For the past several years, I’ve had the privilege of working side by side with Nebraskans to advance two simple and popular ideas: that working people deserve a living wage, and that no one should lose a paycheck because they get sick.
We gathered petition signatures in the summer heat and the winter wind. We stood outside at farmers’ markets and concert venues, and inside churches of many denominations. We talked with hundreds of thousands of our neighbors — urban and rural, conservative and progressive, young families and retirees. When these measures eventually reached the ballot, Nebraskans voted for them. Overwhelmingly.
And yet, almost as quickly as the votes were counted, the Nebraska Legislature got to work weakening them. One of the first bills lawmakers passed this year undercut the minimum wage initiative most of us voted for by restricting future increases and reducing the wages of some young workers. Last year, they carved out large groups of hardworking Nebraskans from earned paid sick leave. And this year we faced a new bill that aimed to take away paid sick leave from even more workers.
Lawmakers are rewriting what the people have written because certain elected officials simply didn’t like the outcome; that should alarm every Nebraskan, no matter how you voted.
This is why I support the Respect Nebraska Voters initiative, and why you should, too. This Nebraskan-led effort to amend the state constitution is currently in its final few weeks of gathering signatures across the state to qualify for the November ballot. Its purpose is straightforward: When Nebraskans approve a ballot initiative, it should hold. It shouldn’t be rewritten the moment the Legislature feels political pressure from wealthy donors or lobbyists who didn’t get their way.
Right now, it takes a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to change a voter- approved law — 33 votes. We’ve seen how quickly 33 votes can be rounded up when powerful interests wish to override the people. The Respect Nebraska Voters amendment would raise that requirement to four-fifths, or 40 of our 49 senators. That’s what an actual safeguard looks like. When 40 senators agree that something needs to change, that’s a true consensus.
I, like many Nebraskans, felt incredibly frustrated reading coverage of what some state senators said about minimum wage a few months ago before they voted to undermine what the people decided. I’m paraphrasing here, but many senators’ positions seemed to boil down to: “People didn’t really understand what they were voting for.”
That’s nonsense.
The yearlong process of signature gathering, education, and get-out-the-vote work is one of the biggest listening tours this state has ever seen. I spent months talking with and listening to the concerns of thousands upon thousands of Nebraskans, and so did hundreds of other organizers and volunteers.
On both the minimum wage and paid sick leave campaigns, we heard what people feared: being one illness away from financial disaster, working multiple jobs, and still falling behind. We heard what they valued: fairness, dignity, and self-reliance. Above all, we heard their agency: Nebraskans knew exactly what they were signing and exactly what they were voting for.
To claim otherwise is out of touch, and to ignore the obvious truth: If certain lawmakers were as in tune with their constituents as they claim to be, they would have heard the same thing we did. Instead, they’re now telling voters they didn’t understand their own choices.
When elected officials change the outcome of a vote because they didn’t like the result, they’re not “clarifying” anything. They’re erasing Nebraskans’ voices. And if they can do it to minimum wage and paid sick leave reforms, they can do it to any measure Nebraskans pass, whether it’s about health care, education or taxes.
Politicians have shown us exactly how far they are willing to go to keep their grip on decision-making. They know that when Nebraskans gather signatures and put issues directly on the ballot, the people often choose differently than they do. And that frightens them.
So, once again, it’s time to act. The right to petition our government is the purest tool of democracy we have in this state. We cannot allow it to be undermined.
This OpEd, authored by Dawn Essink, originally appeared in the Omaha World-Herald.
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