The Appropriations Committee has finished public hearings and is now working in executive session to get a budget to the full legislature by March 7th. This includes adding in amendments, review by the legislative fiscal office, and printing. The other committees have finished their hearings as well, and all day debate begins March 4th.

This week in floor debate, I requested the Speaker pass over my LB 130, which was scheduled for final reading. This is because a federal funding source is showing potential for supporting skilled nursing homes across the state. This would be very beneficial for rural areas, with another facility closing in Red Cloud just last week. We need to find ways to help in the short term and put the tools in place for future sustainability. I am hopeful about this potential benefit to nursing home and long term care units, the residents and employees, across the state.

Inheritance tax has taken most of our debate time this past week. We are one of just a few states with either an estate or inheritance tax, or both. However, Nebraska is the only one in which the revenue from this tax goes to counties and not into the state budget. 

There is no question that getting rid of the inheritance tax is appealing; the problem is replacing about $80 to 95 million in lost revenue to our counties. How do we replace that revenue, keeping in mind that the only source of revenue to a county is property tax? Negotiations are underway to look at the impact on counties and find ways to compensate for lost revenue, over and above the $3 to $12 million offered in the original bill for county jails. Not every county even has a jail, and the amount offered fell far short of $80 million.

The Inspectors General issue has been resolved for the short term. As you may remember, the Attorney General (AG) had issued an opinion that these divisions within the Legislature were unconstitutional, saying investigative authority conferred on the inspectors general violates the separation of powers clause of the State Constitution. The Legislature maintains it needs the division because crises involving the state prison and child welfare systems weren’t being remedied by the attorney general or executive branch. 

 As a result of the AG opinion, the Executive Board of the Legislature signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Governor’s office to allow the continuation of these Inspector’s work until a longer term solution can be written into law. In the meantime, the Legislature has created a special committee to look at the various legislative divisions and their functions and report by mid December on their findings.

A bill was introduced this week by Sen. John Cavanaugh to address the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in campaigning. Last fall, Congressman Flood hosted a one day seminar about AI. This is a fast moving issue, and we will need to take this up sooner than later. The increasing use of altered and deceptive audio, videos, photos and printed materials, without the ability to prove original content sources, could have lasting negative impacts. While recognizing there isn’t enough time in this session to take up this complicated topic, the hearing was useful in revealing what work needs to be done in this arena.  

A reminder as we near the primary election in May – make certain you have an approved form of identification in order to cast your vote. For information and a list of acceptable forms, go to https://sos.nebraska.gov/elections/voter-id.  Contact me at any time about this and your areas of concern at mdorn@leg.ne.gov, call 402-471-2620. For complete information on the Unicameral, go to www.nebraskalegislature.gov. Thank you.