Tipped minimum wage, businesses on Indian reservations among subjects for Legislature

Waiters and waitresses could earn more, and businesses could get a tax break for locating on Indian reservations, under bills introduced in the Nebraska Legislature Wednesday.

For most jobs, the minimum wage in Nebraska is $9 an hour. But Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln says for some workers -- typically waiters, waitresses, and people in service industries where there’s a strong expectation for tipping -- it’s $2.13.

Hansen said such employees do have some protection in the law. "Employers are required by law that if an employee for a shift does not make enough in tips to at least hit the minimum wage for the number of hours they worked, the employer has to chip in the extra amount," Hansen said.

But he added unlike the minimum wage for non-tipped jobs, the minimum for tipped jobs has not gone up since 1991, eroding the earning power of these workers and making them more dependent on tips.

Another bill introduced, by Sen. Tyson Larson of O’Neill, would offer exemptions from state sales and income taxes to non-native businesses that locate on reservations. Larson said he wants to give businesses an incentive to locate there. "The concept is to get the outside capital into the reservations because right now, that’s one of the biggest things they have an issue with is getting that outside capital into the reservations," Larson said.

Meanwhile, the Judiciary Committee heard a proposal by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks to require that juveniles in the court system have lawyers. She said letting juveniles go to court without lawyers can have bad results. She gave the example of a young person who agreed to plead guilty to a minor drug charge. The judge then asked him what his future plans were, and the young man talked about where he wanted to go to college. "The judge then said ‘Well you do realize that you’ve now made certain that you cannot get any kind of federal scholarship or any kind of grant to go to school now that you’ve pled guilty to this

Out: charge?’" Pansing Brooks said.

And in legislative debate Wednesday, opposing senators blocked a proposal to require children to be vaccinated against meningitis. Among those who supported the measure was Sen. Robert Hilkemann of Omaha. Hilkemann said he had to respect the opinion of a long list of supporters, including the Public Health Association of Nebraska, the Nebraska Association of Local Health Directors, the Nebraska Medical Association and the Nebraska Pharmacists Association…

But Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango, opposing the requirement, discounted those groups’ positions. "Of course they’re going to support this. I mean, that’s their job. That’s what they do," Hughes said. "A lot of bureaucrats support expanded government because that’s their job. Me as a farmer, I promote people eating food because that’s my job. That’s what I do."

Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha had made the bill his priority noting meningitis can result in loss of limbs and organ failure. Opponents said there have been too few cases of meningitis in Nebraska to mandate vaccinations, and that decision should be left to parents. 29 senators voted in favor of ending debate and voting on the bill, while opponents got only 14 votes. But it takes 33 votes to shut off debate, so the bill will not pass this year.