Capital Comments

Senator John Wightman

District 36

As I write this on Thursday morning, the legislature has spent almost two-thirds of this week‘s session debating the budget bills. Although we have spent almost two and one half days, we are now on the third of the seven bills that make up the budget package proposed by the Appropriations Committee. This is by far is the most time spent in general session on the budget bills in my seven years in the Legislature. Today there will probably be at least 10 hours of discussion. Nevertheless, it is hard to argue that the budget is not one of the most important issues to come before the Legislature annually.

Several major issues have come to the floor in an attempt to amend the budget bills proposed by the Appropriations Committee, on which I serve. We have spent the last several hours discussing property tax relief, although the state gets no part of the property tax. I am sure that it will come as a surprise to many that the State of Nebraska does not share in the property tax revenues, as it is all levied by the school districts, the villages, municipalities and the counties and pays no part of the state’s expenses. Over the years the state has mademany efforts to relieve property taxes by giving money back to local governments who use the money to relieve property taxes. The state provides approximately $1.3 billion per year in aid to local governments such as for K-12 education, aid to community colleges, Educational Service Units, etc.to provide relief to property tax payers across the state. As we continue, I am quite certain that all of this week will be taken up by the remaining bills submitted by the Appropriations Committee and proposed amendments to the bills

We have both a legislative bill, L.B.613, and a Resolution, L.R. 155, still to be taken up by the entire legislature to have a committee study our overall tax structure for the State of Nebraska during the summer with a report to be completed by December 15^th. In the meantime, I feel that is is better to await that report before further state aid to property tax payers is considered.

It appears that next week a good deal of time will be spent on reconsideration of the death penalty. The issue has come before the Legislature almost every two years in my seven years in the Unicameral. Although under our current state and federal laws and court decisions the state definitely spends more to enforce the death penalty than we would spend if it is eliminated, I will once again vote against repeal. I continue to believe it is at least a partial deterrent of premeditated murders in our state.

Your input will be very important to me especially since this year’s session will develop the state’s budget for the next two years in addition to all of the other issues that impact you as a citizen of the State of Nebraska. I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address these issues and many others. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capital, District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402) 471-2642. My email address is jwightman@leg.ne.gov.

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Capital Comments

Senator John Wightman

District 36

As I write this letter we are on the 54^th day of the legislative session, which will complete sixty percent of this year’s regular session. Without doubt we have moved more slowly through bill consideration and floor debate than we have done during my previous six years in the Legislature. Obviously this slowing down of the process has resulted from the return of Senator Ernie Chambers to the Legislature after a four year absence resulting from term limits. Although Senator Chamber was in the Legislature during my first two years, he seems to be even more active in slowing down the process this year than in my first two years, perhaps making up for the four years he was away by reason of term limits.

One important bill that was advanced from general file was L.B. 634, introduced by Senator Al Davis of Hyannis that would direct the Nebraska Forest Service to contract with private aviation companies to place two single engine air tankers at airport sites near Chadron and Valentine during the fire season to fight fires. The bill further provides for:

• thinning of forests to reduce the likelihood of fires and reduce fuel loads to reduce risk to residents, property and firefighters,
• providing expanded training programs for volunteer firefighters, private landowners and communities in order to increase fire suppression effectiveness and safety,
• Developing a Nebraska-based incident management team to serve as a resource to help manage large wildfire operations,
• expanding the federal excess property programs managed by the Nebraska Forest Management Service to convert additional surplus military fire fighting equipment for use by volunteer firefighters; and,
• rehabilitation of forest lands that have been destroyed by wildfires.

It is my own thought that the likelihood of fires throughout the state is probably the highest this year than it has been since the 1930′s. The risk is probably well beyond the 1930′s within District 36 and west for the reason that pasture areas have an accumulation of red cedar trees that gets worse annually.

Another bill of interest to livestock producers is L.B. 423 of the Agriculture Committee which would change the seizure provisions of the Livestock Animal Welfare Act to allow certain animals to be euthanized by law enforcement officers if the animal is in extreme suffering or injured, disabled, or diseased past recovery for useful purpose. Law enforcement would be held to make reasonable accommodation of an owner’s request that a veterinarian of the owner’s choosing be present during examination and assessment of animals, but that attempts to accommodate such request shall not delay necessary euthanization for more than 24 hours.  

Your input will be very important to me especially since this year’s session will develop the state’s budget for the next two years in addition to all of the other issues that impact you as a citizen of the State of Nebraska. I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address these issues and many others. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capital, District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402) 471-2642. My email address is jwightman@leg.ne.gov.

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Capital Comments

Senator John Wightman

District 36

Prolonged debate has slowed Legislative action on the floor this week. The first two legislative days of this week were totally taken up by two bills, L.B. 21, a bill by Senator Lathrop of Omaha to continue allowing volunteer fire fighters to be paid for mental disability caused by horrific situations under worker compensation, and L.B. 52, a bill introduced by Senator Mark Christensen of Imperial which would allow prisoners at a work camp in McCook, Nebraska, to be employed by charitable fraternal and or nonprofit corporations.  Current law does not authorize their employment by such organizations.

The objection to L.B. 21 was brought by Senator Lautenbaugh of Omaha who has introduced a bill similar in content to L.B. 21, but which would have reduced the interest rates on unpaid workers compensation awards from 14% to the flexible rate allowed on other types of unpaid judgments which currently is between 2 and 3 percent.  Senator Lautenbaughs bill has not yet had a public hearing and so the longstanding rule of procedure that every bill must have a public hearing prevailed and the amendment failed.

On Wednesday we spent three hours on a filibuster by Senator Chambers of L. B. 52 on the basis that allowing charitable entities to use prisoner labor, even though the prisoners would be working on a voluntary basis, was totally unfair and would be used racially to exploit minorities. Although L.B. 21 passed on to final reading, L.B. 52 is still subject to at least two hours of further debate another day.

The Legislature has slowed down the Governor’s controversial Tax Reform Legislation.  The Revenue Committee, at the Governor’s request, has indefinitely postponed his tax reform bills, L.B. 405 and L.B. 406.  On Tuesday the Executive Board conducted a public hearing on Senator Schumacher’s bill, L.B. 613 which would establish the Tax Modernization Commission, the purpose of which is to continually review and recommend updates to Nebraska’s tax code in response to changing economies.  As introduced the commission would be comprised of the Speaker of the Legislature and several legislative committee chair and vice chairs.  Ex-officio members would include the Legislature’s Fiscal Analyst, tax experts from the University of Nebraska, and the Tax Commissioner and Property Tax Administrator from the Department of Revenue.  At least one meeting of the Commission is to be with the Legislative Council. An amendment being discussed will likely change the membership of this Commission.

Senator Hadley, Chair of the Revenue Committee, testified at the hearing and expressed his position that the Revenue Committee must be fully involved in the study of the current tax structure in Committee.  The concept is to include all the members of the Revenue Committee instead of just the Chair and Vice Chair and add the chairs of other key committees such as Appropriations Education, Health, and Planning.   It appears unlikely that any major tax reform legislation will be passed this session.

Among issues the commission would consider as it evaluates the current tax code are fairness, competitiveness, simplicity and compliance, stability, adequacy, and complementary tax systems.  It could also identify other areas of concern that may require additional in-depth analysis and study.

The commission is to provide a preliminary report to the Legislature and Governor by December 15, 2013 and a final report would be due by November 15, 2014.  The Commission would continue to meet at least once per year to review and evaluate the tax system

Your input will be very important to me especially since this year’s session will develop the state’s budget for the next two years in addition to all of the other issues that impact upon you as a citizen of the State of Nebraska.    I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address these issues and many others.  Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capitol District36, Box94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402)471-2642 .My e-mailaddress is jwightman@leg.ne.gov.

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Capital Comments

Senator John Wightman

District 36

As the Legislature nears the twenty five percent mark of its current 90 day session, we have still not gotten many major bills to the floor of the Legislature. Probably the most debated bill to date has been L.B. 125, which is the bill to change the number of board members on the Omaha School Board from twelve to nine. It has no effect on out state Nebraska, but was quite important to Omaha residents.

Probably the most important bills that will come before the Legislature this year are L.B. 405 and L.B. 406, introduced by the Governor, which would eliminate or reduce the state income tax and remove many sales tax exemptions. The first bill, L.B. 405 was heard on Wednesday. L.B. 406 to be heard on Thursday by the Revenue Committee.

The hearing on L.B. 405 in the Revenue Committee lasted for approximately nine hours on Wednesday afternoon with far more opponents than proponents. This would be the most controversial bill as far as taxpayers are concerned throughout the State of Nebraska. There is not an adult person in the state whose tax liability would not be substantially affected by the passage of this bill. If passed in its current form it would eliminate the state income tax but raise the state sales tax revenues mostly by elimination of the exemptions on the sales of farm equipment, seed and many other farm production costs as will as most other non-farm equipment and component parts in the manufacturing industry. The total raised is about 2.3 billion dollars, which is currently the amount raised by the state’s personal and corporate income taxes. From my discussion on the bill with some of the members of the Revenue Committee, I believe it most unlikely that L.B. 405 will get out of committee in its present form.

Legislative L.B. 406 is considerably less of a change in the current tax system. This bill will eliminate exemptions from the sales tax to raise $395 million in revenues. Included are repeal of the exemptions from the sales taxes for seed, ag chemicals, energy used in ag and energy and molds used in industry. Subjecting these items and four other categories of exemptions to the sales tax would fund the elimination of the corporate income tax and exempt from income taxes the first $12,000 of retirement income for married couples and $6,000 for single individuals. Both bills continue the exemption of food from the sales tax.

The Governor’s initiative to change the tax system will continue, even if the two bills do not advance in their current forms. I will be present in Lexington on Saturday, February 9^th at the Grand Generation Center at the “Eggs and Issues Forum” hosted by the Lexington, Gothenburg and Cozad Chambers of Commerce. where I will discuss these bills. The forum starts at 8:30 am and I hope that many of you will be present.

Your input will be very important to me especially since this year’s session will develop the state’s budget for the next two years in addition to all of the other issues that impact upon you as a citizen of the State of Nebraska. I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address

 these issues and many others. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State

 Capitol District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE68509.  

My phone number is(402)471-2642.  My e-mail address is jwightman@leg.ne.gov.

The Nebraska Unicameral will have to wait an extra week for its session to close. Although the final date had originally been set

for Thursday, April 12,^th it has been postponed until April 18^th. The delay is in response to a promised veto by Governor Heineman of least one bill considered on Wednesday and a bill considered last week and that has already been vetoed. It will take at least 30 votes votes to override a Governor’s veto. Those are bills are:

• L.B. 599 to provide prenatal care benefits to unborn children of undocumented mothers or illegal aliens was discussed last week. These babies, when born will be United States citizen, entitled to all health care benefits of other citizens of this country. I have supported this bill because I believe it will save lives and the state money in the final analysis. On Wednesday, the bill passed on final reading with 31 ayes and 15 nays.
• The second bill that the Governor vetoed on Wednesday was L.B. 956, which authorizes a municipality, in limited situations, to increase the local sales tax by an additional one half to a two percent maximum. The additional tax may be used only to fund infrastructure. It only can be placed on the ballot after the affirmative vote of 2/3 of the city council and then it will require approval by a majority of the voters in the municipality. I have supported this bill because I believe the elected officials and citizens of a municipality should have the control and power to develop necessary improvements to the infrastructure of their community. The bill passed on final reading with 30 ayes and 15 nays and faces a very close vote on a veto override.

Another bill that is of interest to me is L.B. 14, primarily since I have introduced a similar bill twice previously only to see it fail to be advanced out of committee in one year and fail to be advanced to select file in another year. This bill increases the cost of filing documents with the Office of Register of Deeds. The charge was last increased in 1984, more than a quarter of a century ago. While some argue that this constitutes a tax increase, it is my view that it is a user fee for services provided by the county. If these fees are never increased to keep up with inflation the only way to continue to provide such services is to increase property taxes on everyone in the county whether they use the service or not. L.B. 14 passed on final reading on a vote of 39 ayes, 9 nays.

Also the Governor has signed into law L.B. 996, which closes an exception to our compulsory education age of 18. As discussed in more detail previously, instead of the parent simply signing a form for allowing his or her child to drop out of school at the age of sixteen an exit conference is required. The person with actual or legal control of the child must convene an exit conference where:

• The adverse impact on the child’s future earning capacity is discussed,
• Alternative educational programs, including vocational educations programs that are available for the child at the public school, are offered; and,
• The person in legal or actual control must document that the child needs to drop out of school to support his or her family, or dependents or that an illness makes attendance impossible or impracticable.

At the conclusion of the conference, if the person in control of the child decides to go ahead, and if the school superintendent or his or her designee finds that sufficient evidence has been presented under law to allow the child to drop out, the child will be able to drop out. Then the person in legal or actual control and the child must sign the application documenting the withdrawal from high school.

The goals of this conference is to provide one last chance for the parent or guardian to consider the adverse impact on the child if he or she drops out of school and also to increase the graduation rate from K-12 schools. A high school diploma has become a necessity in our increasingly high technology world for a child to earn a living wage.

I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address the final day of the Legislature and possible overrides of the Governor’s vetoes. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capital, District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402) 471-2642. My email address is jwightman@leg.ne.gov.

By the time you read these comments, the Unicameral will have only three working days left in the current legislative session. Whether the final day will be Thursday, April 12 or a later date still remains to be seen. The uncertainty results from the fact that the Governor has five days following a bill’s approval on final reading to veto a bill. In order to respond to a gubernatorial veto, the Legislature may postpone the final day for up to five days. Governor Heineman has been very cooperative with the Legislature in informing us of what bills he is likely to veto and deliver vetoes as soon as reasonably possible after the bill reaches his desk.

During this week the legislature passed two resolutions that will allow you, as voters, to determine whether the state senator’s pay should increased to $22,500 from $12,000 annually and whether to expand legislative terms from two four year terms to three four year terms. From my personal experience serving in the Unicameral, I believe both measures merit your vote.

This week the Legislature has faced very difficult issues and debated the issues late into the night. The most controversial issue has been L.B. 599, introduced by Senator Campbell, that would provide health care services for certain unborn children as prescribed pursuant to the Medical Assistance Act. While Governor has taken a strong position in opposition, the Legislature advanced the L.B. 599 for the following reasons:

• First of all, the child, at birth will be a United States citizen and resident of the state.
• Prenatal services will save the state money rather than cost the state money:
  • Every $1 spent on prenatal care can save between $2.57 and $3.38 in later costs by avoiding premature and low birth weight babies, preventable birth defects, and difficult births.
  • Costs of a complicated birth range from $20,000 to $400,000 per baby, compared to about $6,400 for a “normal” uncomplicated delivery.
• Prenatal care helps avoid longer term and more expensive cost to Nebraska tax payers. The care is provided to the unborn child and the child will be eligible for the State and Federal medical services plan that will pay for the health needs that the child will face when they are born.
• Special education services and costs in the K-12 school system and the health care system costs are increased by premature babies who often struggle with physical, cognitive, and developmental challenges throughout their lives. To keep the state’s costs down, the root cause of the problems must be addressed.
• The unborn child, rather than the pregnant woman is the recipient of the services.

• The State of Nebraska can use federal funds to address a problem that has been created by a failed federal immigration system. The federal contribution for providing services to the unborn child is over 69% of the cost.

• The services are provided to the unborn child , who as long as the mother is on U.S. soil, is a citizen. L.B. 559 has the strong support of pro-life advocates.

• While it has been argued by some that large number of illegal immigrants will pour into Nebraska for the sole purpose of being eligible for this program, the following states currently provide unborn child coverage: Arkansas, California, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin. New York, and New Jersey. Why pass through California, or Texas and Oklahoma to get to Nebraska?

• Rejection of L.B. 599 would do little to impact the illegal immigration problem, but passing it will save both lives and taxpayer dollars.

I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address these issues and many more. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capital, District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402) 471-2642. My email address is jwhightman@leg.ne.gov.

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Only eight working days remain in this years legislative session and the pressure is on to finish our business. This past week in the Unicameral has been spent working late into the evenings dealing with controversial issues such as, Senator Janssen’s L.B. 239 that would require the presentation of government issued photographic identification to vote in elections, L.B. 996 to change provisions relating to compulsory attendance at K-12 schools, and L.B. 1161 to continue Nebraska’s independent review and public meeting process to review the environmental impact of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline through Nebraska.

A filibuster halted legislation that would have required voters to show a photo ID in order to vote. The issue that has generated the largest number of letters and email this session to my office is Senator Janssen’s L.B. 239 on voter identification. As of March 28^th, 382 email were sent in support of L.B. 239 and 269 emails were sent in opposition with many of the emails both pro and con containing multiple signers. Supporters argued that the bill would protect the integrity and the reliability of elections, Opponents argued that no evidence of voter fraud existed in Nebraska, and the requirement would disenfranchise some voters, such as the poor, the elderly and minorities who do not have a driver’s license or other photo ID authorized by L.B. 239.

Senator Jannsen’s countered these arguments with provisions that provided for alternative forms of IDs and argued that the provisional ballot process allows the voter’s identity to be verified . Debate on Senator Janssen’s L.B. 239 began at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday and was debated until 10:00 p.m. that night. Debate started again on Wednesday until almost 11:00 a.m. A vote for “Cloture” that, under the rules of the Legislature, would stop the filibuster and allow a vote on the bill itself received 30 votes. Under our legislative rules 33 votes are required which means that L.B. 239 will not be on the agenda again in the final eight working days of the legislature. I voted for cloture so that a vote could have been taken on the merits of the bill.

L.B. 996 that changes provisions relating to compulsory education at K-12 schools, that I introduced and which Senator Seiler of Hasting selected as a priority bill, advanced to the last stage of debate, or final reading, on Wednesday morning. Under current law a student who is at least 16 years of age and less than 18 year of age can with -draw from school if the parent or guardian simply signs a notarized statement expressing their consent. This makes it easy to avoid Nebraska’s law that requires children to attend school until they graduate or reach the age of 18.

• L.B. 996 is designed to fully inform parents and children about the impact of dropping out of school on the child’s future earning power, greater likelihood of the child being unemployed, and about alternative education programs or vocational training available to the child in the school district, before the parents decide to allow the child to drop out.
• The bill requires this information to be discussed at a exit conference attended by a parent or guardian, the child and the superintendent or his or her designee, which can be a counselor.
• The parent can withdraw the child from the K-12 school if the child will be withdrawing due to either a financial hardship requiring the child to be employed to support the child’s family or his or her dependents, or an illness of the child making school attendance impossible or impracticable.

With the passage of L.B. 966 I believe Nebraska law will send a clear message to parents and children that children should stay in school and graduate. There is overwhelming evidence that a high school diploma is vital to the child’s future earnings power and for the state to have an educated work force.

On Thursday morning, the Legislature debated and advanced L.B. 1161 by Senator Smith of Papillion, that would provide for study and evaluation of proposed routes for oil pipelines. LB 1161 primarily provides a mechanism for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality to continue its pipeline route evaluation and extensive public meeting process that was authorized in LB 4, passed last fall during the 2011 special session. This change was necessary because a new application for an alternative proposed route of the Keystone XL pipeline though Nebraska has been filed after the first application was denied. The bill advanced on a 35 to 2 vote.

I look forward to receiving your input and the voicing of your concerns as we address these issues and many more. Please contact me at my Lincoln office in the State Capital, District 36, Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509. My phone number is (402) 471-2642. My email address is jwhightman@leg.ne.gov.