Veto Declaration, Referendum Withstands Challenge, & Return of a Legend?
Much of last week’s floor debate was around a proposal to phase out the state Inheritance Tax (LB 1067), Sen. Clements’ priority bill. Nebraska is one of 6 states that has such a tax, the proceeds of which are used by counties to fund infrastructure, programs and services, and to
Session Phase 2: Priorities Set, Committees Wrap Up
We’re in the final stretch of morning debate/afternoon hearing days, as you might have noticed some committees already began wrapping up their hearings early last week. Hearings will officially conclude this week, which is a short one; both Monday and Friday are recess days, so only Tuesday-Thursday committees will meet.
Governor’s 180 on Summer EBT Surprising, But Welcome
As is often the nature of the beast in reporting news from the Unicameral, things changed rapidly from the time of writing my last post on Sunday to Monday’s surprise announcement from Governor Pillen declaring he had changed his mind and would be opting Nebraska into the Summer EBT program
Summer EBT Bill Hits Committee Roadblock
Editor’s note: Gov. Pillen announced this morning that he is accepting Summer EBT for this summer. Read more here. The following blog post was written before his announcement. CSN is sharing it for advocates’ awareness on the legislative process that place before Gov. Pillen made his announcement. After an excellent
Governor’s Tax Plan Unites Diverse Group of Critics
Public hearings on various components of Governor Jim Pillen’s proposed budget and tax reform plans kicked off last week in the Revenue and Appropriations committees, to a more negative reception than we’ve seen with other recent governors’ budget and tax plans. Pillen’s primary ally and proxy in the legislature has
Floor Debate Off To A Smooth Start…For Now
In its first week of taking up carryover bills for floor debate in the mornings, the legislature has been off to a remarkably smooth and…dare I say…collegial?…start. Following the prior week’s differences in opinion over proposed changes to the legislature’s rules and last session’s bitter divisiveness that led to a
Rules Debate Concludes, Nonpartisanship Preserved
Tuesday and Wednesday’s agendas were filled with the less controversial, streamlining and process improvement-type rule change proposals — mostly introduced by Speaker Arch — which had advanced from the Rules committee with a unanimous 5-0 vote. After debating at length and amending some of those, the legislature adopted them all.
Rules Debate Begins: Majority Power, Minority Voice
A hearing on 34 proposed changes to the rules was held on Monday, and by Wednesday, the Rules committee members had voted to send 16 of those to the floor for consideration. I’d generally lump these into two thematic groups: some were technical changes, process improvements to legislative operations, codifying