LB744

January 20 was the 10th day of the legislative session, which was the final day for bill introduction. In total, 446 bills and 8 constitutional amendments were introduced by senators and committees.

Supreme Court Chief Justice, Mike Heavican, presented his State of the Judiciary address to state senators this past week. He reviewed the work of the Office of Public Guardian, which was created by the Legislature in 2014 to improve the services provided to vulnerable adults in need of guardianships or conservatorships. He touched on the Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative, which focuses on education for judges, guardians ad litem, lawyers, HHS employees and community volunteers. The Chief Justice gave an overview of juvenile justice reform efforts, explaining that with the passage of legislation two years ago, children no longer have to become state wards to access services. He noted a significant increase in the number of children placed on probation and receiving services to reduce recidivism and likewise, a 7.6% decline in out-of-home placements in the past 6 months.

            February 19th marked the deadline for priority bill designations. Every senator is allowed to designate one bill as their personal priority bill. Committees are allowed to designate two bills and the Speaker of the Legislature is allowed to designate up to 25 bills as speaker priority bills. Typically, after the deadline date, bills that have not been designated as priorities do not stand a good chance of being debated, unless they are non-controversial and are chosen for consent calendar.

            I chose LB 744 as my priority bill. It recognizes communication and contact agreements to permit continuing communication and contact after the placement of an adoptee between the birth parents and the adoptive parents in private and agency adoptions. However, the law would make it clear that the existence of, or the failure to comply with such agreements, does not affect the adoption decree, the relinquishment of parental rights, or the written consent to adoption.

            The budget bills were given second-round and final approval this past week. Governor Ricketts now has 5 days (excluding Sunday) to decide whether he’ll use his line-item veto authority to strike specific budget appropriations from the package. His vetoes are due to the Legislature by midnight on Wednesday, March 30. The budget passed by the Legislature did not differ markedly from what the governor recommended.

            My priority bill, LB 744, received first-round approval this past week on a 42-0 vote. Under LB 744, open adoptions would be recognized in state statute, allowing for future communication or contact between birth parents and adoptive parents in private and agency adoptions. However, the law would make it clear that the failure to comply with such an agreement would not affect the validity of the adoption. A recent Nebraska Supreme Court decision stated that until the Legislature acts to approve of these open adoption arrangements in a private adoption context, they will not recognize them and will instead continue to hold that relinquishments signed with the promise of such an open adoption are invalid.     

            The Legislature completed Day 59 of this 60-day legislative session on Wednesday, April 13, when the remainder of the pending bills were read on Final Reading and sent to the governor. The governor has 5 days, excluding Sunday, to decide whether to sign or veto the legislation. Senators won’t meet for the last day until Wednesday, April 20, thereby allowing for the consideration of overriding any veto that might be made by the governor.

            The Legislature passed LB 958 and LB 959, bills that were aimed at providing property tax relief. LB 958 increases the annual funding for the Property Tax Credit program by $20 million, with the additional funding distributed to agricultural landowners. This will be accomplished by valuing agricultural land at 90%, rather than 75%, of market value for purposes of calculating the property tax credit program. LB 959 eliminates the minimum levy adjustment which reduces state aid to districts with levies less than $0.95, removes the levy criteria from the averaging adjustment calculation and reduces the special levy school districts can use to address health, safety and accessibility problems in school buildings. This bill is projected to increase state aid to primarily rural school districts by $8.5 million.