{"id":29153,"date":"2021-02-09T14:39:03","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T20:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29153"},"modified":"2021-02-09T14:39:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T20:39:03","slug":"bills-would-increase-funds-for-judges-retirement-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29153","title":{"rendered":"Bills would increase funds for judges\u2019 retirement system"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee heard testimony Feb. 9 on two bills meant to increase funding for the state\u2019s retirement plan for judges.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Mark Kolterman<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB16, as introduced by Seward Sen. Mark Kolterman, would add a state contribution, beginning July 1, 2021, equal to 4 percent of total compensation of plan members, which would increase to 6 percent beginning July 1, 2023.<\/p>\n

Kolterman offered an amendment at the hearing, which would push the start date to 2023. He said the governor\u2019s biennial budget already contains funding for the actuarially required contribution to the judges\u2019 plan for 2021 and 2022. The amendment also would lower the increase in 2023 to 5 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe purpose of the bill is to create an annual contribution that grows automatically with increases in judges\u2019 salaries,\u201d he said, adding that currently earmarked court fees and member contributions are the only other sources of scheduled contributions to the judges\u2019 plan.<\/p>\n

Kolterman also introduced LB24, which would increase the amount of various court fees used to help fund the judges\u2019 retirement plan. The amounts would increase to $6 through June 30, 2021, and then rise annually to settle at $12 by July 1, 2025.<\/p>\n

Traffic diversion programs have reduced fee contributions, he said, and the pandemic also has negatively impacted those fees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2020, the pandemic caused a significant decrease in court fee revenue,\u201d Kolterman said, \u201cincluding a drop of $400,000 in the last quarter of [the fiscal year].\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Mike Heavican of the Nebraska Supreme Court testified in support of both bills. At one time, he said, member contributions were enough to fund the judges\u2019 plan, but that is no longer the case. Several court fees have not changed since 2005, he said, and minimal and gradual increases are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cCourt fees are set by the Legislature,\u201d Heavican said. \u201cThey do not change frequently, nor have there been consistent adjustments for inflation or wage increases. As a result, revenue from this source is not guaranteed to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

In written testimony, Spike Eickholt of the ACLU of Nebraska opposed LB24.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see court fees as a user fee for those people who are processed through, or prosecuted in, the court system,\u201d he said. \u201cThis fee increase, while admittedly minimal, would pass [along] the cost of this bill in a manner that disadvantages the poor and impacts people of color disproportionately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on the bills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nebraska Retirement Systems Committee heard testimony Feb. 9 on two bills meant to increase funding for the state\u2019s retirement plan for judges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[143],"class_list":["post-29153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retirement-systems","tag-sen-mark-kolterman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29155,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29153\/revisions\/29155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}