No need to check the calendar this time of year in Nebraska – you know it is March when there is a snow storm in the west and thunderstorms in the east.  Hopefully, precipitation will fall where needed. This week has also brought more news regarding Gage County. 

I started last summer visiting many times with county supervisors, Chairman Erich Thiemann and former board member John Hill, about new legislation regarding the “Beatrice Six” case. I also talked with the entire board and those newly elected before the session began, discussing the process here in the Legislature and possible outcomes. The result was my introduction of LB 103, which would take $2 million per year from the general fund in each of the next two years, to help a county pay a federal judgement greater than 20% of their annual budget.

During the hearing for this bill before the Appropriations Committee, Sen. Erdman asked several questions and commented that the state should be liable for all of the judgment against Gage County. In later conversations with Sen. Erdman, we discussed the history behind the bill and how Gage County is paying off the judgment through a combination of property tax, sales tax and the insurance judgement.  Sen. Erdman offered an amendment in committee to my bill, to raise the level of support to $5 million each year, for a total of $10M. Sen. Clements added the stipulation that the county must tax at their maximum levy of 50 cents, which Gage County has already done. I agreed with these changes to my bill.

The Legislative Fiscal Office is now writing the language to incorporate these amendments; and LB 103 came out of committee with a vote of 9-0.  I am very pleased and happy, and really thankful for what the Appropriations Committee has done. 

This is, however, just the first step. LB 103 will need to pass three rounds of debate on the floor with the full legislature, and be signed into law by the Governor, to take effect. So we still have a lot of work to do, and we have a period of time before we will know if it is successful.

Quite honestly, a big impact on the success of getting LB 103 out of committee in this form, is the revenue coming into the state. A lower cash reserve, poor revenue growth during the pandemic, or a less positive revenue forecast would have prevented LB 103 from gaining this amount of traction.  I am very grateful to the committee, their support has been very positive.

I have designated LB 103 as my personal priority bill, so it should come up in the next few weeks for debate. We are already starting to take up some of the other priority bills, so I am hopeful that discussion by the whole legislature will happen relatively soon.

Other issues discussed this week included a voting bill brought by Sen. Bostar. The bill would make it automatic to register to vote when you get a driver’s license. If you don’t want to register to vote at that time, you would simply opt out of that. That is the opposite of how it is presently, where you need to opt in to get registered. The part of his bill that I do not support is making election day a holiday. Citizens have ample opportunities to vote. If a holiday was the only possible way to vote, I could see it. But we are able to request mail in ballots and vote early in person at the clerk’s office; we have many ways to vote outside of just election day. In addition, there is a cost to making this a holiday; the government and many businesses would still be paying for this. I support covering the cost of elections but not making it a holiday.

Another bill garnering attention this week was Sen. Wishart’s LB 474 for medical cannabis. Senator Wishart has brought this bill before, and has been working with the medical community on this bill. They were working on a bill last session that the medical community could come out as neutral on. However, that bill was filibustered and did not pass. Then a petition to put medical cannabis on the ballot in the general election was thrown out for not meeting the ‘one issue’ standard. I would be okay with LB 474 the way it is written now. I have heard from so many people with seizures and other medical conditions who find some relief from cannabis use, however many people fear this is the first step that will lead to recreational marijuana being passed.  I would not be for recreational marijuana, I’d vote against that. But if we have the proper bill for medical use only – and I think we have come a long way from when it was first introduced – I would keep an open mind and could support it. We will need to see how the debate goes and if any amendments are offered.

Next week, we will be moving to all-day debate on the floor. You can always contact me through my email at mdorn@leg.ne.gov or talk to my staff at 402-471-2620. I always appreciate hearing from you.