Editor’s note: This article appeared Tuesday on Nebraska’s 3newsnow.com. You can listen to a podcast of Step Up For Students president Doug Tuthill interviewing Nebraska Sen. Lou Ann Linehan here.
An issue thought to be dead for the 2022 session — providing state tax credits for donations to private school scholarships — has found a rare path to resurrection.
A so-called “Opportunity Scholarship” proposal from State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, which was blocked by a filibuster after it was introduced last year, failed again to advance in early January because of another filibuster from critics who called it a roundabout way to provide public funds to private schools.
Once a bill fails to overcome a filibuster, it is typically considered dead for the year.
But a week after Legislative Bill 364 stalled, Gordon Sen. Tom Brewer introduced his own Opportunity Scholarship proposal, LB 1237. There is no prohibition on a second bill, on virtually the same subject, being debated in the same legislative session. So, lawmakers may debate the idea for the third time in two years.
LB 1237, the new bill, was amended into another measure last week and voted out of the Legislature’s Revenue Committee on a 6-0 vote. The committee made LB 730, which now includes the Opportunity Scholarship proposal, a committee priority bill, which gives it a better chance of being debated.
To continue reading, click here.
