In November 2024, nearly 75% of Nebraska voters supported a ballot initiative to approve paid sick leave for workers.
Just months later, and before the law was even implemented, members of the Nebraska Legislature overturned the will of the people and exempted 140,000 hardworking Nebraskans from being able to earn paid sick leave to care for themselves or a family member.
Paid sick leave was approved in 89 of 93 counties with majority support in every legislative district. No matter how you look at the numbers, voters overwhelmingly supported allowing hardworking Nebraskans the ability to earn and use paid sick leave because no one should have to choose between a paycheck and the health of their families.
So why did lawmakers feel they could take this away from us?
In Nebraska, we pride ourselves on our unique unicameral system. We are the only state in our nation with a single legislative house, the Nebraska Legislature, which makes the people of our great state the de facto “Second House.” This enables us to work closely with lawmakers to truly create the good life for all.
And when issues, like paid sick leave, try to pass through the legislative process without success, there is another route individuals and advocates can take in our state — the ballot initiative.
This direct democracy gives the Second House equal power, but it’s not easy. Volunteers and organizers spent months reaching out to voters across the state, first collecting enough signatures to get the issue on the ballot and then reaching voters to ensure they understood what they were voting for and how it could impact them.
As a ballot sponsor for Paid Sick Leave for Nebraskans and a working parent, I knew how important paid sick leave is for families. It’s why we invested time, energy and other resources to ensure voters could make their voices heard after their needs went unmet by the legislature for nearly a decade.
To take all that time and effort to pass a ballot measure with clear and overwhelming support from voters only to have lawmakers rollback or overturn the will of voters is maddening.
But it’s more than frustration — it’s 140,000 hardworking Nebraskans losing the opportunity to earn paid sick leave.
It’s weakening minimum wage increases and capping future cost-of-living increases for our neighbors. It’s ignoring voters and taking taxpayer dollars away from public schools. These are all issues that have been decided on the ballot by Nebraska voters only to have them undermined by the legislature.
This can all change with one more vote from you in November 2026. It’s time to say enough.
I am proud to be one of the sponsors for a new ballot initiative with the group Respect Nebraska Voters.
This measure will ensure our right to propose and vote on laws that put hardworking families first and ensure that when Nebraskans make a decision at the ballot box, politicians respect it.
Our constitutional amendment will change the number of state lawmakers required to undo or change laws voters have passed from two-thirds of the state legislature to a four-fifths supermajority.
It also protects our freedom to vote on important issues facing our communities by strengthening protections for the ballot initiative process itself, requiring the same supermajority to prevent politicians from passing laws that restrict the people’s ability to bring initiatives.
Nebraskans, we now have before us an opportunity to shift power to you, the voter. Let’s make it clear that as the Second House, we deserve respect.
This OpEd, authored by Jo Giles, originally appeared in the Omaha World-Herald.
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