BEATRICE – It was a battle this week, but a bill proposing changes to a initiative approved by voters last November, has advanced to the second round of debate.


LB 415, with a committee amendment attached, deals with the Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplace Act, designed to require paid sick leave be granted to Nebraska workers. The act was approved last November with nearly 75-percent voting support by Nebraskans.  It moved on to second round, Friday, after a cloture vote with only two votes to spare and by surviving a bracket motion.


Senator Paul Strommen has characterized the voter approved initiative as bad for small business.
"We know what our overhead payroll costs are. If Nebraska mandates more overhead, we'll have no choice but to pass it onto the consumer. It just adds more cost to goods and services...costs of goods sold. There's only really two ways to offset that. One is to reduce the number of employees you have, or to increase your costs. In a lot of our small towns and our rural communities, it's extremely difficult to offset those costs."


Opponents of LB 415 said the bill goes against the will of the voters, who overwhelmingly approved paid sick leave. Senator Megan Hunt says critics of paid sick leave were over-blowing its impact on business.
"We're talking about one hour of paid sick leave for every thirty hours worked. That's it. That's not radical, that's not excessive. If something like that is going to put your business out of business...maybe you should look at how you're living. It would take a worker nearly an entire month of full-time work, just to earn a single paid, day-off."


Senator Danielle Conrad feels lawmakers don’t have the right to undercut the decision by voters made during the Initiative 436 consideration last November.  "Unless, of course, you told your voters in your campaign, I'm going to run to LIncoln and undercut your will. I'm going to run to LIncoln and the first thing that I'm going to do is pick and choose which parts of Democracy I support."


Strommen cited comments from several small business owners who said mandated sick leave is detrimental to providing raises or hiring more people. Hunt countered that lawmakers were not standing up for either workers or families in the state.


LB 415 advanced on a vote of 34-15, with one senator not voting.