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 Agriculture Committee held a public hearing for LR280 introduced by the Agriculture Committee. The hearing was held at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. LR280 was introduced to examine a number of questions surrounding the Brand Law, including issues surrounding the continued value and utility of mandatory brand inspection. In recent years, the Legislature has considered legislation that would fundamentally change how brand inspection is implemented, including...
One morning after a night of one too many drinks, I gave in and passed my then 2-year-old daughter my phone to watch cartoons while I slept it off. When I woke up, Peppa Pig was nowhere to be found, but my kid had somehow managed to purchase a vintage Nebraska Territory map online. Well played, eBay one-click Buy It Now. The previous night, I had rabbit-holed into the world of Nebraska yesteryear - and I don't mean the Tom Osborne era. I was marveling at how big Nebraska used to be. Established...
This past week marked the transition from summer to fall, and as such, harvest season is almost here. Please be careful on the roads since more tractors, combines, and semi-trucks will be on the roads in the coming weeks. Activity at the Capitol is also picking up. Many committees hold public hearings related to study resolutions in the fall. The Agriculture Committee, of which I am the chairman, will be holding two interim public hearings this year. The first hearing will be on Tuesday, Oct. 7...
Distracted driving and speeding are endangering and killing Nebraskans. So, here's a challenge to everyone who gets behind the wheel: Let's make our roads the safest in America. "I'm issuing this challenge because of the troubling trends in traffic safety. In June, over a two-week span, three Nebraska State Patrol cruisers were hit while parked on I-80," Pillen said. In late July, a Nebraska Department of Transportation worker was injured while assisting at the scene of a crash on the...
This past week, the Natural Resources Committee held an interim hearing to review current laws that relate to the approval process, personnel involved, and costs associated with controlled burn permits. Controlled burns are planned fires intentionally set to manage ecosystems or prevent future larger, uncontrolled wildfires. These planned burns help reduce hazardous fuels like dead vegetation, promote the growth of native species, and help control problematic species like the eastern redcedar tr...
Even though the Legislature stands adjourned for the year, senators and committees are already laying the groundwork for the next legislative session. One way this groundwork is laid is by the holding of interim study hearings by the various legislative committees. Interim study resolutions are typically introduced by senators or committees in the regular session in order to examine public policy issues in-depth during the time the Legislature is adjourned. This past week, the Natural Resources...
Brace yourself Nebraskans for another year without meaningful property tax relief. That's because the "One Big Beautiful Bill" means that Nebraska will have to do without about $216 million in state income tax revenue over the next two years, and $406 million less over the next four years. That's a Big Gulp of funding for a state budget that lawmakers had already cut by nearly $400 million to balance the state budget. As you recall, during the last session of the Nebraska Legislature,...
LINCOLN--Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha had hoped to hear from state officials, including the governor and the director of the Nebraska Department of Corrections, during a committee hearing at the Capitol on Friday about plans to convert a state prison into a proposed immigrant detention facility. Instead, he heard from four dozen Nebraskans who showed up full of emotion, with posters and written statements to voice their opposition to turning the Work Ethic Camp in McCook into a federal facility to house those arrested by U.S. Immigration and...
On Tuesday, Gov. Jim Pillen has signed Executive Order 25-13, the latest action in his Administration’s ongoing efforts to provide meaningful property tax relief to Nebraska families. Due to an increase in casino gambling revenue and unused money remaining in the Property Tax Credit Cash Fund and the School District Property Tax Credit Fund, these funds grew by more than the amount originally appropriated by the Nebraska Legislature. The EO directs Nebraska’s Property Tax Administrator to certify and distribute the full amount in the funds to...
This past week, more than 100 new laws took effect. Under Article III, Section 27 of the Nebraska Constitution, no law shall take effect until three calendar months after the adjournment of the legislative session at which it passed, though the Legislature can move up the effective date of a law by a two-thirds of all the members elected. Since this year’s legislative session adjourned on June 3, this means over 100 new laws took effect on Wednesday, Sept. 3, in accordance with our state’s con...
Over the years, I covered more than one effort by the Nebraska Legislature to redraw the boundaries of districts for state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, among others, due to shifts in the state's population. Those efforts, according to the State Constitution, always follow the latest U.S. Census, which happens at the beginning of each decade. There's a lot of data to pour through, and the process, in my opinion, becomes the most partisan exercise in the mostly nonpartisan...
LINCOLN — In the past five years, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has weathered $75 million in cuts. Cuts to staff. Cuts to university libraries. Cuts to colleges that have taught UNL students for more than a century. But the pain from those cuts, spread over years, likely will be dwarfed by what's to come, as the state’s flagship university moves to slash $27.5 million by the end of the calendar year. The total, announced by Chancellor Rodney Bennett in early August, represents nearly 6% of UNL’s state-aided budget. It exceeds the budge...
A couple of months ago, I outlined two initiative petitions that have been filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office and are currently in circulation for the 2026 General Election. Since then, two additional initiative petitions have been submitted to the Secretary of State: (1) the Cap Annual Property Valuation Assessments Constitutional Amendment and (2) the Reduce Taxable Property Valuation Initiative. The Cap Annual Property Valuation Assessments Constitutional Amendment p...
For the past few weeks, I have continued a series where I highlight several of the priority bills and resolutions that are pending and could be scheduled early next session. This week’s newsletter will provide an overview of several more carryover priority bills and resolutions which could be potentially debated sometime early next year. LB632, by Sen. Hansen, would require healthcare facilities to dispose of fetal tissue following an elective abortion via cremation, interment by burial, or a...
Gov. Pillen and state lawmakers are taking another run at reducing the much despised, high property taxes in our state, this time via a commission on reforming the way we fund K-12 schools. You gotta admire the governor for keeping on trying. It was one of his top campaign pledges – to cut property taxes. But, we seem to have gotten deeper cuts in state income taxes in recent years than real property tax relief. I know, I’m veering off track. Back to property taxes. “Reforming” the way we fund...
Forgive me if I'm feeling a little confused (regular readers of this column will probably say "what's new?") but aren't we in a national debt crisis? Our national debt has ballooned to nearly $37 trillion dollars in recent years, thanks in large part to spending during the COVID-19 pandemic to assure that businesses didn't close and workers could still feed their families and pay the bills. The debt is why, supposedly, that we allowed a team of 20-somethings with no government experience called...
This week’s newsletter will provide an overview of several bills and resolutions that are still held in their respective legislative committees but could conceivably be advanced to the floor subject to the outcome of any negotiations that happen during the interim. LR12CA, by Sen. Kauth, is a proposed constitutional amendment that seeks to cap property tax valuations. As introduced, LR12CA would dictate that the maximum amount of any property tax cannot not exceed 1.5% of the full-cash value o... Full story
Austen Baack rediscovered his love of books while chopping fruits and vegetables at the back of a grocery store. As a young kid, Baack was a voracious reader. But that changed in his teens. "I was SparkNotes-ing everything," he recalled. "I hardly read anything in high school." Then, after graduation, Baack found himself working eight-hour shifts at Hy-Vee. He started listening to audio books to navigate the monotony of the job. "And that reignited my whole love for reading." He carried that...
Last week, I started a series where I would highlight several of the priority bills and resolutions that are pending and could be scheduled early in the next session. This week’s newsletter will provide an overview of several more of these bills and resolutions. LB455 by Senator Hallstrom would modify existing laws relating to worker’s compensation. Under current law, if an employee is injured on the job, employers are required to file a report of first injury with the Nebraska Workers’ Compe...
Nebraska is slipping into a "two steps forward, one step back" trend when it comes to supporting women in science, technology, engineering and math fields. In 2023, women held a little over a quarter of STEM jobs in the state. That's a slight increase since 2015 and puts Nebraska marginally ahead of neighbors like Iowa, South Dakota, Colorado and Kansas. But the improvement came with bad news: In 2015, Nebraska women in STEM earned around 86 cents to every dollar made by a man. In 2023, that dro...
I am Eric Kamler, your Commissioner for the 4th District of the Nebraska Public Service Commission, covering 31 counties of Nebraska. The Nebraska Public Service Commission is a five-member elected statewide board that oversees several industries affecting everyday lives, including broadband internet and telecommunications, the 911 network contract, oil and natural gas pipeline routes and regulation, railroad lines, commercial grain storage licensing, commercial ground transportation licensing...
Arthur Miller wrote, “A good newspaper is a nation talking to itself.” I like the idea of conversation generating from the newspaper, especially from items on this page. In college, my journalism prof, Sharon Behl Brooks, stressed how editorial (or commentary or opinion ... whatever label you pin on it) presents a point of view, sparks discussion and, at its core, prompts critical thinking. The editorial page of the Advocate-Messenger does that and presents a wide range of thoughts. On the com...
This is probably speaking to the choir because if you're reading this, you already believe that maintaining a healthy media – with fact-checking editors instead of conspiracy spreading folks in pajama pants – is really important. It's even more important now because there's so much misinformation out there, and so much wrong information, mostly spread on social media. Recently, Congress – including every member of the Nebraska delegation – voted to claw back $1.1 billion in allocations over tw...
Barry DeKay will be seeking a second term to represent District 40 in the Nebraska Legislature. He made the announcement July 9. DeKay was elected to the Legislature in 2022 after winning both the four-person primary, followed by decisive general election victory. Since being elected, DeKay has served the Transportation & Telecommunications, Judiciary, Agriculture, General Affairs, Natural Resources, and State-Tribal Relations committees. In 2025, DeKay was elected Chairman of the Agriculture...
July 4th is Independence Day in America. This day commemorates the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. I hope that you are able to enjoy time with your friends and family. As we take the day to celebrate our country’s independence, we should remember the many brave men and women who have fought and sacrificed so that we may enjoy the gift of freedom. I also want to make known that July 1, was the implementation date for one final p...
