{"id":39009,"date":"2025-05-15T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39009"},"modified":"2025-05-15T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T21:05:01","slug":"transportation-omnibus-bill-amended-returned-to-final-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=39009","title":{"rendered":"Transportation omnibus bill amended, returned to final reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill on final reading that would align Nebraska\u2019s transportation statutes with federal regulations was returned to select file May 14 and amended to include a sunset date for a proposed driver record fee increase.

\"Sen.
Sen. Mike Moser<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

LB398, introduced by Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus, would ensure that the state complies with the most recent federal laws and regulations that govern the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Nebraska State Patrol.<\/p>\n

As amended on general file, the measure includes provisions of six other bills heard by the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee this session, including LB114, also sponsored by Moser.<\/p>\n

The proposal would increase fees for certain driver and motor vehicle records maintained by the department, including the driver record abstract fee. The increase, from $7.50 to $15 per record, is intended to fund the department\u2019s driver licensing system modernization project. <\/p>\n

Senators voted to return the bill to select file to consider an amendment offered by Lincoln Sen. Beau Ballard, which would decrease the fee to its current amount for requests made beginning July 1, 2029. <\/p>\n

Ballard said he supports the fee increase but only as long as it\u2019s needed to complete the department\u2019s computer system upgrade. He said insurance companies that use the records to underwrite auto policies will pass on the $7.5 million annual fee increase to consumers. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that we are not funding government on the back of premium payers,\u201d Ballard said. <\/p>\n

Moser opposed the amendment, saying it would be irresponsible to set the fee at its current amount in 2029 because it would not generate enough revenue to cover the department\u2019s expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that we should buckle to the special interests that are complaining about the cost of the drivers\u2019 records,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After adopting Ballard\u2019s amendment on a vote of 29-12, lawmakers advanced LB398 to final reading by voice vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill on final reading that would align Nebraska\u2019s transportation statutes with federal regulations was returned to select file May 14 and amended to include a sunset date for a proposed driver record fee increase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36724,"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":[22],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-39009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-transportation-and-telecommunications","tag-sen-mike-moser"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-3.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39009","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=39009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39010,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39009\/revisions\/39010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}