature features what promises to be a real clunker of a bill. This year's prizewinner – so far – is a proposal to change from a unicameral to a two-house Legislature. Even the sponsor of the measure - LR2CA - admits that the proposed constitutional amendment probably won't get out of committee. Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard says it will be because of those "people living in the east." The Nebraska Republican Party included in its platform a plank calling for a "...
There’s an acronym that has been stirring things up in government for the last 30-plus years. It’s called TEEOSA and the mere mention of its name sends senators to consult with staff, lobbyists to check their wallets and school administrators to check with their budget gurus. Since it was passed in 1990, the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act has been revamped, revised, retooled, debated and forgotten. Gov.-elect Jim Pillen calls it “our antiquated school aid formula” and has...
