The 2021 legislative session begins this week. Beginning January 6 State Senators will have ten working days to introduce bills. Among the many hot topics that will surface in the Legislature this year, three of them will be sure to get a lot of attention. So, this week I would like to share what I believe will be the three most controversial issues that the Legislature will have to wrestle with this year.

The hottest topic could be police reform. Proponents of police reform will most certainly assert their agendas through willing accomplices in the State Legislature, and their agendas will range from defunding the State Patrol to forming citizen oversight committees for police officers. While no one I know condones police brutality, I believe our men and women in blue need to be supported by State lawmakers. We are a nation of laws, and those laws need to be upheld by our law enforcement officers with the backing of the State.

Another hot topic will be prison reform. The Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which has been controlled by Democrats for several years now, has failed to reform Nebraska’s corrections system. One of the biggest problems is recidivism or repeat offenders. Last week Scott Frakes, who is the Nebraska Department of Corrections Director, stated on KLIN radio in Lincoln that Nebraska needs to build another correctional facility. Building prisons costs money – a lot of money. Some Senators believe the solution to our corrections system is to reduce the lengths of prison sentences, enact more house arrests, or refrain from sentencing altogether. However, simple common sense says that if you don’t break the law, you will never go to prison.

The third hot topic of the year will be COVID-19. While COVID-19 presents a valid threat to the health and well-being of our citizens, living in undue fear of the disease has also wreaked havoc on our society. The first COVID-19 related issue that will surface in the Legislature will be whether or not to recess after we start and restart the legislative session later in the year when the number of infections has subsided, more people have been vaccinated, and our hospitals have more bed space. For instance, the hearing rooms at the State Capitol Building, where public hearings on bills take place will be limited to 25 percent of their room’s capacity until the mayor of Lincoln decides to loosen her directive health measures. Regardless of the mayor’s directive health measures, I believe it is in the best interest of the State for the legislative session to proceed as scheduled.

Nebraskans can no longer afford to continue living in a constant state of fear of COVID-19. The directive health measures instituted in Nebraska have already caused one out of every six small businesses in our state to fail. Moreover, there is nothing in the Nebraska State Constitution nor is there anything in the Nebraska State Statutes which defines who our essential workers are. Consequently, a cogent argument can be made that all workers are essential until otherwise defined in our Constitution or by law. As I read the Declaration of Independence, all men are endowed by their Creator with a fundamental right to pursue happiness. In 1905 the U.S. Supreme Court said in the case of Jacobson v. Massachusetts that governments may only “reasonably restrict” these rights during times of a health crisis. After 10 months of lockdowns and the recent availability of vaccines, I believe that period of reasonable restriction has come to an end.

Finally, regardless of these three hot topics for the 2021 legislative session, my number one priority will continue to be property tax relief. Many Nebraskans are beginning to figure out by now that last year’s property tax relief bill, LB 1107, failed to deliver significant and meaningful property tax relief. It was nothing more than a decrease in the increase of each taxpayer’s tax burden. Therefore, I will continue to fight for real property tax relief for all Nebraskans.