Legislative News

Speaker of the Legislature John Arch on Tuesday spelled out the first price he will exact for the persistent filibuster by State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha and others slowing the legislative session to limit how much legislation gets discussed.

The Urban Affairs Committee heard testimony March 7 on a bill that would create an executive branch state agency focused on housing and urban development in Nebraska.

The Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board voted to reaffirm the state’s revenue projections during its Feb. 24 meeting at the Capitol.

While many voters might not care about how much tax corporations are asked to pay, they do care about the opportunities these employers provide in their communities, so a state’s tax policies have to be aligned with the goal of landing corporate relocations and expansions. Nebraska currently has the 18th highest corporate income tax among all states. It used to be even higher.

Proposed legislation to provide a sales tax exemption for business inputs that could have resulted in an estimated $277 million reduction in state revenue by the 2026-27 fiscal year appears headed toward a legislative study following adjournment of the current legislative session.

As explained in this article, amending a bill in the Nebraska Legislature to add a voluntary, retroactive pass-through entity tax law, or PTET law, would provide many Nebraska business owners with federal income tax relief. Better still, a PTET law would not cost the state any tax revenue — that’s right, zero decrease in the tax revenue that Nebraska collects, says Jeffery Schaffart of Koley Jessen.

Spending priorities include building a $574-million canal, a new prison and funds for mentoring children and state worker salary increases

In an effort to make Nebraska more competitive with other states and within itself, Gov. Pillen has a plan to modernize Nebraska’s tax code and provide tax relief. Over the past week, Gov. Pillen and state senators have promoted multiple tax relief bills. If passed, these bills would be among the largest tax relief packages in Nebraska’s history, potentially returning hundreds of millions of dollars back to Nebraskans.

Governor Jim Pillen has announced six priority bills for the legislative session aimed at transforming Nebraska's tax code, making our state's tax system more competitive with other states, improving workforce development, and providing parents and their children additional choices for education.

Nebraska has a new member of Congress after U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts was sworn in Monday in the Old Senate Chamber in the U.S. Capitol, with Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., at his side.

Nebraska's tax system ranked 35th overall on the 2022 State Business Tax Climate Index, although rankings are improving after last year's tax relief efforts. Gov. Pillen hopes to make at least the top 15 states for tax climate.

A total of 58 changes to the permanent rules were proposed to the Legislature this year, which led to more than 100 testifiers speaking during a marathon nine-hour Rules Committee hearing last week.

Gov. Jim Pillen unveiled a package of proposed tax cuts on Wednesday that he labeled as "historic" and making Nebraska more competitive with other states. The package includes a gradual reduction in state personal and corporate income tax rates to a flat, 3.99% — which mirrors the rate recently adopted in Iowa — and a shift in the funding of community colleges off property taxes. It also would adopt a new way of valuing agricultural property based on the land's income-producing potential and would limits increases in ag land valuations for tax purposes. In addition, state lawmakers will be asked to accelerate, and make immediate, the elimination of state income taxes on Social Security.

A total of 812 legislative bills were introduced through Wednesday — the deadline for bill introduction — which is short of the record 885 bills introduced in 1997 for a similar 90-day session.

In just nine days, over 800 bills were introduced in the Nebraska Legislature. Wednesday was the final day for state senators to introduce bills, and they didn’t let up, submitting 184 of them. Four constitutional amendments and one resolution were also submitted on Wednesday, totaling 30 and 31 respectively for the session.

Committee hearings will commence Jan. 23.

Sen. Robert Dover of Norfolk has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to serve a third consecutive four-year term in the Legislature. Currently they are limited to two terms.

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen shared the names of the eight other people he interviewed for the open Senate seat ahead of choosing former Gov. Pete Ricketts for the appointment. Among the eight were Society members Don Kluthe, who is a Society past chairman, and Bryan Slone, who is president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce.

State Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston on Friday proposed letting voters weigh in on a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the Nebraska State Board of Education and give the governor control over the state Department of Education.

The Rules Committee considered 58 possible changes to the permanent rules that govern legislative proceedings during a marathon public hearing Jan. 12. The rules generally are adopted at the beginning of each biennium. The proposals, offered by a variety of senators, ranged from technical revisions to substantive changes meant to increase transparency and political participation in the legislative process.

About half of Nebraskans, including about 81% of the state’s children, would benefit from a newly proposed child tax credit law, said State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln, who introduced the bill Wednesday. Conrad said Legislative Bill 294 would provide families earning a certain income level a refundable tax credit up to $1,000 per child. Nine other states have enacted a similar child tax credit in addition to the federal credit, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Results of the opening day's leadership votes and subsequent recommendations for committee assignments have triggered allegations ranging from partisan behavior to a partisan takeover of the 2023 Legislature.

Backers of a dramatic change in state taxation announced changes to their proposal on Thursday as they launched a petition drive to place a “consumption” tax plan before Nebraska voters in 2024. “This falls into the category of if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” said Bryon Slone, president of the Nebraska Chamber.

Speakers at a press conference said that a tax on consumption would fix the state's "broken" tax system, reduce cost by eliminating property tax-related offices, and make Nebraska a more attractive place to live.

Senators reconvened Jan. 5 to begin introduction of new bills.

Gov. Jim Pillen gives his inauguration speech at the Nebraska Capitol.

Jim Pillen, a 67-year-old hog operator from Columbus, is the state’s first governor to earn most of his living from farming since George Sheldon left office in 1909. Pillen has put his adult children in charge of the family business while he is in office.

The anticipated fight over the rules outlining how the Legislature chooses its leaders never materialized on Wednesday. State senators adopted the rules of the last legislative session on Day One of the 2023 session, which will guide the proceedings until lawmakers can consider and vote on permanent rules later this month. That kept in place — at least temporarily — the method of choosing committee chairs by secret ballot, the standard in the Legislature for 50 years.

Several state senators — mostly Democrats in the officially nonpartisan body — say they were disappointed with the way committee membership was decided at the onset of the 90-day session.

State senators put off until later a fight over legislative rules, then spent the first day of the 2023 session on Wednesday electing a new speaker and leaders of legislative committees.

A proposed constitutional amendment that will be introduced on Thursday — the first day senators can introduce legislation in the 108th Legislature — would revert Nebraska’s legislative branch to a time before Nebraska voters approved Norris’ vision for a one-house legislature.

Twenty-six members of the Legislature were sworn into office Jan. 4 as the 108th Nebraska Legislature convened for its 90-day first session. That number includes nine re-elected senators, 16 newly elected senators — including two members who have served in the Legislature previously — and one newly appointed senator.

Instead of the nearly all-White, nearly all-male Legislatures of decades past, the new group of 49 will include a record 18 women. It also includes two Black, two Latino, one Asian American and two openly LGBTQ senators, making it the most diverse Legislature in state history.

Clerk of the Legislature Patrick J. O’Donnell retired at the end of 2022 after serving in the position for 44 years. Prior to his retirement, O’Donnell was the longest-serving active clerk of a state legislature in the country.

Rookie or veteran, they don’t plan on avoiding big issues, based on interviews with the region’s five-member delegation to the 108th Legislature.

The 2023 session of the Nebraska Legislature opens Wednesday, and Day 1 will set the tone for a 90-day session focused on adopting a new, two-year budget and deciding how to use a record-high surplus of funds. Following the swearing-in of 13 newly elected state senators and 11 re-elected incumbents, lawmakers will dive into a debate over whether leaders of legislative committees should be elected via secret ballots, as has been the tradition, or via public votes.

Medical marijuana, criminal justice reforms and education funding are just a few of the priorities for several Lincoln state senators in the upcoming legislative session.

The former Lincoln state senator said he plans to return to his small business and become active again in the private sector.

Gov. Pete Ricketts held a press conference Dec. 22 to announce the appointment of Beau Ballard of Lincoln as the next representative for District 21 in the Nebraska Legislature.

Nebraska’s first gambling casino has contributed nearly $800,000 to a state property tax relief fund so far, including $597,854 during the month of October, a state report said.

The newly launched Nebraska Chamber Foundation Workforce & Economic Dashboard offers insights into Nebraska's economy.

The Nebraska Revenue Committee recently heard LB1264, a bill to modernize Nebraska’s tax structure by reducing income tax rates, repealing the inheritance tax, expanding the sales tax base, and eliminating most incentives. Here's what the Tax Foundation has to say about the bill.