Abortion, winner-take-all, prop tax bills introduced in Legislature

Proposals to prevent women from being prosecuted for having an abortion, to return Nebraska to the winner-take-all system of Electoral College voting, and to provide more property tax relief were among bills introduced in the Legislature Thursday.

Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh is the author of the bill dealing with abortion. Her proposal, LB53 would prohibit criminal or civil actions against someone based on the outcome of their pregnancy, including stillbirth, miscarriage, the intentional termination of a pregnancy, or any other outcome that does not result in a live birth.

Current Nebraska law generally prohibits doctors from performing abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. But also states women won't be held liable violating that law. However, in other states no such exemption exists, and Cavanaugh wants to be proactive.

“I'm trying to prevent women, specifically, who are pregnant and either lose their pregnancy or terminate their pregnancy, from being prosecuted,” she said

She added possible proposals to further restrict abortions could also threaten in vitro fertilization, or IVF.

“Eggs have to be fertilized and then frozen," she said. "And there does come a point in time when people may not pay to have the cryo bank maintain those frozen embryos. And is that going to become a crime?”

No proposals to further restrict abortions were introduced on Thursday, but bills can still be introduced for another eight days.

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Another bill introduced Thursday would return Nebraska to the winner-take-all system of allocating its Electoral College votes in presidential elections.

Currently, Nebraska casts two of its five votes for whoever wins the presidential vote statewide, and the remaining three for whoever carries each congressional district. That has resulted in three elections in which the state cast four votes for the Republican candidate but one for Democrats who carried the Omaha-area Second Congressional District.

Sen. Loren Lippincott, a registered Republican in the officially nonpartisan Legislature, said his bill, LB3, which he introduced for Gov. Jim Pillen, is aimed at maximizing the impact of rural states.

“I do believe that we should return back to winner take all, for the very simple reason is that it ensures that rural Nebraska and rural America's voice is heard and not overshadowed or canceled by large metropolitan areas.

He compared the thinking behind winner-take-all to that behind the founders’ creation of the U.S. Senate.

“Now you look at the second chamber in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Senate, and you've got two U.S. senators from Wyoming, two U.S. senators from California," he said. "So nobody overshadows another. They're all equal in that respect. So when you juggle all the numbers, you see that it's very important to have rural America represented, and they need to have their voices heard."

Lippincott said similar proposals have been introduced 11 times in the past but have not succeeded. However, he said with the presidential election over and a new crop of state senators in place, he thinks it can pass this year. There are 33 Republican senators in the Legislature. That’s exactly the number it would take to overcome a filibuster and vote for a change. But that also means that any one defection could scuttle the proposal.

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Also Thursday, a bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation to correct what they say was a mistake that deprived many Nebraskans of a year’s worth of property tax relief.

Sen. Brian Hardin, a Republican, says legislation passed in last year’s special session lowers taxes for every property taxpayer going forward. But he said it means only those who paid their 2023 property taxes before the end of that year were entitled to a now-discontinued income tax credit. And he said that’s only about 15% of property tax payers. The rest of them paid their 2023 taxes in 2024, as the law allows.

“Unfortunately, the 85% who did not pay in 2023 for 2023 ended up getting skipped (on the income tax credit) for that year… That's about a three quarters of a billion dollar difference that we owe the Nebraska taxpayer on their property taxes,” Hardin said.

Sen. Danielle Conrad, a Democrat who is supporting Hardin’s bill, estimated the cost at closer to $500 million.

Either way, the proposal comes at a time when the state is already facing a projected budget shortfall of over $400 million. Sen. Brad von Gillern, chair of the Revenue Committee, said senators need to take that into account in evaluating the proposal.

“’Do we have $500 million to $750 million to do that with?’ will be my first question, and I think the answer is, ‘no,’” von Gillern said.

Conrad said it was important to introduce the proposal early, as a negotiating tactic.

“So if we don't have this remedial, curative legislation before the Legislature, we can't be at the table to negotiate on behalf of Nebraska property taxpayers when that budget is finalized this year,” she said.

Von Gillern said people who paid their taxes early were making a legitimate business decision, but there’s no need to match what they got for people who held onto their money and paid later on.

“One of the most expensive things you can do in business is part with your cash," he said. "And those folks parted with cash for a strategic reason, and the reason was for income tax-sheltering. It wasn't so that they could ‘double dip’ on a program that didn't exist at the time. So I don't see that they did anything wrong, and frankly, I don't see that the folks that didn't do it are giving anything up."

Supporters of the bill say they’re hoping for a hearing on it soon after hearings begin on Jan. 22.