Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
Reliable, Trustworthy Reporting, Capturing The Heartbeat Of Our Community
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This past week, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony on my bill, LB73, relating to law enforcement continuing education requirements. This legislation is the result of conversations I had with area sheriffs last year regarding law enforcement staffing shortages. In 2021, the Legislature passed LB51 which increased the amount of continuing education each law enforcement officer across the state must take each calendar year from 20 hours to 32 hours. LB51 was brought to improve law enforcement...
This past week, senators and committees began designating their priority bills for the year. Each senator may designate one bill as their personal priority. Standing committees may designate up to two bills as their committee priorities. Additionally, the Speaker of the Legislature may designate up to 25 bills as Speaker priorities. In total, this means a total of 107 bills can be designated as priority bills in each regular legislative session. I designated LB437 as my personal priority bill....
It's daylight savings time, so let's turn back the clock ... to four years ago when the state was still contending with the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a silver lining of sorts to those awful days – a huge influx of federal funds to keep the economy going. And state senators met on how to spend that glut of money with plans to finally make Nebraska a more attractive destination for new residents, and a place where more tourists will spend their vacation cash. Lawmakers even had a flashy name f...
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is essential to addressing food insecurity, but thousands of Nebraskans will lose access to benefits on Oct. 1, if the Nebraska Legislature does not act. Legislative Bill 192, introduced by Sen. Dan Quick, would maintain the current income eligibility level for SNAP, ensuring continued food access for an estimated 10,000 Nebraskans. In 2021, the Nebraska Legislature raised SNAP eligibility from 130% to 165% of the federal poverty level. The raise...
This past week, senators gave first-round approval to two bills advanced to the floor by the Agriculture Committee: LB7 and LB372. My bill LB7 would make a number of technical updates to the Foreign-owned Real Estate National Security Act. This Act was created last year by my priority bill, LB1301. More specifically, LB7, as amended, would do three main things: (1) clarify that Native American tribes are not considered “foreign governments” under the Act, (2) update federal regulations in Neb...
The old joke around the State Capitol is that legislators get paid "$12,000 a year and all you can eat and drink." That is a reference to all the free meals – and, OK, maybe a drink or two – dispensed at the almost daily events hosted by lobbying groups during legislative sessions. But in reality, it's no laughing matter that state senators in Nebraska get paid so little for representing us. George Norris, the founder of the one-house Unicameral Legislature in our state, argued that such a sys...
This week, I would like to discuss two bills I presented at public hearings. In the Natural Resources Committee, I brought forward LB480, a bill which would provide the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission the authority to carry out other projects at Niobrara State Park and Lake McConaughy other than the ones studied by the STAR WARS Special Committee and authorized by the Legislature in 2022. The current law only allows money in the Water Recreation Enhancement Fund to be spent on marina...
A legislative committee voted Thursday to advance a bill that could lead to increased teacher pay, setting beginning compensation as a fraction of superintendent pay. Education Committee members voted 6-0, with one member absent and another "present, not voting," to advance Legislative Bill 300, from State Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil, the committee chair. The bill would require that beginning teachers be paid no less than 20% of what a school district pays its superintendent. School districts...
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Holt County One and Six Year Road Improvement Program The Holt County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a public hearing for the One- and Six-Year Road Improvement Program for Holt County. The hearing will be held at the Holt County Courthouse, in the county board meeting room, in O’Neill, Nebraska, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, at 11:15 a.m. Legislation enacted by a prior session of the Legislature requires each county and municipality to develop a one-year program of road or street improvement and a long range plan f...
I really enjoyed the film, "Groundhog Day." It starred Bill Murray – who is generally hilarious – as a TV weatherman covering Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, home of the famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. But Murray is caught in some kind of time warp in which the day's events, and mis-adventures, keep repeating themselves. I lost track of how many times Murray's alarm clock rang to start one more, identical day. You might be feeling the same way about a couple bills just int...
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING Holt County One and Six Year Road Improvement Program The Holt County Board of Supervisors has scheduled a public hearing for the One- and Six-Year Road Improvement Program for Holt County. The hearing will be held at the Holt County Courthouse, in the county board meeting room, in O’Neill, Nebraska, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, at 11:15 a.m. Legislation enacted by a prior session of the Legislature requires each county and municipality to develop a one-year program of road or street improvement and a long range plan f...
This past week, the Legislature concluded bill introduction for this year’s legislative session. A total of 715 bills and 22 resolutions were introduced. Compared to 2023, the Legislature saw fewer bills and resolutions introduced, partially the result of a rule change passed in 2024 to ensure each bill introduced has more time to be heard and considered during the committee hearing process. This year, I introduced 15 bills covering a variety of topics ranging from reducing the number of b...
George Norris must be rolling over in his grave. Norris, the father of the one-house Nebraska Unicameral Legislature and one of the greatest U.S. senators in history, sought a political body that would not be dominated by political parties. So state senators in Norris' Unicameral are elected on a non-partisan ballot, leaders of legislative committees are chosen by secret ballot and there's no closed-door, final crafting of legislation in conference committees. The idea is that legislators can...
LINCOLN - The Nebraska Legislature wrapped up bill introductions and began committee hearings in the third week of its 2025 session, including proposals to display the Ten Commandments in public schools, end tenure for state university faculty and eliminate online voter registration. Lawmakers can introduce bills during the first 10 days of the legislative session, which ended Jan. 22. In total, senators introduced 715 bills and 29 resolutions. Bill introductions on Jan. 21 and 22 included legislation dealing with several controversial issues....
I’ve been thinking (and that can be a dangerous thing). Last week’s All Things Nebraska column by Paul Hammel posed the question, “Should the Legislature dish up a state dessert?” ICYMI, Hammel lamented that our northern neighbors have a designated dessert. It’s Kuchen, a German cake, stuffed with fruit or custard filling. Once, Hammel made the suggestion to a state senator who represented several Czech communities that, perhaps, the legislature should designate kolaches as the official...
LINCOLN - Be wary of unintended consequences. That's good advice for any endeavor, and appears to be the problem facing proposed retail/sports/entertainment developments called "Good Life Districts." The recent effort to create such districts was well intended. The idea was to lure out-of-state shoppers, visitors and youth sports teams to spend millions in Nebraska, rather than Kansas City, Des Moines or Minneapolis. Envisioned at Gretna's Nebraska Crossing mall were stores like Nordstroms,...
LINCOLN – In its second week of the 2025 session, the 109th Nebraska Legislature hosted Gov. Jim Pillen for the State of the State address where he outlined his priorities for the upcoming 90 days, alongside a week's worth of bill introductions. Pillen addressed the Legislature Jan. 15, outlining his main priorities for the upcoming session, adopting a winner-take-all system for the Nebraska Electoral College, minimizing government expenditures and reevaluating public school funding. In his s...
As the State Legislature gets to work on its 90-day session, it's time to consider whether the Unicameral should resolve an important, and regularly overlooked matter - designating a state dessert. Face it, we all love dessert and naming an official state dessert is long overdue. It has to rank higher than designating an official state reptile or state fossil, which we already have (the box turtle and mammoth, respectively.) Eight states, our research indicates, have state desserts including, gu...
Wednesday, Jan. 8 marked the first day of the 109th Legislature, First Session. This session also marks the beginning of the third year that I am serving as the representative of the 40th Legislative District. The 40th District covers Antelope, Cedar, Holt and Knox counties, as well as the northern portions of both Dixon and Pierce counties. This Legislature has sixteen new faces. Also returning to the Unicameral is Senator Dan Quick who previously served from 2017-2021. Almost a third of the...
The 109th Nebraska Legislature convened last week for the first days of the 2025 session to swear in newly-elected state senators, elect committee chairmen and begin bill introductions. The Legislature began the first day of its 90-day session on Wednesday, Jan. 8, and swore in 25 senators, including six re-elected members and 19 new members. Senators re-elected Sen. John Arch of La Vista, who ran unopposed, as speaker of the Legislature. The Legislature also elected senators as leaders of its...
8 was an excellent year for Nebraska. We stood strong for property tax relief, took steps to grow agricultural production, and protected our children and values. Kids In 2024, we took steps to protect children by signing LB 1092 into law. This bill protects our kids from the scourge of online pornography and oversexualization by requiring age verification to access pornographic websites. As a result of this legislation, Pornhub, the leading distributor of online pornography, ceased offering...
pears to be on the road to recovery after a wild ride aboard a bucking bronco, his next rodeo act will be roping up enough votes to lower property taxes, cut government spending and return Nebraska to a "winner-take-all" system of doling out the state's electoral college votes. Those are among the top priorities laid out by the governor – before he was bucked off a reportedly new horse – for the 2025 session of the Nebraska Legislature, which begins on January 8. At the top of the list is som...
Ekram Saleh sat in a classroom, surrounded by immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Sudan. They listened as the county's election commissioner talked about voting. Here's how you can register, the commissioner said. Here's who represents your city council district. And also – Hall County needs poll workers to run every election. Saleh was then a brand-new U.S. citizen, a Sudanese native who didn't know she could serve her new country by being a poll worker. The next day, she went straight to t...
A wise, old soul once told me that "the story of government isn't that what is said isn't so, it's that what is so isn't said." That, over and over, has proven true in years of digging into stories and actions of state government. State agencies and constitutional officers have a bevy of public information officers whose job is to promote what that agency or office does, and overall, make that agency look good. ("Put lipstick on the pig" is another old saying.) All too often, when you peel away...
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...
