Capitol View: The cost and feasibility of a special session
J.L. Schmidt, 77, unexpectedly passed away in Lincoln Sunday, April 21, due to respiratory failure.
According to the Nebraska Press Association, Schmidt completed his final column for the week of May 1. The Nebraska Press Association is searching for a statehouse correspondent replacement.
J.L. Schmidt covered Nebraska government and politics since 1979. He was a registered Independent for 25 years.
In 2021, the last special session of the Nebraska Legislature lasted 13 days and cost the state $105,436. Do the math, that’s $8,076.92 per day.
Then ask yourself, is a winner-take-all election measure, which would bring Nebraska into the same fold as 48 other states, worth the money. For that matter, is a so-called solution to the state’s property tax problems worth it?
They’re bantering the words “special session” around like it’s nothing short of expected. Gov. Jim Pillen says he will call a special session this year if legislative leaders say they have the votes to support a measure that would award all five of Nebraska’s Electoral College votes to the statewide winner of the presidential popular vote and avoid the apparent embarrassment of Barack Obama and Joe Biden each getting one electoral vote in their previous respective presidential elections. After all, Nebraska is a red state, right?
After an Omaha rally led by national talk show host and populist pundit Charlie Kirk, attended by more than 700 presumed conservatives, Pillen spokeswoman Laura Strimple said “the Governor looks forward to partnering with legislative leaders to move winner-take-all forward in a special session when there is sufficient support in the Legislature to pass it.” Further, she said, Pillen “is an enthusiastic supporter of winner-take-all, has been from the start, and will sign it into law the moment the Legislature puts it on his desk.”
Similar bills made it to then-Governor Ben Nelson’s desk twice and were both vetoed. Nelson was the last Democrat governor in Nebraska.
Nebraska currently gives two votes to the popular vote winner and then one vote to the winner of each of the three Congressional districts. That system has allowed the Democrats to claim the Second District vote twice.
Apparently, the plan being discussed would seek to suspend the Legislature’s rules that allow for a minority-led filibuster. It takes 30 votes to suspend legislative rules. Doing so would mean winner-takeall could pass with 25 votes and Pillen’s signature. But getting the 30 votes to suspend could be a hurdle even with 35 registered Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. On occasion, personal conviction wins out over party- line.