Nebraska’s Lancaster County senators address brain drain, higher education in town hall

LINCOLN — Weeks before Nebraska’s 2024 legislative session begins, many in the state’s second-largest county delegation want to work together and set a different tone in the new year.

Nine of the 10 lawmakers representing Lancaster County joined together Monday night at Union College for a town hall previewing the upcoming session. Nearly every state senator’s district includes part of the capital city. 

The delegation comprises State Sens. Beau Ballard, Carolyn Bosn, Eliot Bostar, Tom Brandt, Rob Clements, Danielle Conrad, Myron Dorn, George Dungan, Jane Raybould and Anna Wishart. Seven reside in Lincoln; Brandt is from Plymouth, Dorn is from Adams and Clements is from Elmwood. Clements was the lone absence Monday.

Brain drain and workforce

Many in the delegation said the state must work on workforce development and address persistent and worsening brain drain.

Solutions will be multi-faceted and nuanced, Dungan said, with one solution to move past culture war issues.

“Nebraska, I think, for the better part of the last many decades, has been sort of a bastion of reasonableness amongst a lot of this ire that we’ve seen in a lot of other states,” Dungan told a crowd of a few dozen. “We’ve sort of been divorced from a lot of these other debates that we’ve seen because people have focused on issues that I think matter to most Nebraskans.”

Dorn said solutions will not be a “quick fix,” as the Legislature has been working for years to address the issues “a small step at a time.”

Brandt said workers who are interested in Nebraska need housing. He said there is a divide not just between Nebraska and other states but within the Cornhusker State.

“Everybody focuses on this imaginary line between Nebraska and our other states — it’s internal to the state of Nebraska,” Brandt said.

He said starting salaries for police officers or teachers in his district are lower than in neighboring Lincoln.

Post-secondary education

Bosn said there is also a need for reciprocal licensing. She said that when some families move to Nebraska, someone may be licensed in teaching, law enforcement or hair care in another state but must go back to school before being licensed here.

“I don’t know that they cut hair differently here than they do in Iowa, but I can’t imagine they do it that differently,” Bosn said. “I don’t think that’s a good use of our time or our money.”

There has also been an emphasis on four-year college degrees, Bosn said, and trades have been minimized. This leaves some individuals, she added, feeling like “second-rate citizens.”

Wishart said she is working on legislation for tuition assistance for the trades. 

As Wishart heads into her final legislative session, she said she hopes the Legislature will adequately fund post-secondary education.

Conrad, who represents the University of Nebraska’s flagship campus, said the state must invest in higher education, including NU and the state college system, which together are a “generational point of pride” and address many of the senators’ identified challenges.

If the state does not, Conrad said, the burden is passed on as a “hidden tax” to families. She said this happened in 2023 despite a period of “unprecedented economic prosperity.”

“Nebraska needs to right this wrong rather quickly, in my opinion,” Conrad said. “We kicked the can down the road, and we balanced our budget on the backs of the moms and dads who are writing those tuition checks or forced our students to take out higher student loans.”

‘Right the ship’

Ballard said the delegates “punch above” their weight class and are always looking at how to grow Lincoln and surrounding communities in a “fiscally responsible but also progressive way.”

“How we grow Lincoln, grow Lancaster County is something that the delegation takes great pride in,” Ballard said.

Bostar, whose district includes Union College, organized the town hall and said legislative accomplishments must be done as a team because the amount of things that can be done alone is “absolutely zero.”

Bosn said each senator in the Lancaster delegation adds to the team. As an example, she said she could work with Dungan, combining their backgrounds as a former prosecutor and a public defender, respectively.

It’s teamwork, Dungan said, that brings optimism not to repeat some of the frustrations that plagued the 2023 session.

“My staff makes fun of me sometimes for being an optimist, but my optimism comes through, yet again,” Dungan said. “I really do think this next session we have a chance to really right the ship and get back to what is, I think, business as usual.”

2024 priorities

Monday’s town hall was moderated by Jason Ball, president and CEO of the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. As part of the event, senators previewed what they plan to work on in 2024. Lawmakers will return to the Nebraska State Capitol for a 60-day session beginning Jan. 3.

Here is a breakdown of each senator’s priorities or continued focuses for the 2024 session they identified Monday.

Click on a photo and use the arrow keys on your screen or your keyboard to scroll through the gallery.