MARGERY A. BECK

State Sen. Terrell McKinney works on the legislative floor of the Nebraska State Capitol during the 108th Legislature 1st Special Session Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)

In Nebraska special session on taxes, some ideas to raise millions in revenue get little attention

Nebraska lawmakers have begun debate on a special session bill to ease soaring property taxes. The relief would come largely through mid-year budget cuts, caps on school and local government spending and shifts to sales and so-called sin taxes.

Mankato West High School's football state championship wins are painted on a storage room near the football field, beginning with the 1999 win while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was on the coaching staff in Mankato, Minn., Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Nicole Neri)

Former students and colleagues recall high school teachers Tim and Gwen Walz as allies and advocates

When Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, she highlighted his service as a congressman, soldier, teacher and coach. But she also mentioned his support for gay students at Mankato West High School.

FILE - Nebraska Governor-elect Jim Pillen answers a question while taking part in a panel discussion, Nov. 16, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

How Nebraska’s special legislative session on taxes came about and what to expect

Nebraska lawmakers have introduced more than 100 proposals aimed at easing soaring property tax bills in the state.

FILE - T.J. King, who is an outreach specialist with the Nebraska AIDS Project, is photographed in their office on Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska has filed a lawsuit challenging top election officials' defiance of state laws that restore the voting rights of those who've ever been convicted of a felony. One plaintiff, T.J. King of Omaha, had planned to register as a Democrat and vote in this year's presidential election after finishing probation in 2022 following a prison term for drug and theft convictions. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)

Lawsuit targets Nebraska’s defiance of law to restore voting rights to those with felony convictions

The American Civil Liberties Union of Nebraska is suing top election officials’ defiance of state laws that restore the voting rights of those who’ve ever been convicted of a felony.

FILE - Protesters chant as they are heard in the legislative chamber during a final reading on a bill that combined a 12-week abortion ban with a measure to restrict gender-affirming care for people under 19, May 16, 2023, at state Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. A Nebraska law that combined abortion restrictions with another measure to limit gender-affirming health care for minors does not violate a state constitutional amendment requiring bills to stick to a single subject, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled Friday, July 26, 2024.(Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP)

Nebraska Supreme Court upholds law restricting both medical care for transgender youth and abortion

The Nebraska Supreme Court has upheld a law restricting access to both medical care for transgender youth and abortion.

FILE - Nebraska Sen. Danielle Conrad, of Lincoln, speaks during debate, April 7, 2014, in Lincoln, Neb. Conrad said Thursday, July 25, 2024, that the governor's tax plan is "dead on arrival." (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Nebraska Legislature convenes for a special session to ease property taxes, but with no solid plan

Nebraska lawmakers have kicked off a special legislative session called by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen with a directive to slash soaring property taxes in half. But there appears to be no consensus among legislators on how to do that.

FILE - Nebraska Governor-elect Jim Pillen answers a question while taking part in a panel discussion, Nov. 16, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

Nebraska governor issues a proclamation for a special session to address property taxes

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has issued a long-awaited proclamation to call a special legislative session to address soaring property taxes.

FILE - Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen delivers his State of the State address, Jan. 25, 2023, at the the state Capitol in Lincoln, Neb. On Thursday, July 18, 2024, Pillen announced a far-reaching tax plan for an upcoming special legislative session that would cut property taxes on average in half — including his own home and family farm in eastern Nebraska valued at more than $6 million that would see its property tax bill drop about 47%. (Anna Reed/Omaha World-Herald via AP, File)

Nebraska governor seeks shift to sales taxes to ease high property taxes. Not everyone is on board

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has announced a broad tax plan for an upcoming special legislative session billed to cut property taxes in half.

FILE - Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers speaks with reporters outside the Supreme Court on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 28, 2023. Thousands of Nebraskans with felony convictions could be denied voting rights under an opinion from Hilgers released Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Nebraskans with felony convictions could be denied voting rights under attorney general’s opinion

Thousands of Nebraskans with felony convictions could be denied voting rights under an opinion from the state attorney general.

Organizers load boxes of signed petitions seeking to get a measure on the November ballot that would repeal a new Nebraska law providing taxpayer money for private school tuition, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Lincoln, Neb. Support Our Schools organizers say they turned in more than 86,000 signatures to the Nebraska Secretary of State's office. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)

Ample signatures collected for referendum to repeal private school funding law, organizers say

Public school advocates say they have collected enough signatures to ask Nebraska voters in November to repeal a private school tuition funding law.

FILE - Nebraska Gov.-elect Jim Pillen answers a question while taking part in a panel discussion during a Republican Governors Association conference, Nov. 16, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. A Nebraska state employees union is considering an appeal after a commission sided with the state's Republican governor in ordering state employees to return to their offices. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)

Commission backs Nebraska governor’s return-to-office order

A Nebraska state employees union is considering an appeal after seeing its challenge to Gov. Jim Pillen’s return-to-office order dismissed.

People cool off in misters along the Las Vegas Strip, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Las Vegas. A heat wave is spreading across the Western U.S., the National Weather Service said, sending many residents in search of a cool haven from the dangerously high temperatures. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Persistent heat wave in the US shatters new records, causes deaths in the West and grips the East

A visitor to Death Valley National Park has died from heat exposure and another person has been hospitalized as the temperature there reached 128 degrees this weekend.

FILE - Hundreds of people gather at the Nebraska Capitol to protest against a proposed abortion ban, in Lincoln, on May 16, 2023. Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access are looking to gather enough signatures before the early July 2024, deadline to make the November ballot. (AP Photo/Margery Beck, File)

Some Nebraskans say misleading words led them to sign petitions on abortion they don’t support

Organizers of competing petition efforts seeking to squelch or expand abortion access in Nebraska are looking to gather enough signatures before this week’s deadline to make the November ballot.

Floodwater continues to carve a channel around the Rapidan Dam, Thursday, June 27, 2024, near Mankato, Minn. Water breached the earthen abutment early Monday morning and rapidly eroded the west bank of the Blue Earth River. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)

Severe weather wreaks havoc across the US — from Midwest flooding to deadly Northeast storms

Severe weather over days has caused havoc and destruction across the U.S. That includes torrential rains and flooding in the Upper Midwest and powerful storms in the Northeast that left a least two people dead from falling trees.

FILE - Nebraska State Sen. Mike McDonnell of Omaha is shown in the Legislative Chamber in Lincoln, Neb., March 1, 2019. Republican Gov. Jim Pillen is calling a special legislative session next month to address property tax relief, during which he also hopes to change Nebraska back to a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes, a change that McDonnell says he doesn't support. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Could Nebraska lawmakers seek winner-take-all elections in a special session to address taxes?

Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen says he’ll call lawmakers back for a special session next month to address property tax relief.

Rick Satterwhite, 62, eyes rising water from the Missouri River as it creeps closer to the house where he grandchildren live in South Sioux City, Neb., on Monday, June 24, 2024. Satterwhite says he's planning to get flood insurance for his own house also located by the river in nearby Dakota City, Nebraska, after floodwaters came within feet of his home this week. (AP Photo/Margery Beck)

Few have flood insurance to help recover from devastating Midwest storms

Many Midwestern homeowners hit by bad flooding this week do not have flood insurance. Data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency shows that the government has issued only about 26,500 policies across Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota.

Onlookers take in the catastrophic damage to the Rapidan Dam site in Rapidan, Minn., Monday, June 24, 2024. Debris blocked the dam forcing the heavily backed up waters of the Blue Earth River to reroute along the bank nearest the Dam Store. (Casey Ek/The Free Press via AP)

Iowa floodwaters breach levees as even more rain dumps onto parts of the Midwest

Severe storms with tornado warnings brought hail and heavy rain to parts of the Midwest as floodwaters breached levees in Iowa, creating dangerous conditions that prompted evacuations.

A railroad bridge connecting North Sioux City, S.D., with Sioux City, Iowa, is seen partially collapsed into the Big Sioux River due to flooding on Monday, June 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Margery A. Beck)

Midwestern flooding collapses a bridge, forces evacuations and kills at least 2

Flooding in the Midwestern U.S. has collapsed a railroad bridge and sent water surging around a dam after days of heavy rains that have forced hundreds of people to evacuate or be rescued.

FILE - Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel looks to the crowd during a Veterans Days observance at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the 40th anniversary of its dedication in Washington, Nov. 11, 2022. Hagel is co-chairman of the Veterans Justice Commission, which provided the model for a new Nebraska law that makes judicial diversion available statewide to help keep military veterans out of jail. The commission estimates that nearly 200,000 military veterans are in prisons and jails across the country. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

A new Nebraska law makes court diversion program available to veterans. Other states could follow

Those seeking to keep military veterans out of jails and prisons are shining a spotlight on a new Nebraska law that makes judicial diversion available to veterans statewide.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach participates in a ceremony honoring fallen law enforcement officers at the Statehouse, May 3, 2024, in Topeka, Kan. Kobach's office is accusing two Florida residents of forging signatures on petitions to allow the No Labels part to put its candidates on the ballot, and the two also are accused of doing the same in Florida during an effort to get an abortion rights measure on the ballot there. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Florida and Kansas are accusing 2 people of forging signatures for petition drives

Florida and Kansas officials are accusing two petition circulators of forging voter signatures during campaigns to put an abortion rights measure to a vote in Florida and allow the No Labels party to put candidates on the Kansas ballot.

FILE - Douglas County, Kan., Clerk Jamie Shew discusses the operations of voting drop boxes while giving a tour of his office's warehouse in Lawrence, Kan., March 21, 2022. In the wake of a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that finds voting is not a fundamental right under the state's Bill of Rights, Shew says constant changes in election law are confusing not only to election officials, but to voters. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that voting is not a fundamental right. What’s next for voters?

A split Kansas Supreme Court ruling last week found that voting is not a fundamental right listed in the state Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

FILE - Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach speaks during a news conference, Thursday, March 28, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. The Kansas Supreme Court's majority has held that there is no state constitutional right to vote in the state. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)

Kansas Constitution does not include a right to vote, state Supreme Court majority says

The Kansas Supreme Court’s majority has held that there is no state constitutional right to vote in the state. The assertion came in the court’s opinion on a ballot signature verification measure in a 2021 election law.

Kristie Pereira and her dog Beau pose for a photo in Laurel, Md., in January 2023. Pereira is seeking answers after the sick dog she took to a shelter to have euthanized turned up more than a year later on a rescue adoption site. (Kristie Pereira via AP)

A woman took her dog to a shelter to be euthanized. A year later, the dog is up for adoption again.

A woman is seeking answers after the sick dog she took to a shelter to have euthanized turned up more than a year later on a rescue adoption site.

Megan Red Shirt-Shaw speaks at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois, on Jan. 17, 2023. Two University of South Dakota faculty members, Megan Red Shirt-Shaw and her husband, John Little, have long included their gender pronouns and tribal affiliations in their work email signature blocks. But both received written warnings from the university in March that doing so violated a policy adopted by the South Dakota Board of Regents in December. (Ryan Pagelow/Dominican University via AP)

Pronouns and tribal affiliations are now forbidden in South Dakota public university employee emails

A new South Dakota Board of Regents policy keeps employees from including their gender pronouns in school email signatures and other correspondence. That was adopted after Gov. Kristi Noem railed against “liberal ideologies” on college campuses.

Local residents clean up debris from a tornado damaged home, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Greenfield, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

More bad weather could hit Iowa, where 3 powerful tornadoes caused millions in damage

The National Weather Service says three separate powerful tornados carved up long paths across Iowa. One twister killed four people as it tore through the small city of Greenfield, Iowa.

Local residents hug in front of their tornado damaged home, Wednesday, May 22, 2024, in Greenfield, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

5 dead and at least 35 hurt as tornadoes ripped through Iowa, officials say

Officials say five people died and at least 35 were hurt as powerful tornadoes ripped through Iowa, with one carving a path of destruction through the small city of Greenfield.

A man sorts through the remains of a home damaged by a tornado Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Greenfield, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Tornado devastates Iowa town, killing multiple people as powerful storms rip through Midwest

Multiple people have died and at least a dozen were injured since a powerful tornado tore through a small Iowa town, carving a bleak landscape of destroyed homes and businesses, shredded trees, smashed cars, and widely strewn debris.

FILE - John Heineman delivers a box of petition signatures from Support Our Schools Nebraska to the Nebraska Secretary of State, Aug. 30, 2023, in Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen announced Thursday, May 16, 2024, that a measure to repeal a now-defunct law passed last year that would use public money to fund private school tuition has been pulled from Nebraska’s November ballot. (Justin Wan/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)

Repeal of a dead law to use public funds for private school tuition won’t be on Nebraska’s ballot

A measure to repeal a now-defunct Nebraska law that would use public money to fund private school tuition has been pulled from the November ballot.

FILE - U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a Republican moderate, speaks following a closed-door GOP meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Oct. 16, 2023. In one of the most closely watched congressional races of the year, Bacon is looking to defeat a fellow Republican in the primary election, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in his quest to hold on to his House seat. He'll have to do it without the support of the state Republican Party, which has endorsed his primary challenger. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

The Nebraska GOP is rejecting all Republican congressional incumbents in Tuesday’s primary election

The Nebraska Republican Party has refused to endorse all five Republican congressional incumbents in Tuesday’s primary election. And it has endorsed the Republican challengers of U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and Reps. Don Bacon and Adrian Smith.

FILE - Motor vehicle traffic moves along the Interstate 76 highway in Philadelphia, March 31, 2021. Dozens of Republican attorneys general on Monday, May 13, 2024, took legal action against the Biden Administration and California over new emissions limits for trucks. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

GOP attorneys general sue Biden administration and California over rules on gas-powered trucks

Dozens of Republican attorneys general are suing the Biden Administration and California over new limits on truck emissions. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers launched the effort against the environmental regulations Monday.