Omaha ramping up efforts to make change to Nebraska constitution

With state lawmakers heading back to Lincoln right after the first of the year, the city of Omaha is ramping up efforts to make a major change to Nebraska's constitution.

A push to repeal a racially charged amendment to the Constitution is in for round two.

Earlier this year Omaha asked the Legislature to ask voters to repeal the state’s ban on affirmative action but time ran out before lawmakers could act.

City officials say they are not looking to reinstate affirmative action but insist the ban gets in the way of diverse hiring practices.

“It needs to go,” Omaha City Councilman Ben Gray said. “I’m not asking for or calling for any specific type of affirmative action. I’m saying take the gloves off so that as each city, as each county, as each government subdivision wrestles with how we’re going to make our community reflect our city, what are we going to do? How are we going to do that? What tools do we use? What is available to us?”

The ban on affirmative action was put in place in 2008 when voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 424.

Any statewide vote to repeal the ban would likely have to wait until 2022.