Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes > Municipal Initiative and Referendum Act

• Acquire: when used in connection with a grant of power or property right to any person shall include the purchase, grant, gift, devise, bequest, and obtaining by eminent domain. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Action: shall include any proceeding in any court of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Amortization: Paying off a loan by regular installments.
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Chief executive officer: means the mayor, the city manager, or the chairperson of the board of trustees of a municipality. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2502.01
• Circulator: shall mean any person who solicits signatures for an initiative or referendum petition. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2503
• City clerk: means the city clerk, village clerk, or other municipal official in charge of elections. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2504
• Company: shall include any corporation, partnership, limited liability company, joint-stock company, joint venture, or association. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Domestic: when applied to corporations shall mean all those created by authority of this state. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Governing body: means the city council or village board of trustees of any municipality subject to the Municipal Initiative and Referendum Act. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2505
• Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• Measure: means an ordinance, charter provision, or resolution which is within the legislative authority of the governing body of a municipality to pass and which is not excluded from the operation of referendum by the exceptions in section 18-2528. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2506
• Month: shall mean calendar month. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Municipality: means all cities and villages, not operating under home rule charters, including those functioning under the commission and city manager plans of government. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2507
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Override of a veto: The process by which each chamber of the legislature votes on a bill vetoed by the President/Governor. In the U.S. Congress, to pass a bill over the President's objections requires a two-thirds vote in each Chamber. Historically, Congress has overridden fewer than ten percent of all presidential vetoes.
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: shall include bodies politic and corporate, societies, communities, the public generally, individuals, partnerships, limited liability companies, joint-stock companies, and associations. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• Petition: shall mean a document authorized for circulation pursuant to section 18-2512, or any copy of such document. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2508
• Place of residence: shall mean the street and number of the residence. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2508.01
• Process: shall mean a summons, subpoena, or notice to appear issued out of a court in the course of judicial proceedings. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Prospective petition: shall mean a sample document containing the information necessary for a completed petition, including a sample signature sheet, which has not yet been authorized for circulation. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2509
• Qualified electors: shall mean all persons registered to vote, at the time the prospective petition is filed, in the jurisdiction governed or to be governed by any measure sought to be enacted by initiative, or altered or repealed by referendum. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2510
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Residence: shall mean that place at which a person has established his or her home, where he or she is habitually present, and to which, when he or she departs, he or she intends to return. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2510.01
• Signature sheet: shall mean a sheet of paper which is part of a petition and which is signed by persons wishing to support the petition effort. See Nebraska Statutes 18-2511
• State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Veto: The procedure established under the Constitution by which the President/Governor refuses to approve a bill or joint resolution and thus prevents its enactment into law. A regular veto occurs when the President/Governor returns the legislation to the house in which it originated. The President/Governor usually returns a vetoed bill with a message indicating his reasons for rejecting the measure. In Congress, the veto can be overridden only by a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House.
• Violate: shall include failure to comply with. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
• Year: shall mean calendar year. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801