Nebraskans to decide in 2026 whether to allow three four-year terms in Legislature

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4 days ago

State Sen. Robert Dover of Norfolk holds a stack of binders containing the budgetary work spearheaded by the Legislature's Appropriations Committee. March 12, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)
LINCOLN — Nebraskans now know the first ballot measure or constitutional amendment voters will consider in 2026: whether state lawmakers can serve up to three consecutive four-year terms, instead of two.
The change comes with the 39-10 approval Wednesday of Legislative Resolution 19CA, from State Sen. Rob Dover of Norfolk and 22 other senators. Nebraskans implemented the current limits of two four-year terms for state senators via a voter-led initiative in 2000. It passed with 55.8% of the vote. Senators can sit out one term after being term-limited and run again.
A term is counted if it lasts more than two years. So an appointed senator, such as State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood, who was appointed in 2017, can serve up to 10 years straight.
Dover has said term limits have particularly hurt Nebraska because of its Unicameral Legislature, limiting 'institutional knowledge' in the lawmaking body.
'In all other states in the U.S., there are two chambers, so that when a representative is termed out, they go to the other chamber and serve, taking their eight years of experience with them to continue to serve their state,' Dover said in a previous statement.
Senators rejected multiple attempts from State Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City to change LR 19CA so that the three four-year terms led to a lifetime ban or service, or prevented someone from returning to the Legislature until they had sat out eight years.
Lawmakers advanced an identical measure to Dover's in 2012, in a 31-14 vote, which failed to pass at the ballot box, garnering 35.4% support. Lawmakers that same year, in a 31-15 vote, also advanced a constitutional amendment to increase lawmakers' salaries to $22,500 (up from $12,000). It failed with 31.6% support.
The list of senators who have returned after being term-limited is relatively short: State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln is the only current senator to have done so, joining former State Sens. Ray Aguilar, Ernie Chambers, Steve Lathrop, Mike Flood and Rich Pahls.
Chambers, across 46 years of service in two separate periods, is the only senator to be term-limited twice, in 2009 and 2021. He was a top target of the 2000 ballot measure.
If voters approve LR 19CA next year, Dover is one senator who would be able to run for a third term in 2028. He was appointed in 2022, as was State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of the Millard area. Due to the timing of their appointments, Kauth had to run in a 2022 special election, but Dover did not have to run until 2024. Both supported LR 19CA.
The remaining four-member class of senators elected in 2020 also would be allowed to run for a third term if voters approve LR 19CA: State Sens. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, Terrell McKinney of Omaha, Eliot Bostar of Lincoln and Rita Sanders of Bellevue. All four approved the measure.
LR 19CA has supporters that include Civic Nebraska, the Civic Engagement Table, League of Nebraska Municipalities, Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Nebraska Farm Bureau and the OpenSky Policy Institute.
Civic Nebraska has also been working with State Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair to increase lawmaker pay through LR 25CA. This time, the proposal would create an independent lawmaker compensation commission that could more regularly raise (or lower) senators' pay.
In efforts to not repeat the dual electoral defeats of measures to increase term limits and increase lawmaker pay in 2012, Hansen sought to get his lawmaker compensation change on the November 2026 ballot. He steered Dover's term-limit proposal to the May 2026 primary election instead. Such a tactic would have required Dover's LR 19CA to pass with at least 40 votes.
Dover abandoned seeking a primary election vote when some supporters began to get cold feet at that approach. Had it passed unchanged and been approved by voters next May, the 10 senators who will be term-limited after 2026 could have instead run a write-in campaign for a third term that November.
Hansen's effor to create the lawmaker compensation commission will not move forward in 2025 but could return in 2026.
Other bills that passed on Wednesday include:
LB 192, from State Sen. Dan Quick of Grand Island, to extend the current SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) income eligibility before it would return to pre-pandemic levels this October. An amendment from State Sen. Bob Andersen of north-central Sarpy County prohibited the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services from waiving SNAP work requirements. DHHS 'may' require SNAP recipients to participate in an employment and training program. Passed 41-8.
LB 290, from the Urban Affairs Committee and led by committee chair State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, to allow flexibility for a planned North Omaha area business park to be located outside a two-mile radius of Eppley Airfield. Problems complicated two proposed sites that a development team had prioritized for the project, which is seeded with a $90 million state grant. Passed 31-18.
LB 346, from Speaker John Arch of La Vista at the governor's request, to eliminate or modify the membership or duties of 39 boards, commissions, committees, councils, task forces and panels. These range from the Nebraska Potato Development Committee and Advisory Council on Public Water Supply to the Women's Health Initiative Advisory Council and Whiteclay Public Health Emergency Task Force. Entities that faced opposition, such as the Racial Profiling Advisory Committee, were preserved as LB 346 worked through the Legislature. Passed 49-0.
LB 371, from State Sen. Wendy DeBoer of Omaha, to provide civil damages for the creation and release of computer-generated or digitally manipulated intimate, 'private' or nude images without the depicted person's consent. DeBoer created the underlying civil law for the nonconsensual sharing of any intimate images in 2019. Passed 49-0.
LB 382, from State Sen. Glen Meyer of Pender, to appropriate $4 million over the next two years for the state's eight designated agencies on aging in part to help keep Meals on Wheels afloat. The bill at one point included McKinney's LB 48, to create a family resource and juvenile assessment center pilot program in Omaha, which had previously failed to advance. McKinney's LB 48 was revived and removed from Meyer's bill. Passed 48-1.
LB 398, from State Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus, chair of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee, would increase fees for driver and vehicle records beginning July 1. It also includes bills to create license plates honoring Arbor Day (LB 568, from State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha) and for those who have served or are serving in the U.S. Space Force or have been awarded a U.S. Army Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal (LB 134, from State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue). Holdcroft's provisions would also allow disabled veterans or recipients of a Purple Heart to apply for specialty license plates. Passed 45-4.
LB 504, from State Sen. Carolyn Bosn of Lincoln, and a priority of Gov. Jim Pillen and Attorney General Mike Hilgers, requires online services to explicitly protect minor users' data and personal information in the physical design of certain applications or websites, including social media. It would require default parental tools up to their child's 13th birthday, including ways to crack down on screen time, external communications, 'unnecessary' design features, in-game purchases, personalized recommendations and geolocation tracking. Notifications and push alerts for minors would also be prohibited during certain hours of the day. Passed 42-7.
LB 513, also from Bosn, to give all 148 judges in the state a 1.5% raise each of the next two fiscal years. Judges have gotten increases in 30 of the past 36 years back to 1989, the last time that state lawmakers got a raise. Passed 38-11, the narrowest passage in about two decades.
LB 521, from State Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue, as an election 'cleanup' package to allow hospice or disability services patient records to count as photo ID, stop petition signature verification on candidates or new political parties at 110% of the goal, prohibit petition circulation within 200 feet of ballot drop boxes, notify a voter if their voter registration is canceled and permit the Secretary of State's Office to distribute petition pages to counties 'by a secure method' rather than just by mail or law enforcement. The package included LB 659, from Andersen, which would allow political parties to appoint watchers to monitor county election officials' already mandatory three independent tests of vote-counting devices, the results of which would be published online. Also included was LB 19, from State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha, to allow Lincoln or Omaha to move odd-year city elections in April and May to be in line with even-year statewide primary and general elections. Passed 49-0.
LB 558, from State Sen. Brad von Gillern of the Elkhorn area, to create an Infrastructure Review Task Force to review past, present and future transportation infrastructure needs every year. The task force would include the governor, a designee of the governor, director of the Nebraska Department of Transportations, the speaker of the Legislature, the chair of the Legislature's Revenue Committee (currently von Gillern), the chair of the Legislature's Transportation and Telecommunications Committee (currently Moser), tax commissioner and three other state senators. Passed 49-0.
Nebraska Examiner senior reporter Cindy Gonzalez contributed to this report.
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