In this June 2023 selfie, Angie Lauritsen collects signatures in downtown Gretna, Neb., for a ballot initiative seeking to repeal a state law that would divert taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition. Nebraska lawmakers are set for the first time to pass a bill that would block the public from voting on a ballot measure initiated by citizens of the state, setting up what could be a long battle over whether to fund private school tuition with public dollars. FILE - Nebraska state Sen.
The new bill is an “end-run” around the ballot initiative, said State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, the author of last year’s law, during a public hearing. But it also gives a choice to families whose public school is not serving them well. A large portion of the private school scholarships would go to students who are being bullied, foster kids and students with a parent serving active military duty or had a parent killed in the line of duty, she said.
Opponents could try to launch another petition effort to ask voters to repeal the new bill this November, although they would have only weeks to gather enough signatures to meet a July deadline. Or they could sue, Schutz said. Linehan floated another argument earlier this year to try to convince Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen to pull the repeal measure from the November ballot. Linehan held that the ballot initiative was unconstitutional because the state constitution places the power of taxation solely in the hands of the legislature.
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