NANCY HICKS / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Monday, November 22, 2004 6:00 pm
It wasn't easy. But 10 Journal Star readers, after a noisy hour of exchanging ideas, narrowed a list of proposals for new state laws down to their collective favorites, a top 10 list.
The Journal Star was swamped with ideas this fall when we launched the "There Oughta Be a Law" project. Readers sent in more than 80 ideas everything from abolishing the death penalty to requiring the concealment of cleavage.
The goal of this educational project is to pick one idea, find a senator to introduce it in January, and then follow that bill through the political process this session.
So we requested help in narrowing the field a little.
Ten Journal Star readers, with interest in government, agreed to donate a couple of hours of their time to give us advice,
Some of the new law ideas already are law, so they were culled early.
A proposal to help protect college students from contracting meningitis by providing an informational pamphlet to new students was put into state law two years ago.
It already is illegal to disobey a police order to stop.
Other proposals had built-in problems, identified with the help of lobbyist Walt Radcliffe.
Some would be quite costly and therefore much more difficult to get passed, including some worthy ideas like paying all public defenders the same as prosecutors in each county.
Some are local issues, better resolved by city or county government. For example, the state would not likely have a law prohibiting cable television companies from adding new stations, because that issue could be controlled through contracts between cities and cable companies.
Prohibiting upholstered furniture on porches and requiring dog walkers to carry off the droppings are generally considered local issues.
Some proposals likely would be viewed as intruding too far into private business decisions, such as the idea that every company should be required to give cost-of-living raises.
The 10 volunteers from our Reader Network met for an hour one evening, to debate and defend their favorites. They were divided into two groups, and each group was asked to pick their top five bill ideas.
Every person had a few personal favorites, and the two committees initially had a list of more than two-dozen favorite bills.
One team narrowed that list in the same way the Legislature's Appropriation Committee makes tentative budget building decisions five hands raised and the idea stayed.
The other committee undertook a less orderly elimination by default. Ideas without fervent vocal supporters were eliminated in the final round.
Just by chance, there were no overlapping ideas between the two committee lists.
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.
The Top 10
— Low level nuclear waste generated within the state should be properly disposed of within the state.
— A state law to allow a person to seal his credit bureau accounts with a secret password. Only that person could open that account for a credit check. This would help with identity theft.
— Require running lights on cars.
— Raise the legal driving age to 18.
— Any doctor put on probation by the state should be legally required to notify all patients in writing of the probation and why it was rendered.
— Reduce the state park camping fee during the week for senior citizens.
— Allow independent voters to pick a partisan ballot in the primary.
— Charge state income tax on retired railroad workers' retirements.
— Place all state offices, including constitutional offices, under the supervision of the Nebraska Department of Personnel to avoid abuse of workers.
— Don't tax nonexistent property. For example, folks who own Hallam property that was destroyed still have to pay taxes on it.