We bid farewell to January, with plenty of reminders of the month’s weather on our county roads. Here at the Legislature we are continuing with morning debate on the floor, and afternoon public hearings.

My bill to support rescue squads, LB 1108, was heard by the Transportation and Telecommunications Community this week. The original program, “Fifty Cents for Life”, was first introduced by the late Senator Denny Byars in 2001. A fifty cent fee added to motor vehicle registration is used to fund the Statewide Trauma System Act and the Emergency Medical Services Practice Act. About $1.2 million dollars is raised per year with this valuable program, paying for continuing education and testing for EMTs, adequately equipped ambulances and trained emergency care providers.

This fee has never been increased but costs have gone up exponentially, so the goal of LB 1108 is to raise this to a dollar, just one dollar per year per vehicle, with an aim of improving rural emergency services. This bill was brought to me by Governor Pillen after his review of the program, seeing the vital contribution of our rural volunteers and the needs of rural EMS. As I have pointed out, you can’t buy a cup of coffee for 50 cents, but it could support our emergency services and could help save a life.

Our session so far has gone reasonably well, with the movement of quite a few bills through the first and second levels of debate. We did spend a couple of days this past week discussing Sen. Jacobsen’s bill to require two person crews on railroads traveling through the state. His district is home to the largest rail yard in the state, in North Platte. In this filibuster, it’s a little different than last year, as the participants on the two sides of the argument are all Republicans. Good points regarding state restrictions v. federal rules, safety, financial impacts on the workers and on the railroads were discussed. Supporters of the requirement hope the federal government will issue a nationwide order but that is not guaranteed. I am in favor of a two man crew, but the measure fell short of enough votes to invoke cloture and may be done for the session.

Once again, a topic of great interest is Daylight Saving Time (DST). Based on the feedback to our office, I would say about a third want year-round DST; another third want year-round standard time; and the last third are fine with changing the clocks twice a year. The present bill is for year-round DST, but is dependent on both federal approval and surrounding states adopting the same law. Right now, a state can opt to stay year-round on standard time, but not DST. The only states which do not participate in DST are Arizona and Hawai’i.

During the interim I looked into the critical need for adequate and affordable child care, which is a huge drawback to finding employees when it is unavailable. Many entities in the district are developing their own child care programs in order to deal with workforce shortages. LB 856 by Sen. Fredrickson, Omaha, would help to recruit and retain both providers and more workers in the overall economy by subsidizing child care. This issue is gaining attention as it affects the economy, a person’s availability to be employed outside the home, the affordability of child care; and how all of these fit into the overall picture of how our workforce functions.

A bill from Sen. Holdcroft of Bellevue, LB 878, would prohibit schools and educational service units from having special elections for a bond issue or property tax levy. These questions could only appear on ballots during statewide general elections in even numbered years. The objective is to maximize voter turnout and limit the cost of elections. As an example, in a recent Lincoln schools election, only 30% of voters came out to vote, so in reality, only 18% of the people passed that bond issue which affected all property tax payers. With proper planning you can work around the dates of elections, but on the flip side, we do need to consider interest rate fluctuations and supply chain concerns. The closer the election to the start of the project, the more likely it is to come in on budget.

I welcome your communication at mdorn@leg.ne.gov or 402-471-2620. Additional information can be found at www.nebraskalegislature.gov . Thank you!