Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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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'...
Brad Anderson still remembers the night his wife forgot hail. He was sitting on the front porch of their Lincoln home as a storm rolled in. "...I hear LuAnne running down the stairs hollering 'there's something hitting the house!'" She poked her head out the front door. "I said 'it's hailing,' and she looked at me like 'What?'" Brad grabbed a stone and showed it to his wife. It's frozen rain, he explained. "She said, 'That's amazing. I've never seen that before. What's it called again?'" That's...
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...
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...
A Nebraska family has plowed more than $1.6 million into the Lincoln mayor's race, an unprecedented sum and latest burst in a multi-year deluge that, at the federal level, rivals the political spending by a famed Las Vegas casino magnate and a Silicon Valley titan. It's not the Nebraska family you think. It's the Peed family and its business, Sandhills Global – not the Ricketts family – that have eclipsed all other donors while trying to help former State Sen. Suzanne Geist, a Republican, ous...
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...
Last summer, Imperial farmer Dirk Haarberg made the hard decision to let some of his milo crop die. The heat and the wind had proven too much and Haarberg needed to save water for his other cornfields. Haarberg's water pumps also ran nonstop, he said during an interview, drawing more water than usual from the Ogallala Aquifer to feed the thirsty crops he was keeping alive. "We don't overwater, but when it was as dry as it was last summer, there's not much you can do but just water 24 hours a...
The "Summerland Advocate-Messenger" brought home 17 awards from the Nebraska Better Newspaper Contest. Recipients were announced Saturday, during the Nebraska Press Association awards banquet at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel in Lincoln. SAM competed in Class A, which features weekly newspapers with circulation up to 699. Entries were published in 2022. The paper took top honors in five categories, including agriculture advertisement, featuring Automated Dairy Specialists; signature page,...
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....
His predecessor spent eight years pushing property tax relief. Now, Governor Jim Pillen wants to clearly tie said property tax relief to school finance. It's up to the Legislature to figure out how to make that work. Lawmakers are used to people complaining about property taxes. Now, throw in some school districts that say a proposed distribution of state aid isn't fair and equitable. What do you have? A real mess or a problem begging for a solution? Pillen is behind three priority measures...
WEEPING WATER – Superintendent Kevin Reiman had a problem. He couldn’t find new teachers. So, in spring 2022, Reiman took an idea to the school board of Weeping Water Public Schools. What about a four-day school week? Reiman expected the board to take a year to study the possibility. Instead, it voted, unanimously: Yes. This fall, Weeping Water became at least the sixth Nebraska school district to adopt a four-day week. It’s a move that thrilled the school’s teachers, burnt out after teaching through a pandemic. And it’s worked better than expe...
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...
Should I or shouldn’t I? That is this week’s question. Should I dole out money to enter newspaper contests? Or, instead, should I reinvest those entry fees in my employees and business? It’s a conundrum, for sure. It’s not that I don’t like entering contests. In the past, I have submitted pieces to the Nebraska Press Association’s and Nebraska Press Women’s annual contests. Back when creative writing filled my teaching days, several pieces of poetry were entered - and won - contests. Eve...
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 "...
My observation from the opening days of the 108th Nebraska Legislature: “The fix is in!” Google it, information worth having as this highly partisan-influenced session stumbles on. In the 20s, when the term first surfaced, it meant the deal was done – probably in advance. There is also mention made of bribes or payoffs. I’m not suggesting that’s in play right now, or is it? Chairmanship races this year were cut and dried, not unlike five years ago when the majority party in the officially nonpartisan Legislature met before the session c...
There’s been a lot of talk about preserving the officially nonpartisan nature of the Nebraska Legislature. But there is another issue, occasionally discussed with similar zeal in years past, that’s creeping up again. (Gasp!) It’s the urban-rural split. While the focus has been on party loyalty – there are 32 Republicans and 17 Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature – there are also 26 “urban” lawmakers (18 from Omaha and 8 from Lincoln) to just 23 “rural” senators. That reflects the shift of two rural districts, 49 and 36) to the O...
Welcome to 2023, a new year with a whole lotta new going on at the State Capitol. There’s a new governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor and 14 new state senators assuming leadership roles in the Republican-dominated Nebraska government. There will be a new U.S. senator from Nebraska to be appointed by the new governor. There are 33 Republicans and 16 Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. So, what does this mean to you and me? A new year marks a great chance to move one year further away from the Covid pandemic l...
