Thank you for visiting my website. It is an honor to represent the people of the 14th legislative district in the Nebraska Unicameral Legislature.
You’ll find my contact information on the right side of this page, as well as a list of the bills I’ve introduced this session and the committees on which I serve. Please feel free to contact me and my staff about proposed legislation or any other issues you would like to address.
Sincerely,
Sen. Jim Smith
Last week brought the clearing of a major hurdle, with an amended version of LB 585 being advanced by the Education Committee for consideration by the full Legislature. LB 585 is the bill I introduced to address the deficiencies of the Learning Community. The seven votes to advance the bill came after weeks of negotiations with Education Committee members.
As amended, LB 585 reduces the overall levy authority of the Learning Community and ensures allocation of funds to early childhood education for children in poverty. Studies show investing in early childhood education significantly improves the long-term academic success of students. In its amended form, the bill reduces transportation costs by eliminating the requirement that school districts pay for transportation if a student is transferring within a district or to a district that is not contiguous to his or her own district. This allows more money to go directly to the classroom.
Most importantly, the advancement of LB 585 will provide an opportunity for the full Legislature to discuss the Learning Community. There has not been an in-depth discussion on the floor of the Legislature regarding the Learning Community since the early years of its existence, and a majority of the body had not yet taken office when the Learning Community was put in place. I look forward to familiarizing my colleagues with the issue as we debate the benefits of this legislation.
The 2013 session is well underway, with 655 bills introduced for consideration by the Legislature. The Legislature has been meeting on the floor in the mornings, while afternoons are occupied with committee assignments. March 21 is the last day for committee hearings, and the Legislature will then begin full-day floor debate.
Among the 655 bills, were two bills introduced on the behalf of Governor Heineman that would have significantly reformed the way Nebraska collects taxes. Last month, Governor Heineman pulled the legislation, instead ordering a study of the state’s tax system over the next year. I’m disappointed the 2013 session will not bring a solution for comprehensive tax reform in Nebraska, but I’m encouraged by the prospect of the study. As an employer, I see first-hand the burden personal income taxes place on our families, and I believe Nebraska needs to be more competitive with respect to taxes.
On February 26, my Learning Community bill was heard before the Education Committee. While there have been multiple bills brought before the Legislature to address the Learning Community, including one to eliminate it (LB 178, which I co-sponsored), LB 585 addresses its deficiencies without calling for its elimination. Instead, the bill reduces the size of its government, reduces transportation costs, and reduces levy authority, saving taxpayers money. I believe this bill is an acceptable compromise and has a reasonable chance of being debated by the full Legislature this session.
I’m pleased that LB 225 is awaiting Final Reading before the Legislature. LB 225 requires all newborns in the state to be screened for Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CCHD). CCHD is one of the leading causes of newborn morbidity and death, and early detection is key to getting infants with CCHD the care that is necessary. I generally do not support government mandates, but requiring screening for CCHD will save the state money in the long run and, most importantly, will save lives.
Much work has been done already this session, and I anticipate more accomplishments in the next several weeks. I continue to appreciate your emails and phone calls as the Legislature takes on the issues that matter to you.
The 103rd Legislature has convened, and this session promises to be a busy one for me and my colleagues. 2013 is a budget year, the first year in a two-year cycle. This means a long, 90-day session, during which we must set the two-year budget for fiscal year 2014-2015.
Setting the budget will involve debating education spending and inheritance tax, along with property, income, and sales tax. The Legislature will also face difficult decisions regarding health care and Medicaid expansion. Water funding is set to become a top issue as the drought continues across Nebraska.
This session I am pleased to join the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee as Vice Chair. I look forward to my new duties on Transportation and Telecommunications, along with continuing to serve on the Natural Resources Committee.
Our work is cut out for us this year, but I am hopeful this session will provide positive results for Nebraska. I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Unicameral to serve you and your families.
The second session of the 102nd Unicameral Legislature came to a close on April 18th and much had been accomplished. We have started to fix some of the many problems with the Child Welfare division of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) as well as provided a tax cut to the people of Nebraska. Also, a consensus was reached on how to site pipelines and laws were passed that help local businesses.
The Child Welfare reform package was the result of an interim study conducted last year (LR37) and included 6 different bills: LB821, LB1160, LB820, LB949, LB961, and LB998.
LB821 establishes a 22-member Nebraska Children’s Commission charged with creating a statewide plan to reform child welfare services. The bill also creates a position within the Ombudsman’s office to specifically deal with child-related issues and DHHS.
LB1160 requires DHHS to develop a web-based automated information system to facilitate the flow of information relevant to child welfare data. DHHS is also charged with bringing a nationally recognized entity in to evaluate the state’s child welfare system. The first report is due on Dec. 15th 2012.
LB820 requires the creation of a Foster Care Reimbursement Committee, under DHHS, in order to standardize the rate structure for children in foster care. It also requires standard licenses for all foster parents not related to the child by blood, marriage, or adoption.
LB949 is a budgetary bill dealing with DHHS. It stems from a performance audit of the child welfare privatization efforts and requires a strategic plan to be included in its annual budget request to the Legislature. This plan will include the main purpose of each program as well as how progress will be measured and a time line for meeting goals.
LB961 reduces the welfare caseload size to between 12 and 17 cases per worker, moves case management back to DHHS and authorizes a pilot program to privatize the eastern service area. A review of the pilot program must be completed before April 1, 2013 with the recommendations going to the Legislature for consideration.
LB998 replaces the Foster Care Review Board with a Foster Care Review Office and a Foster Care Advisory Committee. The Committee appointees will be nominated by the Legislature and submitted to the governor for approval.
These bills represent many hours of negotiations and deliberations to fix some significant problems within the Department of Health and Human services. Much more work is needed to ensure our foster children have the highest care possible but we are aware of the problems and are looking for the best solutions.
A tax cut for Nebraskans was also passed this session (LB970). The bill, proposed by Governor Heineman, would alter income tax brackets in 2014 as follows:
| Bracket | Married | Single | Rate |
| 1 | 0 – 5,999 | 0 – 2,999 | 2.46% |
| 2 | 6,000 – 35,999 | 3,000 – 17,999 | 3.51% |
| 3 | 36,000 – 57,999 | 18,000 – 28,999 | 5.01% |
| 4 | Over 58,000 | Over 29,000 | 6.84% |
Translated, this means a married couple that makes $100,000 adjusted gross income will get an estimated $145 tax cut.
The pipeline consensus was reached with my priority bill, LB1161, and allows the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to study oil pipeline routes that go around the Sandhills as promised to Nebraska Citizens. The bill would tighten up eminent domain procedures for carriers, require carriers to reimburse the state for studies and provide for transparency in the process.
Two bills were passed that will directly impact local businesses. The first is LB1080 which provides a tax break for data centers, exempting items that are assembled in Nebraska but shipped outside of the state to be put into service. Yahoo in La Vista has mentioned they could take advantage of this exemption to create more jobs in our community and relocate its factory to Nebraska.
Finally, LB780, is a bill I introduced that will allow microbreweries to expand their capacity. Nebraska has a large number of brewpubs and microbreweries including Empyrean of Lincoln, Schilling Bridge of Pawnee City, and my personal favorite, Lucky Bucket of La Vista. Lucky Bucket was going to reach the 10,000 gallon capacity in the near future, this bill allows them to continue expanding local business and enjoy continued success.
The 2012 session saw many interesting bills, some that passed, more that didn’t. I look forward to what the 2013 session has to offer with new senators, new bills, and new issues. Please contact my office if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions. Thank you for allowing me to serve for another year in the Nebraska Unicameral.
Since the beginning of the legislative session, I have been contacted by constituents who are in favor of Governor Heineman’s tax-cut proposal and by those who are in favor of fully-funding our local school districts. As a fiscal conservative I am in complete support of letting taxpayers keep more of their hard-earned dollars, but I am also a very strong believer in a quality education system. Unfortunately, from the looks of a preliminary proposal released by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee, our wish list will have to be trimmed.
The $7.2 billion budget includes funding for important state obligations such as child welfare reform, capitol construction, and services for the developmentally disabled. The 2011-2013 budget’s biggest expenditure is state aid to schools, but it is considerably less than anticipated and the recommendation leaves only $17.6 million available for a number of other proposals, including the Governor’s tax reduction plan. Despite recent improvements in the economy, it is projected that the state will be facing a $461 million shortfall for the 2013-2015 budget.
In crafting the two-year budget last year, the state aid formula provided for $880 million in aid going to Nebraska school districts. However, more recent projections for the 2012-13 school year have lowered that number, due in part to higher property valuations, and the Appropriations Committee has recommended providing only $837 million. In addition, next year will be the first time in four years that the school districts will not be receiving assistance from federal funds.
Recognizing the competing needs for state funds, the Governor has offered to trim his tax-cut package by almost a third. As originally proposed, the plan would expand the tax brackets, lower individual income tax rates, lower the corporate tax rates to assist small businesses and eliminate the inheritance tax. It was estimated to cost $317 million over the next three years. Under the most recent proposal, the inheritance tax and the corporate income tax rate would not change, but low-and middle-income taxpayers would still realize some tax relief.
The Legislature will be discussing the Appropriations Committee’s recommendation in the coming weeks and adjustments may certainly be made; however, I praise the committee for taking the fist steps in the daunting task of holding the line on spending while adequately funding the state’s many needs.
After months and months of sometimes contentious debate, the Legislature has finally advanced legislation that makes substantial changes to the Commission on Industrial Relations. LB 397 is on track to be passed in the last few days remaining in this year’s session and go to the Governor for approval.
Early on in the process, I did not support the bill as proposed by a majority of my colleagues on the Business and Labor Committee, of which I am a member. I believe this to be one of the most important issues facing Nebraska and had assured my constituents that I would not support any legislation that did not represent significant, meaningful and comprehensive reform. Long hours of negotiations between senators, the governor’s office and business and labor interests resulted in amendments to LB 397 that finally embodies real change and is a major improvement to Nebraska’s unique system for resolving public employee contract disputes.
Over 43,000 Nebraskans are public employees and take part in the collective bargaining process. Our state law, however, prohibits unions from striking and instead sends labor disputes to a five-judge panel to decide such issues. Recent CIR decisions have resulted in large, unforeseeable financial obligations for local governments and made it clear that the current process was not working as intended, particularly in an unpredictable economy.
This has been an issue that has caused much turmoil and great division in other states across the nation. Though at times discussions became heated, in our state, all sides continued to work together toward a seemingly impossible resolution. I have a newfound respect for our legislative process and I am proud at the way Nebraskans – our public and private employees, our business owners and our local governmental officials – tackled this issue with respectful and thoughtful resolve.
A copy of LB 397 can be found on the Legislature’s website http://www.nebraskalegislature.gov/.
The Legislature concluded its 18th week of the session by advancing a series of budget bills through two rounds of debate. Appropriations Committee members should be credited for their hard work in constructing the two-year, $17.4 billion budget. Senator Lavon Heidemann, the chairman of the committee, said that an extensive study conducted by all of the Legislature’s committees helped identify the cuts that needed to be made in the various state programs and agencies.
Prior to this week, the state faced a $986 million general fund shortfall between expected revenues and necessary expenditures. However, the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board recently projected healthier income tax returns would result in a boost to the state coffers of $82.5 million by the end of the fiscal year. Despite the board’s optimism that the economy is slowly recovering from the recession and that the increase in revenue should continue through the two-year cycle, the Legislature still made difficult cuts and significant budget adjustments.
Overall, state spending will increase at an average of 2.6% during the two years, but much of that increase can be attributed to replacing the one-time funds given to Nebraska through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most of these funds went to public school districts to prevent harmful cuts to education during the peak of the recession. Budget-related actions included cutting Childrens Health Insurance (SCHIP) and Medicaid provider rates by 2.5%; eliminating $22 million in state aid to cities, counties and natural resource districts; and adjusting the state aid to schools formula, resulting in $410 million less to schools.
In addition, $105 million from the state’s cash reserve fund was transferred in order to balance the budget, as required by the Nebraska Constitution. This amount could have been much more, but the Legislature voted to put the extra projected funds into the cash reserve, otherwise known as the “rainy day fund”.
I applaud the Appropriations Committee for leading the rest of the Legislature in exercising fiscal restraint and for saving for future tough times. It is common-sense budgeting practices that have resulted in Nebraska recently being identified as the nation’s second least economically stressed state by the Associated Press’ Economic Stress Index. That is something for which we Nebraska should be proud.
Committee hearings have concluded and the Legislature is now spending full days debating those measures that have been identified as priorities. Each senator is allowed to designate one bill as his or her priority bill and the committees are allotted two priorities. In addition, the Speaker of the Legislature has the option of designating 25 priority bills. Fortunately for District #14, Speaker Mike Flood designated a bill I introduced, LB 589, as one of his priority bills for this session.
LB 589 is not only very important to my legislative district, it is important to communities across the entire state. Recently, the Nebraska Department of Roads adopted a policy that would prohibit cities, counties and villages from using state highways with speed limits over 45 M.P.H. for special events such as parades, marathons, street dances and bike races. This new rule effectively ends Papillion’s Dualthon and the Triathlon; events that attract participants from all over the country and bring thousands of dollars into the community and into the state.
According to the Department of Roads, the concern is that of liability. My bill addresses this issue by requiring the Department to authorize the encroachment of the state highway system if the city, county, or village waives all rights of recovery against the state for any damages or liability. A public hearing on LB 589 was held in front of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee on March 8th. The committee has not yet advanced the bill to the entire Legislature for consideration, but the Speaker’s priority designation should help get the bill moving.
These special events are important to Nebraska. These events celebrate our heritage, they strengthen our communities, they attract people from other states and they are valuable to the economy. Passage of LB 589 will ensure that these events continue throughout our state for years to come.
The 90-day session of the 102nd Legislature has reached the halfway point, but there is still a lot of work to do and serious policy decisions to be made. Since the beginning of the session in January, legislators have been spending their afternoons in committee hearings and listening to testimony on over 700 bills and proposed amendments to the constitution. The public hearings will be concluding and the Legislature will now be spending full days discussing those measures that have been advanced from the various committees.
Given the time constraints of the session, there is simply not enough time to discuss all the proposals that have been introduced. Those issues that have been identified as priorities for the state are moved ahead of other bills, but there is still no guarantee a particular bill will be debated and passed.
Among the topics that will be the focus of the Legislature’s deliberations include our tax policy, the child welfare system, state aid to schools, abortion, roads funding, DUI laws, collective bargaining for public employees and water management. Of course, the other big issue will be the state’s budget. Before the end of the session in June, the Legislature must also find a way to close a nearly $1 billion budget gap.
The progress of these various measures can be monitored from the Legislature’s website “http://nebraskalegislature.gov/”. Debate on legislation is also broadcast via live video stream on this site. Your opinion is important to me, so I encourage you to pay attention to these issues and provide your input as a Nebraska citizen.
