Ricketts acknowledged that his plan alone won’t fix all of the financial pressures on the state’s farmers and ranchers, but touted it as a starting point.

One part of the Republican governor’s package would prevent local government property tax collections from growing by more than 3 percent per year, unless voters approve a larger increase in a special election. Lawmakers wouldn’t pass the measure themselves but would place it on the ballot for voters to consider in the 2020 general election.

“If you don’t have that fiscal restraint, you’re not going to have that long-term tax relief,” he said in testimony to the Legislature’s Revenue Committee.

Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, the committee chairwoman, said she sponsored the measure for the governor as a way to force local governments to keep their spending increases below recent levels of inflation.

“I think we’re trying to focus people on the real issue, which is spending,” she said.

Another piece of the package would add $51 million a year to a Nebraska tax credit designed to reduce property tax bills, bringing the total to $275 million a year. Ricketts’ proposal would also lock in that amount to make it harder for future lawmakers to raid the fund.

“This is a straightforward approach to tax relief without a tax shift,” said Sen. Brett Lindstrom, of Omaha, who introduced the bill on the governor’s behalf.

Some farmers say their property tax bills have surged over the last decade, hampering their ability to stay in business. One family told lawmakers they moved their operation to Missouri because property taxes were lower there.

Frederic Oltjenbruns said he spent 50 years farming on family-owned land just north of Lincoln, but moved to Missouri after getting a $50,000 property tax bill in 2017.

“Lancaster County made more money off of my farm than I did,” he said. “… Moving out of your home state, that’s pretty radical stuff, and we didn’t take it lightly.”

Oltjenbruns said his property tax bill on his Missouri farmland was slightly more than $1,100.

Shane Greckel, a Bloomfield farmer and former legislative candidate, said his annual property tax bill has jumped from $800 in 2006 to $3,400 in 2017 on the same farmland.

“That’s (an extra) $2,600 I had to come up with just to keep the ground,” he said. “At this point it’s not just keeping the ground. It’s renting it from the government.”

Local school boards and cities objected to the proposed 3 percent cap on revenue growth.

LaVista Mayor Douglas Kindig said his city and others in fast-growing Sarpy County need the flexibility to serve their residents. Kindig said local governments sometimes use the extra revenue to build up their cash reserves or pay for large economic development projects.

The proposal could prompt local governments to raise sales taxes and fees to compensate for revenue they need to provide services, according to a brief from the OpenSky Policy Institute, a Nebraska tax policy think tank that frequently calls for more funding of K-12 public schools.

Some rural lawmakers said the larger issue is the state funding formula for Nebraska’s K-12 public schools, the biggest consumer of local property taxes. Sen. Mike Groene, of North Platte, said lawmakers need to go beyond what they’ve done in recent years to make a reduction property owners will notice.

“We just don’t want everyone to have a wine and cheese party, say ‘We provided property tax relief,’ and go home,” he said.

Using data reported by states, the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that 6,227 pedestrians were killed last year. That’s up 4 percent from 2017 and 35 percent since 2008.

The association blames the increase on factors that include distracted or impaired drivers, more people walking to work, and more SUVs on the road, which cause more severe injuries in collisions with people on foot.

It also says most deaths happen on local roads at night and away from intersections, and it called for safer road crossings. Night crashes accounted for more than 90 percent of the increased deaths over the past decade.

“While we have made progress reducing fatalities among many other road users in the past decade, pedestrian deaths have risen 35 percent,” Jonathan Adkins, the association’s executive director, said in a statement issued Thursday. “The alarm bells continue to sound on this issue.”

The report also called for law enforcement and safety education campaigns to make sure drivers and walkers can safely coexist, as well as for road safety audits.

It said that 23 states saw declines in pedestrian deaths during the first half of last year, with six states reporting double-digit drops.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A bill that would have made it harder to install new wind-energy farms in Nebraska has died in the Legislature.

Lawmakers voted 23-8 Wednesday in favor of the bill, two votes shy of the simple majority needed to advance it.

The bill would have barred Nebraska’s public power organizations from using eminent domain to install transmission lines for use by privately developed wind-energy farms. Opponents say it would have stifled wind energy development in Nebraska.

The bill was introduced by state Sen. Tom Brewer, of Gordon, whose rural district includes a vast swath of north-central and western Nebraska.

Many of Brewer’s constituents are fighting a proposed transmission line that would cut through their area. They also fervently oppose wind turbines in the Sandhills, a scenic region of grass-covered sand dunes.

AURORA, Neb. (AP) — A Missouri man has been jailed and put on probation for fatally striking a woman with his semitrailer as she was walking to a tow truck along Interstate 80 in central Nebraska.

Hamilton County Court records say 30-year-old Victor Genetti, of Sugar Creek, Missouri, was sentenced Tuesday in Aurora to 32 days in jail with credit for one day already served, fined $1,000, put on probation for two years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service over the next year.

He’d pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

Authorities say the woman was a passenger in a vehicle that had broken down March 1 last year near Giltner in Hamilton County. She’s been identified as 26-year-old India Marie Simpson, who lived in Waxhaw, North Carolina.

GERING, Neb. (AP) — A 34-year-old Scottsbluff woman is scheduled to be sentenced April 24 for exposing her unborn child to methamphetamine.

Scotts Bluff County Court records say Amanda Pourier pleaded no contest Monday to the misdemeanor.

The records say an officer was dispatched to Regional West Medical Center on Dec. 18 because a woman who’d just given birth was making suicidal comments. The child died shortly after being delivered after only 14 weeks of gestation.

The officer says Pourier reported that she’d used meth the day before giving birth. The officer also says Pourier seemed to be under the influence of meth during the hospital interview.

Supporters said the measure would help the state and local governments preserve Nebraska’s roads as electric vehicles grow increasingly popular.

The bill would gradually raise the registration fee for alternative-fuel vehicles from the current $75 to $125 by 2024. The extra revenue would go into the state Highway Trust Fund, which is used to maintain state, city and county roads.

The increase “is a fair way for everyone to fund the Department of Transportation and the roads we all drive on,” said Sen. Bruce Bostelman, of Brainard, who sponsored the bill. “As long as we continue to drive on our roads, we must continue to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of those roads going forward.”

Bostelman said the proposed increase was based on the average $150 in gas taxes that gas-vehicle drivers pay in Nebraska each year.

He said the increase would bring Nebraska into alignment with the rates many states already charge. Bostelman said 19 states, including Nebraska, charge an annual fee for alternative-fuel vehicles, and most of those charge between $100 and $150.

The bill wouldn’t apply to hybrid vehicles or those that run on diesel or compressed natural gas.

Nebraska will register an estimated 1,250 alternative fuel vehicles in 2020 and another 1,500 by 2021, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles. The number of registered alternative fuel vehicles in Nebraska surged last year, from 405 in 2017 to 772 in 2018.

“Should alternative fuel vehicle use increase, the tax revenue generated from the motor vehicle fuel tax will decrease,” Bostelman said.

Nebraska has more than 100,000 miles of roads and 20,000 bridges, mostly owned by counties and cities. Roughly 10,000 miles of road and 3,500 bridges belong to the state.

Michael O’Hara, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club’s Nebraska chapter, said his group supports the increase “and if anything, it’s too low.”

Loy Todd, president of the Nebraska New Car and Truck Dealers Association, said the bill was an important way to capture state revenue as consumers gradually shift to electric vehicles.

“If we want good roads in the state, we’ve got to pay for them. No question about it,” he said.

No one testified against the bill. Members of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee took no immediate action.

The measure won first-round approval in the Legislature Tuesday on a 42-3 vote.

The bill by state Sen. Julie Slama, of Peru, gives school districts three options to teach students. One is to administer the naturalization test used by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services once before they complete eighth grade and again before they complete 12th grade.

Another option would require students to attend or participate in a government meeting and complete a project about what they learned.

The third option would require students to complete a project or paper and a class presentation on holidays such as Veterans Day, Constitution Day or Native American Heritage Day.

Schools would only have to choose one option.