I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving, enjoyed time with family and friends, and counted your blessings. It is such a blessing living in the State of Nebraska. Preparations are underway for the upcoming session as we review legislation that we will bring in 2024.

This week I will share with you about the Nebraska Retirement Systems priority bill, LB103, which changes provisions of the County Employees Retirement Act, the Judges Retirement Act, the Nebraska State Patrol Retirement Act, the School Employees Retirement Actm and the State Employees Retirement Act.

• LB103 makes technical changes to a bill passed in 2022 (LB700) that codified retirement practices and rules for certified teachers covered by the State Code Agency Teachers Association (SCATA) contract who previously or subsequently are employed by a school district, educational service unit (ESU), or any other state agency.
• LB104 changes the state, county, judges, school, and state patrol retirement plans by raising the age from 72 to 73 for required minimum distributions (RMD) in order to align with recently passed federal legislation. The RMD age will increase to 75 beginning in 2033.
• LB105 changes various retirement plans to align with federal legislation that changes the definition of military service to include preparations for military service, rest and recovery after military service and state active service.
• LB160 changes the supplemental retirement benefit rate for counties that participate in the County Employees Retirement Plan by increasing from 1% to 2% of compensation in counties with a population of 85,000 or less. The rate in counties with a population greater than 85,000 increases from 2% to 3%. This change applies to all Nebraska counties except Douglas and Lancaster, which do not participate in the county plan. (Taken from “Session Review: Nebraska Retirement Systems”. Unicameral Update. July 21, 2023. http://update.legislature.ne.gov/?cat=16)

I was so happy to be in Pender on Tuesday, November 21st to attend Pender’s 2023 National Blue Ribbon School award. I enjoyed listening to all the speakers talk about their pride in attending Pender Public Schools and being a Pendragon. The student essays were great. You could hear the pride in their voices as they talked about what it means to be a Pender Pendragon. Coach Bill Busch talked about being a student at Pender and how much his teacher, Rae Brown (a teacher at Pender for over 40 years), meant to him. I am very proud of the work that the administration, teachers, staff, parents, and students do to make Pender the school that it is. Because of the work done, they are nationally recognized for their accomplishments in educating students. On behalf of the State of Nebraska, Governor Pillen gave a great congratulatory speech. He encouraged the students to become teachers and reminded them of the importance of showing up and giving your best. Congratulations to the Pender Pendragons on their National Blue Ribbon award.

As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by calling my office at (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.