Legislative Updates

The One Hundred Third Legislature, Second Session, began on Wednesday, January 8 and got right down to work. This is considered the short session of the Legislature, lasting 60 days, and is tentatively scheduled to adjourn on April 17. …

The One Hundred Third Legislature, First Session has adjourned sine die. We passed approximately 200 bills. Three-fifths of the bills that were designated as individual senator priority bills were passed, along with 26 of the 30 committee priority bills and 20 of the 25 speaker priority bills. …

This past week, the Legislature discussed the line-item vetoes made by the Governor on the budget bills. His vetoes amounted to approximately $44 million in federal, state, and cash funds over the next two years. …

The Legislature gave final approval to the budget bills this past week. Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Governor will decide whether to sign the bills or use his line-item veto authority. …

Debate on the budget bills consumed most of this past week for the Legislature. The mainline budget bill, which contains the appropriations for the expenses of the Nebraska State Government over the next biennium, warranted the most discussion. …

According to the legislative rules, the Appropriations Committee must place appropriations bills on General File by the 70th day in a 90-day session or the Legislature reverts to the Governor’s budget proposal. …

The Legislature gave first-round approval this past week to a bill that overhauls the juvenile justice system in our state. The intent of LB 561, introduced by Senator Brad Ashford of Omaha, and prioritized by the Judiciary Committee, is to keep more kids out of the judicial system and in effective…

Legislation increasing the annual cost of a park permit from $20 to $25 was passed two years ago. This year, LB 362 was introduced by Lincoln Senator Bill Avery. It proposes to eliminate the park entry permit for residents and replace it with a $7 registration fee on most motor vehicles. …

The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the federal government requires citizens to have health insurance or be subject to a penalty. As passed, the ACA required states to expand their Medicaid program to include adults between 19-65 years of age with incomes up to 138% of the federal…

Cities are allowed to impose a local option sales tax on their communities. As of last year, approximately 200 communities had authorized a local option sales tax rate of up to 1.5 percent. This is on top of the state sales tax rate of 5.5 percent. …