Bus incident sparks LB 143; driver to testify

McCOOK, Neb. — An incident in McCook involving a school bus and rake in May 2018 is the impetus behind a new bill Sen. Dan Hughes has introduced to the Nebraska Legislature.

LB 143 will be heard on Wednesday at the Judiciary committee hearing and would make it illegal to intentionally throw, propel or drop a dangerous object at a moving vehicle on a highway. Penalties would start at a misdemeanor and increase to a felony, depending on the amount of damage or bodily injury caused.

Sen. Hughes said Thursday morning at the McCook Chamber of Commerce conference call that there are currently no laws in Nebraska concerning throwing items at moving vehicles and this bill would cover a gap in state law to address that.

When asked how the bill came about, Sen. Hughes said with a laugh, “I read the McCook newspaper!” referring to an incident in May 2018, adding that he also talked with several people involved with the incident.

The situation he referred to happened when a county commissioner working on a county road threw a rake in front of McCook Schools bus taking students home. The commissioner said at a county commissioner meeting shortly after that he had become frustrated with the speed of vehicles on the road and in frustration, “slid” a rake in front of the bus. The commissioner apologized at the meeting and no charges were filed.

The school bus driver plans to testify at the bill’s hearing on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Live streaming of the hearing can be viewed at http://netnebraska.org/basic-page/television/live-demand-state-government.

Two other bills introduced by Hughes, LB 126 and 127, revise state law concerning landowner deer hunting permits. LB 126 would allow up to four free firearm deer hunting permits to immediate family members of qualified landowners for seven days prior to the beginning of firearm deer hunting season, if the landowner allows 50 percent or more of his land, that has been designated as a deer management unit, available to the public during firearm deer hunting season for hunters with valid permits.

The related bill, LB 127, would define immediate family members of qualified landowners as the landowner, spouse, sibling of spouse if the sibling shares ownership of the land, and the landowner’s children, spouses of children, grandchildren and spouses of grandchildren.

The number two complaint he’s heard from constituents, behind property taxes, is complaints about deer damage issue, especially in basin areas, Hughes said. Because of that, for some landowners, it’s not worth opening up 50 percent of their land to public hunting, he said, with these bills a way to make it more landowner-friendly.

Both will be heard Wednesday in the natural resource committee hearing.

Hughes said he’s introduced eight bills so far, with one or two more left to drop. So far, state senators have introduced 377 bills, the last day to do so on Jan. 23.

Other topics Hughes addressed Thursday morning included:

-- The governors’ budget introduced in the State of the State address: Hughes said he hasn’t completed it yet but so far, there are some things he likes, and some he doesn’t.

-- the amendment proposed by Gov. Ricketts that limits local schools and other property-taxing entities to three percent in property tax revenues from the previous year: the amendment would have to pass by the legislature and Nebraska voters and means tax-asking by the local entities cannot go over by three percent what was garnered the previous year in property taxes.

-- a bill that Hughes will introduce would address property taxes on ag land and would drop ag land assessments to a maximum of 40 percent within three years. Ag land currently is assessed at 75 percent.

Agriculture is 25 percent of the state revenue and with the ag economy struggling, that affects everyone in the state, Hughes said, with western Nebraska extra-dependent on the ag industry.

Things will be tight as state revenue receipts has been projected to be down by $100 million, he said, so it will be “interesting” to work on the budget this year.

“We have 90 days to figure it all out,” he said “and we will.”