News Updates

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 Internal Revenue Service audited fewer taxpayers last year, according to a new report, although audits of millionaires ticked up slightly.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, P.L. 117-328, enacted on Dec. 29 included (as its Division T) the Secure 2.0 Act, which contains several retirement and tax provisions. The Secure 2.0 provisions mostly focus on expanding coverage, increasing retirement savings, and simplifying and clarifying retirement plan rules, but there are other changes included as well.

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 proposed change to open balloting that reveals how each senator votes on the leadership positions challenges the nonpartisan nature of the Legislature by applying some pressure to align senators with party affiliation.

The 2023 Legislature will convene Wednesday with an array of hot topics waiting in the wings. Contentious issues ranging from allocation of state school aid to implementation of a constitutional amendment requiring voter photo identification are on the likely agenda along with new restrictions on abortion rights and unrestricted recognition of gun rights.

The Internal Revenue Service has issued the 2023 optional standard mileage rates used to calculate the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, charitable, medical or moving purposes. Beginning Jan. 1, 2023, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be: • 65.5 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3 cents from the midyear increase setting the rate for the second half of 2022. • 22 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces, consistent with the increased midyear rate set for the second half of 2022. • 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations; the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged from 2022.

During the holidays you order something online and anxiously await its arrival. But then your package doesn’t come when the seller said it would. And worse, you hear nothing. Your happy anticipation is turning to anger and frustration. So now what?