Nebraska

‘Ecstatic’: Nebraska caregivers get some relief in the form of a tax credit

Published

1 year ago

April 24, 2024

‘Ecstatic’: Nebraska caregivers get some relief in the form of a tax credit

Thirteen years ago, Nebraska nursing instructor Tara Spiehs Garst had to leave her job to take care of her son who was born with Trisomy 18, a genetic condition that causes multiple birth defects.

Three years later, she had a daughter who was born with the same condition. Since then, Spiehs Garst’s family has lived on a reduced income and pays thousands of dollars out of pocket for services and supplies, having to cut numerous corners. Spiehs Garst even went without a cell phone for a year, but the emotional impacts have been just as daunting.

“My people that I interact with are physicians, are therapists, my children’s medical providers, that’s who my social interaction is with because they’re my full time job,” Spiehs Garst said. “I can’t leave them to go and do other things. Somebody has to be there to take care of them.”

She is just one of 179,000 caregivers in Nebraska who face similar challenges, including emotional and financial burdens, every day.

These challenges sparked the Caregiver Tax Credit Act, sponsored by Nebraska State Sen. Eliot Bostar. The act would create a nonrefundable tax credit for caregivers that would cover about 50% of eligible expenditures used for the care of family members each year. The maximum credit is $2,000, and it is $3,000 for family members who served in the military or who have a dementia diagnosis.

This potential tax credit comes as federal and state governments are trying to solve the senior care crisis, in which the cost of care continues to skyrocket while more of the population ages. Today, there are over 53 million caregivers in the United States, as people have stepped in to care for family members who can’t afford rent at senior care centers or to pay at-home nurses.

“We’re relying more and more on caregivers and family members to provide that care because the healthcare system is bursting at the seams,” Associate State Director for Advocacy and Outreach with AARP Nebraska, Jina Ragland said. “We have a huge desert of accessibility to health services but also for having the workforce development enough to provide inside facilities.”

If passed, Nebraska would be the second state to establish a caregiver tax credit. Bostar’s bill is modeled after Oklahoma’s, which went into effect at the beginning of this year. Unlike Oklahoma’s legislation, Nebraska’s potential tax credit would not have an age requirement for eligible family members, recognizing that people of all ages receive care at home.

The non-refundable tax credit would be capped at $2.5 million, but Ragland points out that it would save the state money in the long run. According to the Nebraska AARP, family caregivers in the state provide over 168 million hours of unpaid care valued at approximately $2.8 billion every year.

“Family caregivers are the backbone of the U.S. care system, helping parents, spouses and other loved ones remain in their homes,” Bostar said during a floor debate last month. “LB 937 will help ensure Nebraskans in need or care can stay in their homes when their health is failing, eliminating the need for the much more costlier option and added emotional burden of being cared for in a taxpayer-funded nursing home.”

Although the tax credit has wide bipartisan support, it saw an unexpected roadblock during the first round of debate in late March when a handful of amendments, including a controversial dollar-for-dollar tax credit for donations to crisis pregnancy centers, were tacked on at the last minute. The credit was eventually advanced and passed with a unanimous vote on the second to last day of session. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has until Wednesday to sign it into law.

“With the baby boomer generation retiring and getting older and all of our nursing homes seemingly closing right and left, we will have to address more creatively how we take care of these folks,” state Sen. Jana Hughes said during floor debate. “Encouraging them staying at home is a very, very good thing.”

More: Caregivers spend a whopping $7,200 out of pocket. New bill would provide tax relief.

‘The backbone’

Like caregivers across the country, Sarah Rasby of Nebraska had to make financial and emotional sacrifices to take care of her 35-year-old twin sister, Erin Lewis, who went into cardiac arrest and survived an anoxic brain injury, leaving her unable to walk, speak or move her body. Rasby spent hours a day caring for her sister for three and a half years before she passed away in 2022.

“There’s just really not a lot of time for the caregivers to care for themselves because they’re giving so much of their life to the other person,” Rasby said, noting may caregivers face social isolation. “The tax credit will help them identify as caregivers, but at the same time, those in the thick of it will start feeling some more value.”

Joyce Beck had made similar financial and emotional sacrifices to take care of her husband, Jerry. Beck’s husband suffered a heart attack while he had multiple sclerosis and had to have a quadruple bypass at the age of 52. He was later diagnosed with cancer, leading Beck to retire early from her position as a hospital CEO to care for him after it spread. Jerry eventually passed away about three years ago.

Beck is “ecstatic” the caregiver tax credit passed, saying it is an acknowledgment of the sacrifices caregivers make and will relieve some of the financial burdens they face.

“I’m proud that Nebraska is the second state in the United States to pass this because it shows the rest of the country that we are compassionate, we care about our people, and we want to take care of everyone,” Beck said.

Although she’s not a caregiver anymore, Beck knows the experience all too well. She wasn’t able to return to work after her husband passed and had to collect her pension and social security early on top of paying thousands of dollars out of pocket for medical bills. Despite the financial and emotional hardships, she was honored she got to spend the last few years of her husband’s life caring for him.

“It’s so hard to watch someone pass away by inches, it’s like almost a nightmare to watch,” Beck said. “It is truly just an honor to be able to take care of someone like that and to help them every step of the way. It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do but it is the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do.”

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Nebraska

Nebraska Lawmakers Approve Another Medical Marijuana Commission Appointee From Governor

Published

9 hours ago

May 27, 2025

Press Room

Nebraska Lawmakers Approve Another Medical Marijuana Commission Appointee From Governor

The Medical Cannabis Commission is charged with crafting rules and regulations so licensing of dispensaries can begin.

By Zach Wendling, Nebraska Examiner

A legislative committee on Tuesday reconsidered and favorably advanced a second Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission appointee who had tied in a 4-4 vote last week.

In a quick meeting Tuesday, State Sen. Stan Clouse of Kearney flipped his opposition to Lorelle Mueting of Gretna, the prevention director at Heartland Family Service in Omaha. Clouse said he supported advancing Mueting’s nomination so the full Legislature could consider her appointment instead of keeping the nomination in the General Affairs Committee.

Had the committee not advanced Mueting by the end of the legislative session, scheduled to end June 9, she would have been added to the commission without a vote of the full Legislature.

The voter-approved Medical Cannabis Commission is charged with crafting rules and regulations by July 1 so licensing of medical cannabis dispensaries can begin by October 1.

Clouse said his original reservations came because Mueting didn’t have a “great” confirmation hearing Thursday. After she spoke, long-time medical cannabis supporters voiced concerns over Mueting.

That was contrasted with Dr. Monica Oldenburg of Lincoln, an anesthesiologist, whom Clouse supported in part because he wants someone with a medical background on the regulatory commission.

Both nominees eventually advanced 5-3, in a party-line vote between Republicans and Democrats.

Oldenburg stayed for the three-hour hearing. Mueting left after three invited witnesses spoke in favor of her appointment.

The appointees would need at least 25 votes in the Legislature to be confirmed. They would join the three members of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission to comprise the new regulatory commission for medical cannabis.

Clouse said he wants to keep an open mind before deciding how he’ll vote on the appointments.

This story was first published by Nebraska Examiner.

Ohio Is More Than Doubling The Amount Of Marijuana That Adults Can Legally Buy Per Day

Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.

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Nebraska

Nebraska woman accused of using daughter to deliver narcotics

Published

1 day ago

May 26, 2025

Press Room

Nebraska woman accused of using daughter to deliver narcotics

YORK COUNTY, Neb. (KOLN) — A York County woman faces several felony charges after using her daughter to sell Xanax and morphine, according to authorities.

Deputies arrested 36-year-old Shantell Perkins on Thursday. She has since been charged with possession of a controlled substance, using a minor to distribute a controlled substance and child abuse.

The sheriff’s office assigned a DHHS intake to a deputy on May 1. A teen told her therapist that her mother had been forcing her to deliver drugs for several years, and the authorities were alerted.

Perkins lived with the girl and two other children at a Benedict home, all three children have since been removed from her custody. Each child was forensically interviewed regarding the allegation earlier this month.

The children told deputies that Perkins regularly took pills — ranging between prescription hydrocodone, oxycontin, morphine and Xanax — an arrest affidavit shows. They’d commonly come home to find her unconscious, but she would later explain to them that she’d merely suffered a seizure, deputies said.

One child told police they begged Perkins not to take the pills while home alone, fearing “they might find her dead,” authorities wrote. A records check for calls for service at Perkin’s address showed authorities had been called to the home multiple times since 2022.

The teen described arguments with her mother often turning physical — getting whipped with a belt or a coat hanger or sometimes being backed into a wall. Deputies think the other two children may have suffered similar abuse, and they wrote that Perkins would often accuse her children of stealing her pills.

In the meantime, Perkins had been using the teen to deliver Xanax, morphine and other unidentified pills to multiple people over the years, according to the affidavit.

The deliveries began sometime in 2018 when the family lived in South Dakota, deputies said. The teen said she never got any money for the transactions, thinking the drugs had been paid for in advance.

According to court records, the girl delivered pills on at least 50 occasions between two communities in South Dakota, then in Benedict, York and Seward.

Authorities think Perkins would persuade the girl with promises of gifts for making the deliveries, and other times she’d threaten to ground the teen if she disobeyed.

Jail records show Perkins’ bond was set at 10% of $50,000. Her first court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

If you or someone you know is struggling with opioid or substance abuse, The National Drug Hotline and SAMHSA provide 24/7 resources to battle addiction.

The National Drugs Hotline can be contacted at 844-289-0879, and SAMHSA is available at 1-800-662-4357. More information on battling opioid abuse in Nebraska can be found at this link.

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Athlete of the week: Nebraska Wesleyan's Avery Decker

Published

2 days ago

May 26, 2025

Press Room

Athlete of the week: Nebraska Wesleyan's Avery Decker

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A Division III National Champion, and a new school record holder; That’s what Nebraska Wesleyan’s Avery Decker became this weekend, winning gold in Women’s Javelin throw.

Decker, the Senior delivered gold Thursday while competing in day one of the Championships in Ohio.

And, she did it in style. On Decker’s very first throw, she reached 48.70 meters. It’s a new school record, and the sixth longest throw in Division III history.

“My coach just told me I needed to get it started right from the first throw,” said Decker. “That’s what I tried to do, and it worked out.”

The Prairie Wolves Track and Field completed a historic season, and Coach Derek Frese credits Avery’s leadership, and work ethic for what this team was able to accomplish this season.

“Avery is a very rare athlete,” said Frese. “Her drive and her work ethic was very contagious to some of her teammates as well. Our program had a very very successful year. We qualified seven throwers for the national championship meet.”

When the senior began her throwing career, she didn’t imagine being a national champion from the start.

But, over time she realized it was possible.

“Since my first full year throwing I had hopes of being an All-American,” said Decker. “After my second full season of throwing, I had dreams of being a national champion.”

The championship performance caps a season that saw Nebraska Wesleyan establish itself as a power in Division III track and field.

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