PLAN TO FIX OPS PENSION DEBACLE SHARES PAIN EQUALLY, BUT ENSURES 'SYSTEM IS HEALTHY FOR EVERYONE'

OMAHA - Current Omaha Public Schools retirees and employees would see lower cost-of-living adjustments, newly hired employees would get less generous pensions and the school district would kick in more money annually under a new plan for shoring up the district’s troubled pension fund.

The proposal was hashed out by a working group made up of members of the district’s unions, OPS leaders, retirees and others who spent a year looking for ways to reduce the system’s $800 million-plus shortfall, which was the subject of a World-Herald investigation last year.

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NEBRASKA CORRECTIONS SEEKS TO CONTROL CONTACT BETWEEN EMPLOYEES AND STATE SENATORS

LINCOLN - The Nebraska Department of Corrections is telling employees it will soon issue a policy that will outline how they can communicate with state senators and their staffs, in meetings or hearings.

Some Corrections staff have already been contacted by lawmakers since the session started last week, an email from Corrections Chief of Staff Laura Strimple said. They want information from employees related to legislative initiatives, or they may be asking them to testify at upcoming hearings that begin next week. 

The department's policy is still being developed, but Strimple said that going forward, any requests from senators or their staff should be authorized by Corrections Department administration before employees respond to lawmakers. "In addition, permission must be provided by Director (Scott) Frakes before any staff member testifies on behalf of NDCS," the email said.

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GOV. RICKETTS' STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS

LINCOLN — With extra revenue to spend this year, Gov. Ricketts used his State of the State address to outline his approaches for lowering the state's traditionally high property taxes and reversing the state's workforce shortage. The governor also thanked first responders, state workers and everyday citizens who jumped in to help when Nebraska was swamped by flooding last March. He called it the state's "finest hour."

"When we were faced with the most widespread and costliest natural disaster in state history, Nebraskans responded with heroic grit, determination, resilience and generosity," Ricketts said. Property tax relief, repairing flood damage, improving the state's economy and addressing some deficiencies in social services took center stage in his speech, his sixth State of the State since being elected in 2014.

"I think he hit the mark on all of the top priorities of the state," said State Sen. John Stinner of Gering, who heads the Legislature's budget committee. 

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'LIVES ARE AT RISK': 74 PHONE OUTAGES IN NEBRASKA IN 2019 SPARK CALL FOR INVESTIGATION

LINCOLN - Nebraskans dealt with 74 phone service outages last year, affecting thousands of people, and, in a few cases, limiting their access to 911.Those affected were unable to place or receive phone calls, and in some cases both cellular and landline services were affected.

At least four of the outages resulted in 911 services being limited or down for several hours at a time, according to outage reports from the Nebraska Public Service Commission. Whatever the cause, the Public Service Commission is not required to investigate the service providers that experience outages. “That’s a problem,” according to Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades.

The Public Service Commission is an elected body that, among other things, regulates telephone companies. Rhoades has urged the commission to open an investigation into “preventable outages” caused by CenturyLink contractors. The company reported 41 of the 74 phone outages in 2019.

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IN THE MIDDLE OF MEDICAID EXPANSION PLAN, STATE DIRECTOR CHOOSES TO LEAVE

LINCOLN - State Medicaid and Long Term Care Director Matthew Van Patton will leave his job effective Feb. 7, Department of Health and Human Services CEO Dannette Smith announced Monday. Van Patton has been the Nebraska director nearly two years. Smith said Van Patton is going back to the private sector. When he was hired for the Nebraska job, he was the head of a health care technology startup. 

Gov. Pete Ricketts said his search for the next Medicaid director has started. When asked if it concerned her that Van Patton had chosen to leave in the middle of the expansion process, Smith said he had done an excellent job, but being the Medicaid director, both in Nebraska and nationally, is a tough job. 

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AS 2020 CENSUS NEARS, EFFORTS TO CHANGE NEBRASKA'S REDISTRICTING PROCESS RAMP UP

LINCOLN — Memories of Nebraska’s last redistricting were still raw when state lawmakers started looking for ways to reduce the rancor and partisanship of the process.

Every proposal put forward in the years since then has failed. Most never cleared committee. One passed in 2016 only to be vetoed by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Now, on the eve of the 2021 redistricting, some senators and citizen groups are intensifying efforts to make changes.

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VIDEO: KEY LAWMAKER WANTS TO END TAX 'TRICK'

LINCOLN- According to the head of the powerful Revenue Committee, State Senator Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, by talking about "levies" instead of "taxes" local governments try to 'trick" voters into thinking their property taxes have not gone up when everyone knows they have.

So try this on for size: If local governments raise your taxes Linehan says they’d have to send you a letter making sure you know they’ve raised your taxes. Last year by a vote of 47-to-nothing, state senators passed a bill forcing school boards and city councils to hold a separate public hearing and a separate vote if their budgets increased.

But Linehan is convinced some local governments poked the new law in the eye, so she plans to tighten it up.

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CORPS AGAIN INCREASES DAM RELEASES AS ANOTHER YEAR OF HIGH RIVER LEVELS IS FORECAST

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is moving more aggressively to discharge as much water as possible from its Missouri River dams given the likelihood of continued high runoff.

The corps already has been discharging about twice the normal amount from the dams, and on Tuesday, the agency said it would again boost releases. Discharges from Gavins Point Dam will be set at 30,000 cubic feet per second this week, up 3,000 cfs. Normally during the winter, releases average between 12,000 and 17,000 cfs.

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WATCHDOG GROUP FILES COMPLAINT AGAINST NEBRASKA TREASURER, WHO SAYS CHARGE IS WITHOUT MERIT

LINCOLN — A political watchdog group filed a complaint against Nebraska State Treasurer John Murante on Tuesday, claiming that he failed to disclose a conflict of interest he had with a former employer he hired to produce nearly $600,000 worth of public service advertisements.

But Murante said he had ended his work for the company, Victory Enterprises, before being elected in 2018, and prior to when he hired the company in June to produce and place hundreds of television ads. Thus, there is no conflict, he said.

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LEGISLATURE RETURNS; SPEAKER URGING EARLY DEBATE ON TAX REFORM

LINCOLN - The Legislature launched its 2020 session on Wednesday and may be poised to move into what could be an uncharacteristically swift start.

Speaker Jim Scheer of Norfolk is prepared to schedule early floor debate on two major bills, the Revenue Committee's freshly devised property tax relief proposal and a business expansion tax-incentive package to replace the current Nebraska Advantage Act, which will expire at the end of the year.

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PROPOSED PROPERTY TAX PLAN COULD REQUIRE CUTS AT NEBRASKA'S LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS

LINCOLN — With the start of the 2020 state legislative session on Wednesday, a committee appears to have reached agreement on a proposal to gradually reduce local property taxes.

The plan, drafted mainly by State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, would increase state aid to K-12 education by about $530 million over three years, while seeking to reduce property taxes a like amount by lowering the valuation of property for school tax purposes.

The property tax relief would be delivered mainly through new “foundation aid,” which would send school districts $695 in state aid per student in the first year and increase that to $2,265 by the third year.

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SENATORS READY TO GET THINGS DONE, WANT TO SEE COOPERATION

LINCOLN - Senators are pretty much in agreement the 2020 session will be taken up with property taxes, business tax incentives and what to do with excess tax collections over the past year.

Last year, the long 90-day session ended a few days early, with no resolution on those key issues senators had worked throughout the session to resolve.

They got a warning from Speaker Jim Scheer in those last days about what would happen in a 2020 short session that lasts only 60 days.  

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DON WALTON: 2020 LEGISLATURE, ELECTION, IRAN AND LSU

LINCOLN - New year; new decade; new legislative session. And there's some mystery ahead.

The safest prediction for the 2020 Legislature, which convenes on Wednesday, probably is that not much big is going to happen.

Some incremental reform or progress, perhaps. Lots of defense.

"Holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation," the online dictionary says when you look for the meaning of conservative.

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GOV. PETE RICKETTS AGAIN MAKES PROPERTY TAX RELIEF HIS TOP GOAL FOR NEBRASKA LEGISLATIVE SESSION

LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts once again named property tax relief as his top priority heading into the new legislative session.

But tax cuts for military veterans, funding for flood recovery and money to continue addressing the state’s overcrowded prison system also rank high on his to-do list for the year.

Ricketts sat down with The World-Herald ahead of the Legislature’s Wednesday kickoff. He sounded some familiar themes during the conversation, including the need to control spending, oppose new taxes and encourage economic development.

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NEBRASKA LEGISLATORS AIM TO FINALIZE PROPERTY TAX PROPOSAL BEFORE SESSION STARTS

LINCOLN — A committee of state lawmakers is planning an 11th-hour, full-court press to craft a new property tax relief bill prior to the start of the 2020 legislative session.

The Legislature’s Revenue Committee, which oversees state tax policy, plans to meet Monday and Tuesday in hopes of finalizing the details of a proposal in time for the Wednesday start of the 2020 session of the Nebraska Legislature.

In between the two closed-door meetings, the eight senators on the committee plan to have lunch with Gov. Pete Ricketts in pursuit of his support.

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56 NEBRASKA EDUCATORS LINKED TO SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

LINCOLN - Since the beginning of 2014, at least 56 certified Nebraska educators were caught having inappropriate communication or sexual contact with students.

Their misconduct ranged from sexual intercourse with a student to dinner and a movie with a student.

At least 74 students or recent high school graduates were victimized. In some cases, the abuse occurred years before the perpetrators were caught.

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'IT'S ALL COME TO LIFE': STRATCOM IS NOW MONITORING MILITARY THREATS FROM ITS NEW COMMAND POST

Just in time to cope with increased tensions with North Korea and Iran, U.S. Strategic Command is warily watching the world from a new bunker.

Last month, with zero fanfare, StratCom moved its battle-watch staff from the old hilltop headquarters building at Offutt Air Force Base — where teams have operated continuously since 1957 — into the brand-new $1.3 billion command-and-control facility about 500 yards away.

“It’s all come to life,” said Vice Adm. David Kriete, StratCom’s deputy commander, who supervised the move. “The first evening, we had one of our nuclear command-and-control exercises. We’ve been off and running ever since.”

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PRISON OVERCROWDING PROMPTS LAWMAKER TO PROPOSE NEW WORK-RELEASE FACILITY IN OMAHA

LINCOLN — Lack of progress in reducing overcrowding in Nebraska’s prisons is spawning a proposal to plan for a new 300-bed work-release facility in Omaha.

State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha, a leading legislator on corrections issues, said he’ll introduce a bill when the State Legislature convenes this week to begin planning a community corrections facility, which could cost upward of $40 million.

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NEBRASKA TEACHERS UNION BACKS BILL ALLOWING PHYSICAL INTERVENTION TO COUNTER VIOLENCE IN SCHOOLS

LINCOLN — Tricia Rohde had experienced plenty of violence from students in her 20 years of teaching.

Her life changed one day in 2017, when a student with a history of aggression emerged from her calming room and started pummeling Rohde in the head and face. The student stopped to pick up a waste basket and throw it at Rohde before continuing the attack.

In particular, the state teachers union called for passage of Legislative Bill 147, a student discipline bill introduced last year by State Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, the Education Committee chairman. The measure is slated for debate on Jan. 13.

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FDA TO BAN ALL E-CIGARETTE POD FLAVORS EXCEPT TOBACCO AND MENTHOL

The Food and Drug Administration plans to ban the sale of fruity flavors in cartridge-based e-cigarettes, but the restriction won’t apply to tank vaping systems commonly found at vape shops, according to people familiar with the matter.

The action is seen as a compromise between Trump administration officials who want to address a rise in teen vaping and those concerned about the impact on small businesses and the possible political fallout for President Trump, these people said. Polls commissioned by the vaping industry have shown an outright ban would be unpopular in key states for the 2020 election.

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