Jeff Hajny

    Even though Nebraska is full of small towns, these towns are often forgotten when it comes to important decisions being made.
     There are many times when the state legislature does not acknowledge what smaller areas need. District 24 Sen. Greg Adams tried to remedy this during his March 14 presentation at the Seward Valentino's.
     Adams came to Seward to give the people of the town an idea of what is going on with bills being passed by the Nebraska Legislature.
     Adams began his talk by speaking on the state's financial situation.
     He said the state is $58 million in the red.
     "We presently have $489 million in reserve and will help pay for this using state aid," he said. "When I say $58 million, we are not 100 percent clear yet about new bills within the next period."
     Adams said that with the state aid to schools situation, both Seward and York will be affected. He said Seward may lose money and York's raise won't be as high as they hoped.
     "With this situation, if we don't put our finger into the dike, we may have to put our whole body into it later," he said.
     Another bill Adams addressed during his presentation revolved around bringing scrap metal in to be recycled.
     He said the original bill called for a picture and thumbprints to be taken and for a 72 hour waiting period before that person would receive the money.
     The idea of this was to prevent the purchase of drugs in the future.
     "One of the problems behind this was imagine if the Boy Scouts would bring in truckload of cans. Would we have to get their prints and take their pictures?" Adams said.
     The new amendment for this bill says that people are to be fingerprinted only if they bring in catalytic converters or copper wiring.
     Another bill regarding impeachment was reviewed. The discussion was about an amendment made to a previous idea proposed.
     The original idea said that a member of the political system could be brought up and impeached for misdemeanors committed while running for office.
     The amendment changed the wording, changing the word "misdemeanors" to "moral turpitude."
     Adams also addressed the recent discussions regarding seatbelts on school buses. He said that the legislature is now hoping to put seat belts on school buses throughout the state by 2012.
     Other bills he discussed were:
     • a bill to raise the penalty for marijuana use to equal the penalty for a minor-in-possession;
     • discussions regarding the "green belt" in Nebraska, or areas which were originally used for farm land but the growth of town spreads into their areas, possibly forcing the land owners to change from farm land to public land.
     The main point of this involves the owners deciding whether or not they want to abandon farming; and
     • an amendment which says human cloning is illegal and cell transferring is not allowed in the state of Nebraska, but cell research can be done if it follows the state guidelines.