Measure to repeal Nebraska’s private school funding law should appear on the ballot, court rules

A ballot measure seeking to repeal a new conservative-backed law that provides taxpayer money for private school tuition should appear on the state’s November ballot, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The court found that the ballot measure does not target an appropriation, which is prohibited by law

The ruling came just days after the state’s high court heard arguments Tuesday in a lawsuit brought by an eastern Nebraska woman whose child received one of the first private school tuition scholarships available through the new law. Her lawsuit argued that the referendum initiative violates the state constitution’s prohibition on voter initiatives to revoke legislative appropriations for government functions.

An attorney for the referendum effort countered that the ballot question appropriately targets the creation of the private school tuition program — not the $10 million appropriations bill that accompanied it.

Republican Nebraska Secretary of State Bob Evnen certified the repeal measure last week after finding that organizers of the petition effort had gathered thousands more valid signatures than the nearly 62,000 needed to get the repeal question on the ballot.

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