friday, October 31, 1980
daily nebraskan
page 9
Hoag land supports redivision of court districts
By Alice Hrnicek
The selection of Nebraska Supreme Court justices
from six districts is unfair to 40 percent of the state's
lawyers, who live in one of the districts, said State Sen
Peter lloagland of Omaha.
The division of the Supreme Court districts is especial
ly unfair to Omaha lawyers, who are in the overloaded
district, because it decreases their chance of serving on
the court, he said.
Under the current law, one Supreme Court justice
is selected from each district and the chief justice is
chosen from the whole state.
The division is a result of political gerrymandering by
the Nebraska Legislature, which redistributes the court
every 10 years after the census, lloagland said. Gerryman
dering implies that the legislatures are attempting to
divide the court to the benefit of their areas, he said.
lloagland has proposed an amendment to the Nebraska
Constitution which would redivide the court's districts
into three areas to coincide with the present congressional
districts. Hoagland said the proposed division would
concentrate more on division by population rather than
by power.
"We ought to have one branch of government insulated
from the rough and tumble of special interest," lloagland
k-
said.
The proposal, which will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot
as Proposed Amendment No. 1, provides that two judges
will be selected from each congressional district. Judges
now serving would be unaffected until their positions
became vacant.
Some opponents of the measure say that the only
plausible change in the current system would be to choose
all judges from the state at large. Others are content with
the current division.
State Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly said he favors the
current system. Warner said that the larger districts re
sulting from the change would make "voter scruitny"
of the judges more difficult. Judges must be approved
by voters by ballot every six years.
Hoagland said that a judge's residence area in the
state can make a difference in how he views cases. How
ever, he said, this discrepancy does not occur with the
present judges.
John W. Strong, dean of the UNL College of Law, also
said that the present system has encouraged an adequate
judiciary.
But lie agrees with Hoagland 's view that giving Omaha
lawyers greater access to the Nebraska Supreme Court
is a worthy idea.
Strong said the new system would be less likely to re
flect special interests.
"Now the areas are harder to justify in terms of special
interests," he said.
Norman Krivosha, chief justice of the Nebraska
Supreme Court, said that districting makes little dif
ference in how judges approach a particular case.
"The Supreme Court doesn't represent groups,"
Krivosha said. "It acts in an impartial matter to resolve
legal matters."
"It's well for the court to have judges selected from
various areas," he said. "Whether it's from six or three
areas, I'm not sure it makes a difference."
James Lake, UNL law professor, said he is "not too
excited about it one way or another."
But he said the issue should not be handled through
the Nebraska Constitution.
"The Constitution should deal with vital issues and
leave legislative matters to be handled in another way,"
Lake said.
Amendment proposes
'thorough, efficient'
Energy amendment not incentive public school financing
to improve conservation-direction
By Kathy Stokebrand
Proposed Constitutional Amendment No. 3, which
should allow the Nebraska Legislature to exempt energy
conservation improvements from property taxation,
wouldn't be a significant incentive to install such improve
ments and would be difficult to implement, said Bill
Palmer, director of the State Energy Office. .
The amendment, also doesn't say whether the exempt
ion will be permanent or for a certain number of years, he
said.
It will be difficult to determine how value of a home
is related to a renewable energy source, he said.
Nebraska has had a difficult time getting equitable
property tax valuations. Palmer said. He said the amend
ment, if passed will involve making a value judgement
as towhat portion of a property tax asssessment was due
to energy conservation improvements, he said.
Current energy conservation incentives available to Ne
braskans include a state and city sales tax refund for the
purchase of alternative energy -saving devices, such as solar
heating, federal law also piovides for an income tax re
bale for installation of energy conservation systems.
The rebate increased 30 percent to 40 percent in IK0.
Therefoie. if S 10.000 were spent on energy conserv
ation impiovements to a home , the homeowner could
claim a $4,000 tax ciedii from the bottom line of the
owner's income tax statement. Palmer said.
The amendment passed through the Legislature by a
vote of 36-1 1 with two senatois present and not voting.
Sen. Bairv Keutel ol Eremont sponsored the bill.
Standards will have to be set for the energy -saving
equipment so companies with poor-quality products don't
take advantage of consumers, he said.
Energy -conservation improvements, such as insulation
and storm windows, will probably not be exempted be
cause they aren't on the property tax valuations, Reutzel
said. Tax assessors don't recognize those improvements,
he said.
Reutzel said a time limit on the exemption would be
needed to provide an immediate incentive for property
owners. Eventually such devices will be put on the tax
roles, he said, but without an additional incentive to the
federal income tax rebate, people won't consider instal
ling alternative energy sources.
The exemption would be a percentage of savings to
the homeowner as applied to the purchase price of the
energy conservation improvements, Reutzel said.
Bob Martin, deputy county assessor for Lancaster
County, said adding a $oo system wouldn't necessarily
mean that value was added to the property tax. It depends
on how extensively the energy conservation improvements
arc used, he said.
The large variety of devices, total and partial units,
could throw the current property market analysis into a
"tailspin," Martin said. Currently such devices are valued
like conventional units, he said.
Under the current mill levy in Lincoln, an exemption
for a $2,000 property valuation because of energy conser
vation improvements would reduce property taxes by
S40-50 for one year. Martin said.
The amendment could have a trickle-down on the
state's economy by spurring production, buying and con
struction of alternative energy sources, Reutzel said.
Censure of state judges discussed
By Mary kempkes
Proposed Amendment No. - h-'s received little public
attention but has been a contioveisial subject among the
legal piotcssioii.ils in Ncbijsk.i.
The amendment broadens the activities foi which a
ludce can be disciplined to include all conduct "pre
judicial to the administration ol (iistice " It allows tor
public or private reprimand, censure and suspension with
out pjv (not to exceed six months!
Since removal Itom office is now the only punishment,
the commission was hesitant to discipline a udge except
tor the most llamanl disreeaid for the law . according to
proponents ol the amendment It other punishment is
available, judges might be disciplined more often.
The most controversial section ot Amendment o -
is that which allows the commission to reprimand judges
privately without public notification. Sen. Ernest
Chambers of Omaha said this provision will remove dis
cipline of judges from public view and control.
The amendment also would change the makeup of the
commission to include few judges. The commission now
consists of seven judges, two attorneys and two lay per
sons. The Nebraska Slate Bar Association supports the
amendment. Robert Barlow, president supports the
private reprimand section because he said it helps judges
retain the public respect.
Other supporters of the amendment include Lincoln
Sen. Chris lieiitler. win) called it the best of the four
amendments on the ballot, and Norman Krivosha, chief
liistice of the Nebraska Supreme Court.
By Jim Faddis
Nebraska's voters Tuesday will decide whether to add
an amendment to the state constitution directing the Leg
islature to study the ways of financing Nebraska Public
schools.
Proposed constitutional Amendment No. 4 would re
quire the Nebraska Legislature to come up with a method
of financing public education which would provide a
"thorough and efficient" school sytem without relying
on property taxes "to the extent that an unfair and exces
sive burden is imposed on property owners."
The amendment would help improve education in the
state and create more fair and just tax system for support
ing education, according to Herb Schimek, government
relations director for the Nebraska State Education Assoc
iation, which supports the amendment.
Property owners have been bearing too much of the
burden of financing schools and this amendment will
force the Legislature to use revenues from other taxes to
support education, "creating a more even tax base,"
Schimek said.
The "thorough and efficient" clause will ensure that
the state has good schools, Schimek said.
But opponents of the amendment say its language is
too vague and the courts would have to interpret it.
The amendment "could very well take control of our
schools away from our elected officials," Gov. Charles
said in a news release Tuesday.
It "could be interpreted with a result of piling control
of primary and secondary education largely in the hands
of appointed judges, and this is obviously the wrong way
to go," Thone said.
"Our schools should be directly responsible to local
elected officials, not to the courts," he said.
The local control question is a "smoke screen,"
Schimek said.
"There is no such thing as local control," he said. "We
have state control of education and the Legislature can
take any control back that they want."
Slate Sen. John DeCamp of Neligh. one of the amend
ment's top advixatcs, has written a memorandum saying
that of 15 states that have a "thorough and efficient"
constitutional clause, only two have had their school
finance laws invalidated by the courts.
But Thone argues that "special interests wanting more
spending could use Proposition 4 to sue the taxpayers for
more tax dollars."
The State Board of I ducation also has come out
against the amendment.
Education Commissioner Anne Campbell said the
board supports property tax relief and quality education,
but it feels that it should be done on a statutory basis not
through a constitutional amendment.
The board thinks the legislature, not tire courts,
should define "thorough and efficient" education, Camp
bell said.
