100% Exemption For Military Retirement Pay Headed To Ricketts

      The Nebraska legislature gave 47-0 final approval Wednesday a 100% tax exemption for military retirement pay. Passage took longer than expected due to a mini-filibuster by Sen Machaela Cavenaugh.

     Opponents on Tues filibustering her bill to add $10-million dollars over the next 2 years for services to children with developmental disabilities warned the cost could prove unsustainable, so Cavenaugh made the same warning against the exemption.

     She also said she actually supported the bill but was making a point, which triggered  the latest in an on-going battle of words between Cavenaugh, a moderate-to-liberal Democrat, and and conservative Republican Senators Mike Moser and Julie Slama

      Cavenaugh said she would continue to fight for more spending for developmental disabilities until the session ends and will “yell as much as I want and use my linebacker voice as much as I want. I never claimed to be a lady and I’m not going to act like one today.”

      She also advised Moser to keep his criticisms of her to himself or at least off microphones – calling his complaints “extremely rude and dismissive and condescending,” although she was sure it won’t stop him from making them.