George Norris charted a path for us with a vision of unity and fairness, but for the past 40 years, oligarchs and partisans have steered us astray, leaving us a nation divided.

As our forefathers warned, partisanship and money have poisoned our democracy. It’s time to reclaim Norris’ vision and re-embrace his philosophy.

John F. Kennedy, in a 1958 speech, lamented that biographers often focused on presidents and generals but should go “below the summit” and shine light on senators and party leaders who helped shape our history and heritage, but are largely forgotten. He specifically referenced George Norris.

The citizens of our country, and especially the citizens of Nebraska, often overlook what an extraordinary leader we were fortunate enough to have represent us. Norris served Nebraska in Congress and the Senate from 1903 to 1943.

A fierce independent, he dismantled the power of party bosses, most notably Speaker of the House Joe Cannon, who had been wielding near-dictatorial control over the U.S. House in the early 1900s. Norris’ actions helped create a more decentralized and democratic federal government.

As the architect of the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Norris shortened the “lame duck” period between elections, enhancing government efficiency and accountability. He also stood against war when it was deeply unpopular to do so. Norris was one of only six senators to vote against entering World War I, arguing that the war served corporate interests more than the cause of peace.

This courageous stance exemplified his willingness to stand alone for his principles, even when it was politically costly.

Norris is perhaps best known for his role in creating the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Rural Electrification Administration (REA). These initiatives lifted poor and rural Americans from a near-medieval existence, ushering them into an electrified era that transformed their lives, work, and incomes. Norris took on powerful private utility interests to make these landmark achievements a reality.

Despite his legacy, Norris was a victim of political retribution. In the 1950s, 160 historians evaluated the greatest legislators in U.S. history, selecting five to be honored with permanent portraits in the U.S. Capitol.

Norris was ranked as the greatest senator, yet Nebraska’s Republican senators, Carl Curtis and Roman Hruska, blocked his inclusion due to his support for Franklin D. Roosevelt. This glaring injustice remains unaddressed, but there is hope it may someday be rectified.

Norris brought his philosophy of prioritizing the public good over party politics back to Nebraska when he championed the establishment of the state’s Unicameral Legislature in 1937. He argued that a single-house, nonpartisan Legislature would limit the influence of party politics while enhancing efficiency, transparency, and accountability.

He believed this system gave Nebraskans greater power and access to their representatives, driven by his conviction that the salvation of the state is in the watchfulness of the people.

Norris’ legacy is a powerful reminder of what it means to lead with courage and principle. He defied party lines, corporate interests, and popular opinion to champion democracy and the common good. Today, we see too few leaders fighting those same battles, nationally or within our state.

George Norris is not just a central figure in Nebraska’s history. He is a model of integrity and independence for the entire nation. His life and work deserve recognition and celebration. He exemplifies the profound impact one determined individual can have.

As we honor Norris this month, let us also follow his example and continue striving for a government that champions democracy, peace, and the common good. Now is the time to uphold his legacy and ensure our government remains by, of and for the people.

Wesley Dodge, an attorney with over 35 years of legal experience in Nebraska, serves on the Board of Directors for Common Cause Nebraska and Better Ballots Nebraska. He also heads a group called Represent Us Omaha. Dan Osborn is a Navy veteran, a former nonpartisan U.S. Senate candidate and a former labor union leader based in Omaha.

LINCOLN — Lawmakers have formally introduced a “fix” to Nebraska’s summer special session changes to a key property tax relief program, which closed off some tax relief for Nebraskans.

State Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering introduced Legislative Bill 81 on Thursday, a promise he and five other lawmakers made in October. The legislation would allow all Nebraskans to claim a credit on any property taxes paid in 2024 when they file their tax returns this spring, in the middle of the 90-day legislative session. The aim is to make whole the people who missed out on claiming an income tax credit for property taxes assessed in December 2023.

LB 81 would offer a one-time extension for the income tax credit program established in 2020 and designed to offset K-12 school taxes, which make up the majority of local property taxes. 

The credits will now be immediately applied against school taxes on property tax statements, beginning in December 2024.

For some Nebraskans who didn’t know about the program previously or weren’t able to request the relief, it will be the first time they benefit from the program. About 50% of such eligible credits were left unclaimed.

“[The] challenge is that, in so doing, we did not realize that, inadvertently, we caused a problem as we set about the solution,” Hardin said at an afternoon news conference in the Nebraska State Capitol Rotunda.

“It’s lovely to get that shot in the arm right now because most of us got lowered rates for this year,” Hardin added. “We’re looking at that saying, ‘Hey, that’s good.’ The problem is when you look across those years, 2023 is missing.”

‘Making life more miserable’

Hardin and State Sens. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln and Tom Brandt of Plymouth, who cosponsored LB 81, were among 40 lawmakers to vote to pass legislation during the special session to “front-load” the existing relief program so more people received it. But the change closed the door for relief on 2024 tax returns for anyone who decided to pay property taxes assessed in December 2023 in arrears, or throughout 2024.

“We didn’t realize it at the time but what ended up effectively happening is we ended up making life more miserable,” Hardin said, saying about 85% of Nebraskans didn’t pay their 2023 assessed taxes by December 31, 2023. One person who did pay early: Gov. Jim Pillen.

The legislation, as written, would not be limited to taxes assessed in December 2023 taxes. It would include anyone who paid their 2024 property taxes assessed just last month, if they paid by Dec. 31, 2024.

Implementing LB 81 would cost up to $750 million, plus the allowable growth rate of all real Nebraska property, as determined by the Nebraska Department of Revenue. The actual cost of the fix would likely be less because not all Nebraskans would request the additional year’s credit.

Meanwhile, the state is facing a more than $432 million projected budget shortfall by summer 2027 that lawmakers must tackle.

Hardin said lawmakers might draft an amendment to limit the additional relief to the desired fix: to target only the taxpayers who lost out on the credit for property taxes paid in 2023 if they didn’t pay those taxes by Dec. 31, 2023.

“There was no sleight of hand going on by the Revenue Committee or anyone involved in that process,” Hardin said. “We truly didn’t realize that what we made was an expensive error, but we’re saying: Here’s an opportunity for us to talk about it and fix it.”

‘Nobody had a crystal ball’

Former State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, as chair of the Revenue Committee, led LB 34 through the special session for the tax credit changes she championed four years prior. Linehan, a former six-year chair of the Revenue Committee, and her successor as committee chair, State Sen. Brad von Gillern of Omaha, have said the cash flow to taxpayers is improved by the special session’s changes. 

“Nobody had a crystal ball that that was going to happen, that LB 34 was going to happen the way that it happened,” von Gillern told reporters. “To say that anybody prepaid their taxes knowing that they were going to get a ‘double dip’ on this is not reasonable.”

Linehan and von Gillern have noted that if the relief program is funded twice in the same year, the double $750 million credit has a total $1.5 billion price tag.

Hardin envisions paying for the one-time extension of tax credits using billions of dollars sitting in Nebraska agency cash funds, “sweeping the accounts” and recouping money that he said departments were “hoarding.”

‘The people’s money’

The effort to plug the “missing year” of relief that led to LB 81 was in part drafted by another former lawmaker before he was term-limited this week: Steve Erdman of Bayard.

‘A missing year’: No income tax credits for Nebraskans to offset school property taxes paid in 2024

Erdman was among the first to identify what he saw as a “retroactive property tax increase,” to the tune of 20-22% for some Nebraskans he said, shortly after the special session ended in August, as first reported by the Nebraska Examiner.

He and two other term-limited senators were the sole opponents of LB 34, largely for wanting more relief, not, as Erdman described the changes, “a decrease in the increase” of property taxes.

“You can go on forever and never make up that loss,” Erdman said in October of the “skipped” relief. “The question I have is, ‘Whose money is it?’ It’s the people’s money.”

The EPIC Option

Erdman drafted the legislation for his western Nebraska partner, Hardin, who also is taking the mantle from Erdman on seeking to more broadly rewrite Nebraska’s tax code by eliminating property, income and corporate taxes (the “EPIC Option”) and creating a wholesale consumption tax, but not on groceries.

“EPIC is alive and well,” Erdman told the Examiner last week. “The next effort that we put forward will be a far more involved and specific plan on how to get this on the ballot.”

Erdman says it takes time to make “big, bold changes,” but supporters aren’t deterred because of decades of inadequate policies and have learned how to improve their efforts. They are “more focused today than they were before.”

“Going forward, we will have a whole new look,” he continued. “I think it’ll be an opportunity for the Nebraska people that are being taxed out of their homes and farms and businesses to understand that there’s only one option, and that’s to change the whole system.” 

Tax relief priority in rural Nebraska

Brandt said property tax relief is top of mind for his constituents.

“They want to know what happened,” Brandt said, adding that the 85% of Nebraskans who didn’t pay their 2023 taxes by the end of that calendar year are in rural districts.

“I would like to tell the people of the state: We’re here,” he continued. “We’re trying to make a difference.”

State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward said farmers in her district also preplan how they’ll pay their taxes and are good about claiming the income tax credit when available. The Nebraska Farm Bureau has been pushing for an LB 81-style fix.

“They didn’t know the rules were changing,” Hughes said, adding the quick fix left taxpayers in the hole without time to choose their next steps, who might have paid early if they had known.

Finding the money

The special session was the longest and most expensive in state history, costing $173,134 over 17 days, based on a deficit budget request made after the special session. That’s a daily cost of $10,184.35, the highest of any special session in Nebraska.

LB 81 would require an early hearing and would need to be passed, and signed into law, by the time Nebraskans start turning in their tax returns this spring.

Hardin would also need at least 33 lawmakers, regardless if the bill is filibustered, for his bill to take effect for this tax season. And he would need Pillen’s blessing.

Conrad said that in a state budget of more than $12 billion, lawmakers can find the money while also closing the projected budget shortfall.

“It is easily ascertainable to find resources to make it right for Nebraska taxpayers,” Conrad said. “If indeed there is a political will, if indeed there is consensus, we have to come together to make things right for Nebraskans who were negatively impacted by the special session.”

LINCOLN — Conservatives in the Nebraska Legislature appear poised to wrest a partisan advantage on all but one legislative committee for the next two years, moving two Lincoln Democrats off a key committee on which they previously served.

The Committee on Committees, which sets committee assignments for state senators, voted 12-1 on Thursday to advance a preliminary slate of committee placements. It came after the placement committee stalled in its deliberations Wednesday evening, primarily over whether the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee would lean left or right, or have a 4-4 split.

Partisan fight continues over committee assignments in Nebraska Legislature

As of late Wednesday, the eight-member Government Committee was set to have three Republicans and five members that leaned left — four Democrats and one nonpartisan progressive. Under the new slate, Republicans will hold five seats, which they desired as the minimum end result of deliberations.

Of 13 other standing committees, all but one will be led by a Republican chair with a GOP advantage behind them. Urban Affairs will be led by Democratic State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha, set to be split 4-3 to Democrats.

The Legislature is officially nonpartisan, though all but one of the 49 members are either Republican or Democrat, and they sometimes split along party on contentious issues.

Importance of majority

State Sens. Mike Jacobson of North Platte and Mike Moser of Columbus said that the breakdown better mirrors the state’s party registration data. As of Jan. 1, Nebraska had 1.27 million registered voters: 49% Republican, 27% Democrats, 22% nonpartisan and 2% Libertarians or Legal Marijuana NOW registrants.

“I don’t know why, on those key committees, we would not continue to have a Republican majority on those,” Jacobson said.

The committee assignment process considers the state’s geography, as the state’s 49 lawmakers are divided into three caucuses, roughly mirroring Nebraska’s three congressional districts.

Moser said committee assignments are made based on a few key factors, including committee incumbency, senators’ assignment preferences, caucus balance and partisan balance.

Incumbent Democratic State Sens. Danielle Conrad and Jane Raybould, both of Lincoln, will no longer serve on the Government Committee, where they sat for the past two years. 

The two senators will swap with freshman Republican State Sens. Dave “Woody” Wordekemper of Fremont and Stan Clouse of Kearney on the Natural Resources Committee.

Clouse is in the 3rd Congressional District, while the others who were moved are in the 1st Congressional District.

Jacobson said the “irony” of the move is that his 3rd District Caucus gave up a seat on the Natural Resources Committee, where many proposed bills will likely impact the 3rd District. The sprawling 3rd Congressional District is the state’s largest geographically.

Jacobson said part of the consideration isn’t just about potential 2025 bills, but also 2026. Jacobson said he considers the Government Committee as important as tax- or budget-focused committees.

Other trades proposed

State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, the lone Democratic representative from the 1st District Caucus on the Committee on Committees and the Legislature’s Executive Board, said he preferred a contingent offer the night before that would have made the Government Committee a 4-4 split.

The 2nd District Caucus, led on the Committee on Committees by three Democrats and one nonpartisan progressive, offered to flip freshman Omaha State Sens. Dunixi Guereca, a Democrat, and Bob Andersen, a Republican, between the Government and Natural Resources Committees.

“I thought that distribution, not everyone would love it, but it was acceptable,” Bostar said. “I think that with kicking folks off of Government from the 1st Caucus, it becomes problematic to me.”

Republicans drew their line in the sand for a 5-3, GOP-led Government Committee, and they rejected, by a 7-6 vote, advancing the 4-4 split.

The 2nd District Caucus representatives offered a different trade if a 5-3 Government Committee was non-negotiable: to swap Democratic State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha on the Government Committee with Republican State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue on the Judiciary Committee.

If accepted, the proposed 5-3 GOP-led Judiciary Committee would be split evenly instead, mirroring a partisan split from the past two years that bottled up many bills in a committee that typically considers the most bills each year.

Conrad, who said she knew her 1st District caucus might not honor her seniority, which is the most in the current Legislature in her 11th year, said she’ll be honored to serve on Natural Resources, or wherever she ends up.

“It’s an honor to serve in the Nebraska Legislature and no matter what petty scores are settled over personalities or partisanship, I’m gonna work hard all day, every day in good faith with anybody at any time,” Conrad said in a text.

‘The nuclear option’

Moser said it isn’t in the best interest of Nebraskans “to allow one party to dominate a community by — not manipulating the rules, but kind of using the nuclear option,” referencing the push by Democrats and progressives to take over the 2nd District Caucus slots on the Committee on Committees.

“It’s a political maneuver on their part to try to dominate as many committees as they can with the minority members they have,” he continued. “They can control their own caucus, but they can’t control the 1st or 3rd.”

Democrats have little control in the 49-member body, where Republicans maintain 33 seats, enough to break filibusters and pass conservative priorities if all vote in lockstep. The 13-member Committee on Committees is split 8-5 between Republicans and Democrats and a progressive nonpartisan.

State Sen. John Fredrickson of Omaha, from the 2nd District Caucus, said that he and his fellow caucus members are proud of the work they did in setting committee assignments for their members.

The Committee on Committees will meet one more time to prepare a final report, which isn’t expected to deviate from the preliminary report. The full Legislature will consider the assignments next week.