Yes, Virginia, the Legislature has done something

By the numbers, progress in the short session of the 103rd Legislature may seem slow. With more than a third of the 60-day session already expired, one questions whether all that has been broadcast and printed really amounts to much.

Daily talk of filibusters and threats of filibusters and the actual filibusters themselves make news. Rumblings from the Executive Branch that the Legislative Branch needs to get busy simply add to the confusion. Mix in a lot of intrigue about: the upcoming May primary election; college football recruiting successes or failures; the on-going struggles of the University basketball team; Obamacare; a Beatles retrospective after 50 years; the Winter Olympics in (gasp) Russia and Nebraskans' own struggle with arctic temperatures and recurring snowfall -- and it's easy to discount the occurrence of another legislative session. Let alone the importance of it.

Let's face it. We view it as the annual battle of the Governor getting what he promised in the State of the State address. And the resistance of the 49 elected state senators to let one man take credit for any or all of it. The classic he said/she said applies here. Does not. Does so.

So, let's try a mathematical approach. Lawmakers have passed 16 bills and presented them to the governor for his signature. Three of them were left over from the first session and were passed with emergency clauses so they take effect the minute they are signed. There are another 182 bills at one of the three stages of debate before the full

Legislature. Another 712 remain in committee as afternoon hearings on them continue. Some may see the light of day. Some will die unceremoniously mid-April.

So what about the 16 that have passed? Or, as some like to say, what have they done to us now? They have passed measures dealing with: the monitoring of health care costs in Nebraska (LB76e); letting the public know how much their school superintendent is being paid and what kind of contract they have (LB470e) and making it easier for county fair boards to sell property and to improve the fairgrounds (LB597e). Those were among the leftovers that needed to be handled. The e clause (emergency) means that the bills become law as soon as they are signed. Without that designation, bills passed this session become law 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, meaning the effective date would be mid-July.

Lawmakers also passed a bill (LB403) that would ban the sale of novelty cigarette lighters without a childproof safety feature. These are lighters that look like toys or play musical notes or have flashing lights. The Legislature agreed that those features make the lighters dangerous in the hands of children. Another measure passed (LB215) requires county government to use their Visitors Improvement Fund to promote, encourage, and attract visitors to the county if it is determined the visitor attractions in the county do not require improvement. Some counties had been using the funds to improve their attractions instead of promoting them. The Legislature also approved (LB446) adding the term "flood damaged" to salvage titles of those vehicles that have been flood damaged. Duh.

Other bills passed deal with: powers of the tax commissioner in attaching liens (LB33); allowing the Department of Environmental Quality to increase fees to offset the cost of administering a chemigation program (LB272); allowing the Secretary of State to change the fees it charges for electronic transactions (LB278); several other natural resource programs and four bills from the Revisor of Statutes to eliminate outdated language.

Then there is this measure (LB174) that deals with the size, weight, and load provisions in the Nebraska Rules of the Road, to increase the minimum fine for manure spills within corporate limits of a city of the metropolitan class (Omaha) from $100 to $250. The law is aimed at prohibiting any person from spilling manure or urine, from the vehicle that contained livestock, on any highway within the city limits of Omaha. The penalty is a class IV misdemeanor with a minimum fine of at least $250.

I know what you're thinking. But the bill wasn't just a bunch of kaka. It survived four hours of debate on the legislative floor after its sponsor, Sen. Heath Mello of Omaha, explained that manure spills from cattle trucks in the Stockyards and packing plant area of South Omaha have caused numerous traffic accidents and have cost significant amounts of money to clean up. Most of the spills are on state highways and the Nebraska State Patrol issues most of the tickets, he said. The fees were agreed on by the trucking and cattle industries and the South Omaha Environmental Task Force. Two outstate senators argued against the bill saying it would cost jobs in the packing industry. But Mello said there was no testimony against the bill at the public hearing.

See, even the little things matter to the Nebraska Legislature.