Nebraska Amendment 1, Authorize Local Governments to Develop Commercial Air Travel Service Amendment (2022)

Nebraska Amendment 1
Election date November 8, 2022
Topic State and local government budgets, spending and finance
Status a Approved
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Nebraska Amendment 1, the Authorize Local Governments to Develop Commercial Air Travel Service Amendment, was on the ballot in Nebraska as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022. The ballot measure was approved.

A "yes" vote supported amending the state constitution to authorize any city, county, or other political subdivision that operates an airport to spend revenue to develop commercial air travel at the local airport.

A "no" vote opposed amending the state constitution to authorize any city, county, or other political subdivision that operates an airport to spend revenue to develop commercial air travel at the local airport.

Election results

Nebraska Amendment 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		481,702	78.79%
No		129,699	21.21%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Overview

What did Amendment 1 do?

See also: Text of measure

The amendment added a new section to the Nebraska Constitution authorizing any city, county, or other political subdivision that operates an airport to spend revenue to develop commercial air travel at the local airport. The amendment applied to all nine commercial passenger airports in the state.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for the amendment was as follows:

“

A constitutional amendment to authorize any city, county, or other political subdivision owning or operating an airport to expend its revenues for the public purpose of developing or encouraging the development of new or expanded regularly scheduled commercial passenger air service at such airport. [ ] For [ ] Against

”

Ballot summary

The ballot summary for the amendment was as follows:

“

A vote FOR this amendment will authorize any city, county, or other political subdivision that owns or operates an airport to use its revenue for the purpose of developing or encouraging the development of new or expanded regularly scheduled commercial passenger air service at such airport. A vote AGAINST this amendment will not authorize a city, county, or other political subdivision that owns or operates an airport to use its revenue for such purpose.

”

Constitutional changes

See also: Article XV, Nebraska Constitution

The measure added a new section, section 26 of Article XV of the state constitution. The following underlined text was added:

XV-26

Notwithstanding restrictions imposed by any other provision in the Constitution, any city, county, or other political subdivision owning or operating an airport may expend or otherwise employ its revenues, from whatever source, for the public purpose of developing, or encouraging the development of, new or expanded regularly scheduled commercial passenger air service at such airport.

Readability score

See also: Ballot measure readability scores, 2022

Using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) formulas, Ballotpedia scored the readability of the ballot title and summary for this measure. Readability scores are designed to indicate the reading difficulty of text. The Flesch-Kincaid formulas account for the number of words, syllables, and sentences in a text; they do not account for the difficulty of the ideas in the text. The secretary of state wrote the ballot language for this measure.

The FKGL for the ballot title is grade level 26, and the FRE is -15. The word count for the ballot title is 44.

The FKGL for the ballot summary is grade level 20, and the FRE is 17. The word count for the ballot summary is 74.

Support

Supporters

Officials

• State Sen. Eliot Bostar (D)
• State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan (R)
• State Rep. Mike Flood (R)

Organizations

• Grow Nebraska

Arguments

• State Sen. Eliot Bostar (D-29): "Especially for small to medium-sized airports across the country, this is essentially the tool that is used to attract and expand passenger air service. I know of no other state where this cannot be utilized or isn’t being utilized."
• Nebraska Chamber of Commerce President Bryan Slone: "These benefits will flow to urban and rural communities and can serve as valuable tools for economic development and expanding consumer choice. Our commercial air service is probably one of the most important pieces of infrastructure we absolutely have. We need to recruit 18 to 35-year-olds to live in Nebraska, because we have the jobs and we need them here, and you are not going to get 18 to 35-years-olds where there’s no air service"

Opposition

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Nebraska ballot measures

The campaign finance information on this page reflects the most recent scheduled reports that Ballotpedia has processed, which covered through January 17, 2023.

Grow Nebraska registered in support of the measure. The committee reported over $270,000 in contributions.

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$267,500.00	$6,482.79	$273,982.79	$256,783.87	$263,266.66
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$267,500.00	$6,482.79	$273,982.79	$256,783.87	$263,266.66

Support

The following table includes contribution and expenditure totals for the committee in support of the measure.

Committees in support of Amendment 1
Committee	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Grow Nebraska	$267,500.00	$6,482.79	$273,982.79	$256,783.87	$263,266.66
Total	$267,500.00	$6,482.79	$273,982.79	$256,783.87	$263,266.66

Donors

The following were the top donors who contributed to the support committee.

Donor	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions
Bison Inc.	$75,000.00	$0.00	$75,000.00

Background

Referred amendments on the ballot

From 1985 through 2020, the Nebraska State Senate referred 71 constitutional amendments to the ballot. Voters approved 46 (64.8%) and rejected 25 (35.2%) of the referred amendments. All of the amendments appeared on even-year ballots. The average number of amendments appearing on the ballot was four.

Legislatively referred constitutional amendments, 1985-2022
Total number	Approved	Percent approved	Defeated	Percent defeated	Average	Median	Minimum	Maximum
71	46	64.79%	25	35.21%	3.9	3.5	0	17

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Nebraska Constitution

To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a 60% vote is required in the Nebraska State Senate in one legislative session.

This amendment was introduced as Legislative Resolution 283CA (LR283CA) on January 22, 2022. On March 2, 2022, the state Senate voted 42-1 to send the measure to review. On April 12, the state Senate took a final vote on the amendment to place it on the ballot by a margin of 47-0 with two not voting.

Vote in the Nebraska State Senate April 12, 2022
Requirement: Three-fifths (60 percent) vote of all members of the legislature
Number of yes votes required: 30  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	47	0	2
Total percent	95.9%	0.0%	4.1%
Democrat	16	0	1
Republican	31	0	1

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Nebraska

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Nebraska.

How to vote in Nebraska

Poll times

In Nebraska, all polling locations are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Central Time and 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Mountain Time. An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote. Nebraska is divided between Central and Mountain time zones.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

To register to vote in Nebraska, each applicant must be a citizen of the United States, a resident of the Nebraska county in which they are registering, and at least 18 years old by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Citizens are eligible to register to vote on January 1 of the year they will turn 18 before the November general election. People convicted of a felony regain the right to vote upon completion on their sentence, including parole and probation. Individuals who have been declared mentally incompetent by a court are ineligible to register to vote. A voter registration application can be completed in person at the county clerk or election commissioner's office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or other state agencies. In-person registration must be completed by the third Friday preceding the election if completed at the DMV or other state agencies. In-person registration at county election offices must be completed by 6 p.m. on the second Friday before the election. Applications returned by mail must be postmarked by the third Friday before the election. Online applications must be submitted by midnight on the third Friday before the election.

Automatic registration

Nebraska does not practice automatic voter registration.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

Nebraska has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website. The Nebraska State Senate enacted legislation allowing online voter registration in 2014, and the system was implemented in 2015.

Same-day registration

Nebraska does not allow same-day voter registration.

Residency requirements

In Nebraska, citizens can register to vote the day they become residents of the state.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

Nebraska does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual must attest that they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote. According to the state's voter registration application, "any registrant who signs this application knowing that any of the information in the application is false shall be guilty of a Class IV felony under section 32-1502 of the statutes of Nebraska. The penalty for a Class IV felony is up to two years imprisonment and twelve months post-release supervision, a fine of up to $10,000.00, or both."

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The Voter View site, run by the Nebraska Secretary of State’s office, allows residents to check their voter registration status online.

Voter ID requirements

Nebraska requires voters to present identification while voting.

Initiative 432, approved by Nebraska voters in November 2022, amended Article I of the state constitution to require voters to present valid photo identification in order to vote. Governor Jim Pillen (R) signed Legislative Bill 514 into law on June 1, 2023, in order to implement this policy change. Due to this legislation, Nebraska's voter ID requirement went into effect on April 1, 2024, in time for the state's 2024 primary.

See also

2022 measures

• 2022 ballot measures
• Budgets on the ballot

Nebraska

• Nebraska ballot measures
• Nebraska ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Full text