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In the past few months, I outlined four initiative petitions that have been filed with the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office and are currently in circulation for the 2026 General Election. Since then, two additional initiative petitions have been submitted to the Secretary of State: (1) the Nebraska Cannabis Initiative and (2) the Teacher Base Salary Initiative. Although I provide information about these initiative petitions, this newsletter series is meant to be informative and neither represents an endorsement FOR nor AGAINST any particular measure.
The Nebraska Cannabis Initiative proposes to amend Article I of the Nebraska Constitution to create a new section to bring the state closer to legalizing recreational marijuana. This proposed constitutional amendment is written as follows: “All persons twenty-one years of age or older have the right to use all plants in the genus Cannabis.” This ballot initiative would create a broad right to use the plants in the cannabis genus, which includes hemp or marijuana. The proposal comes as the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission implements medical cannabis initiatives approved by voters in 2024.
The Teacher Base Salary Initiative, brought by a group known as Advocates for All Nebraskans, proposes to create a new law to set a base salary minimum for Nebraska public school teachers. According to the National Education Association, the average starting salary for a teacher in Nebraska is $38,811 while the average teacher salary is $60,239. The Teacher Base Salary Initiative would set an initial base salary of $50,000 which would apply to all certificated teachers, regardless of years of experience or educational attainment. The measure would not stop a school district from paying a teacher more than the minimum base salary. The Legislature would also be required to create a public education funding system based on quarterly block grant funding to pay the teachers. According to the initiative’s sponsors, having the state cover the costs of offering all teachers a $50,000 salary would cost an estimated $1.2 billion, which is about equal to the total state aid allocated to districts under the state’s current school funding formula known as TEEOSA for the 2025-26 school year. The intention of this proposal is to ensure K-12 schools are properly funded while not having a heavy reliance on property taxes.
Under our state’s constitution, there are different signature threshold requirements in order to get an initiative measure successfully on the ballot. For the initiative striving to create a teacher base salary, approximately 90,000 signatures will need to be submitted. Meanwhile, the initiative wanting to create broader rights for cannabis use will need around 126,000 signatures because it is a constitutional amendment. In addition to the statewide percentage, all initiative petitions must meet a geographic distribution requirement. The signatures must be collected from at least 5 percent of the registered voters in each of 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.
People interested in getting more information about both the Nebraska Cannabis Initiative and the Teacher Base Salary Initiative may consider visiting the Secretary of State’s website at https:// sos.nebraska.gov/current-petitions- circulation.
I invite you to let me know your thoughts or concerns. My Capitol office telephone number is (402) 471-2801 while my email is [email protected]. My mailing address is: Senator Barry DeKay, District #40, P.O. Box 94604, State Capitol, Lincoln, NE 68509.
