Adams lawmaker introducing constitutional amendment to increase legislative pay

BEATRICE – The Nebraska Legislature’s ten-day bill introduction period will end at the middle of next week….and legislative committee hearings will be getting underway on a load of proposed legislation.
Senator Myron Dorn expects the overall number of bills offered to hit 700, despite lawmakers operating under a new restriction.
"When I've been up here, we've always had in the 750 to 800 neighborhood of bill introductions. We did, however, pass rules last year that senators can each have only a maximum of 20 bills....so we'll see if that reduces it."
Dorn himself has introduced about a dozen bills so far, with maybe another one or two in the hopper before the last day of introduction next Wednesday.
One of those proposals is a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to decide if the salary state lawmakers are paid should increase from $12,000 to $30,000. If passed, it would be on the November 2026 ballot.
"The main reason I brought it is...especially in District 30...two years from now there will be a new senator. As I visit with people in District 30 and other districts....many good people have flat-out told me, I would be interested in running, but I can't afford to do it because of the pay. That is probably the number one thing...we're very much limiting our pool of people that we can even have run for this."
State legislative pay has not changed since 1989. In addition to the $12,000 annual salary, lawmakers receive a stipend that helps compensate for travel and meals. They do not receive health insurance or other benefits such as paid leave.
As normally happens, many new faces are in the legislature….newly elected in November. Dorn says there’s a lot of information to take in.
"You don't know how many times, that first year...where's that located in the Capitol? Where's this at? What are they trying to talk about? What are they doing? As you go along, you learn a lot of those things, you become more comfortable with it. Even when we had our Appropriations meeting yesterday, our fiscal analyst for the legislature put together a seven-page handout for the new people....I read through that, and I learned some things from that...I've been here six years, I'm not one of the new ones."
Dorn is going into the final two years of his second term. State lawmakers are limited to two consecutive terms in the legislature, though there is a bill this session that proposes increasing that to three consecutive four-year terms.
This session, only about a third of the legislature has been serving more than four years.