http://info.neded.org/stathand/parttwo/nebconst.html
State of Nebraska Constitution
Article XI.
City of 5,000 may frame charter; procedure.
CXI-2 Any city having a population of more than five
thousand (5000) inhabitants may frame a charter for its own
government, consistent with and subject to the constitution and
laws of this state, by causing a convention of fifteen
freeholders, who shall have been for at least five years
qualified electors thereof, to be elected by the qualified voters
of said city at any general or special election, whose duty it
shall be within four months after such election, to prepare and
propose a charter for such city, which charter, when completed,
with a prefatory synopsis, shall be signed by the officers and
members of the convention, or a majority thereof, and delivered
to the clerk of said city, who shall publish the same in full,
with his official certification, in the official paper of said
city, if there be one, and if there be no official paper, then in
at least one newspaper published and in general circulation in
said city, three times, and a week apart, and within not less
than thirty days after such publication it shall be submitted to
the qualified electors of said city at a general or special
election, and if a majority of such qualified voters, voting
thereon, shall ratify the same, it shall at the end of sixty days
thereafter, become the charter of said city, and supersede any
existing charter and all amendments thereof. A duplicate
certificate shall be made, setting forth the charter proposed and
its ratification (together with the vote for and against) and
duly certified by the City Clerk, and authenticated by the
corporate seal of said city and one copy thereof shall be filed
with the Secretary of State and the other deposited among the
archives of the city, and shall thereupon become and be the
charter of said city, and all amendments of such charter, shall
be authenticated in the same manner, and filed with the secretary
of state and deposited in the archives of the city.
Rejection of charter; effect; procedure to frame new charter.
CXI-3 But if said charter be rejected, then within six
months thereafter, the mayor and council or governing authorities
of said city may call a special election at which fifteen members
of a new charter convention shall be elected to be called and
held as above in such city, and they shall proceed as above to
frame a charter which shall in like manner and to the like end be
published and submitted to a vote of said voters for their
approval or rejection. If again rejected, the procedure herein
designated may be repeated until a charter is finally approved by
a majority of those voting thereon, and certified (together with
the vote for and against) to the secretary of state as aforesaid,
and a copy thereof deposited in the archives of the city,
whereupon it shall become the charter of said city. Members of
each of said charter conventions shall be elected at large, and
they shall complete their labors within sixty days after their
respective election. The charter shall make proper provision for
continuing, amending or repealing the ordinances of the city.
Charter; amendment; charter convention.
CXI-4 Such charter so ratified and adopted may be
amended, or a charter convention called, by a proposal therefor
made by the law-making body of such city or by the qualified
electors in number not less than five per cent of the next
preceding gubernatorial vote in such city, by petition filed with
the council or governing authorities. The council or governing
authorities shall submit the same to a vote of the qualified
electors at the next general or special election not held within
thirty days after such petition is filed. In submitting any such
charter or charter amendments, any alternative article or section
may be presented for the choice of the voters and may be voted on
separately without prejudice to others. Whenever the question of
a charter convention is carried by a majority of those voting
thereon, a charter convention shall be called through a special
election ordinance, and the same shall be constituted and held
and the proposed charter submitted to a vote of the qualified
electors, approved or rejected, as provided in Section two
hereof. The City Clerk of said city shall publish with his
official certification, for three times, a week apart in the
official paper in said city, if there be one, and if there be no
official paper, then in at least one newspaper, published and in
general circulation in said city, the full text of any charter or
charter amendment to be voted on at any general or special
election.
No charter or charter amendment adopted under the
provisions of this amendment shall be amended or repealed except
by electoral vote. And no such charter or charter amendment
shall diminish the tax rate for state purposes fixed by act of
the Legislature, or interfere in any wise with the collection of
state taxes.
Charter of city of 100,000; home rule charter authorized.
CXI-5 The charter of any city having a population of
more than one hundred thousand inhabitants may be adopted as the
home rule charter of such city by a majority vote of the
qualified electors of such city voting upon the question, and
when so adopted may thereafter be changed or amended as provided
in Section 4 of this article, subject to the Constitution and
laws of the state.
****************************************************************************
Article XII:
Legislature to provide for organization, regulation, and
supervision of corporations and associations; limitation;
elections for directors or managers; voting rights of
stockholders.
CXII-1 The Legislature shall provide by general law for
the organization, regulation, supervision and general control of
all corporations, and for the organization, supervision and
general control of mutual and co-operative companies and
associations, and by such legislation shall insure the mutuality
and co-operative features and functions thereof. Foreign
corporations transacting or seeking to transact business in this
state shall be subject, under general law, to regulation,
supervision and general control, and shall not be given greater
rights or privileges than are given domestic corporations of a
similar character. No corporations shall be created by special
law, nor their charters be extended, changed or amended, except
those corporations organized for charitable, educational, penal
or reformatory purposes, which are to be and remain under the
patronage and control of the state. The Legislature shall
provide by law that in all elections for directors or managers of
incorporated companies every stockholder owning voting stock
shall have the right to vote in person or proxy for the number of
such shares owned by him, for as many persons as there are
directors or managers to be elected or to cumulate such shares
and give one candidate as many votes as the number of directors
multiplied by the number his shares shall equal, or to distribute
them upon the same principal among as many candidates as he shall
think fit, and such directors or managers shall not be elected in
any other manner; PROVIDED, that any mutual or cooperative
company or association may, in its articles of incorporation,
limit the number of shares of stock any stockholder may own, the
transfer of such stock, and the right of each stockholder or
member to one vote only in the meetings of such company or
association. All general laws passed pursuant to this section
may be altered from time to time, or repealed.
Corporation acquiring an interest in real estate used for farming
or ranching or engaging in farming or ranching; restrictions;
Secretary of State, Attorney General; duties; Legislature;
powers.
CXII-8 That Article XII of the Constitution of the
State of Nebraska be amended by adding a new section numbered 8
and subsections as numbered, notwithstanding any other provisions
of this Constitution.
Sec. 8(1) No corporation or syndicate shall acquire, or
otherwise obtain an interest, whether legal, beneficial, or
otherwise, in any title to real estate used for farming or
ranching in this state, or engage in farming or ranching.
Corporation shall mean any corporation organized under
the laws of any state of the United States or any country or any
partnership of which such corporation is a partner.
Farming or ranching shall mean (i) the cultivation of
land for the production of agricultural crops, fruit, or other
horticultural products, or (ii) the ownership, keeping or feeding
of animals for the production of livestock or livestock products.
Syndicate shall mean any limited partnership organized
under the laws of any state of the United States or any country,
other than limited partnerships in which the partners are members
of a family, or a trust created for the benefit of a member of
that family, related to one another within the fourth degree of
kindred according to the rules of civil law, or their spouses, at
least one of whom is a person residing on or actively engaged in
the day to day labor and management of the farm or ranch, and
none of whom are nonresident aliens. This shall not include
general partnerships.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(A) A family farm or ranch corporation. Family farm or
ranch corporation shall mean a corporation engaged in farming or
ranching or the ownership of agricultural land, in which the
majority of the voting stock is held by members of a family, or a
trust created for the benefit of a member of that family, related
to one another within the fourth degree of kindred according to
the rules of civil law, or their spouses, at least one of whom is
a person residing on or actively engaged in the day to day labor
and management of the farm or ranch and none of whose
stockholders are non-resident aliens and none of whose
stockholders are corporations or partnerships, unless all of the
stockholders or partners of such entities are persons related
within the fourth degree of kindred to the majority of
stockholders in the family farm corporation.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(B) Non-profit corporations.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(C) Nebraska Indian tribal corporations.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(D) Agricultural land, which, as of the effective date
of this Act, is being farmed or ranched, or which is owned or
leased, or in which there is a legal or beneficial interest in
title directly or indirectly owned, acquired, or obtained by a
corporation or syndicate, so long as such land or other interest
in title shall be held in continuous ownership or under
continuous lease by the same such corporation or syndicate, and
including such additional ownership or leasehold as is reasonably
necessary to meet the requirements of pollution control
regulations. For the purposes of this exemption, land purchased
on a contract signed as of the effective date of this amendment,
shall be considered as owned on the effective date of this
amendment.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(E) A farm or ranch operated for research or
experimental purposes, if any commercial sales from such farm or
ranch are only incidental to the research or experimental
objectives of the corporation or syndicate.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(F) Agricultural land operated by a corporation for the
purpose of raising poultry.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(G) Land leased by alfalfa processors for the
production of alfalfa.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(H) Agricultural land operated for the purpose of
growing seed, nursery plants, or sod.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(I) Mineral rights on agricultural land.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(J) Agricultural land acquired or leased by a
corporation or syndicate for immediate or potential use for
nonfarming or nonranching purposes. A corporation or syndicate
may hold such agricultural land in such acreage as may be
necessary to its nonfarm or nonranch business operation, but
pending the development of such agricultural land for nonfarm or
nonranch purposes, not to exceed a period of five years, such
land may not be used for farming or ranching except under lease
to a family farm or ranch corporation or a non-syndicate and
non-corporate farm or ranch.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(K) Agricultural lands or livestock acquired by a
corporation or syndicate by process of law in the collection of
debts, or by any procedures for the enforcement of a lien,
encumbrance, or claim thereon, whether created by mortgage or
otherwise. Any lands so acquired shall be disposed of within a
period of five years and shall not be used for farming or
ranching prior to being disposed of, except under a lease to a
family farm or ranch corporation or a non-syndicate and
non-corporate farm or ranch.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(L) A bona fide encumbrance taken for purposes of
security.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(M) Custom spraying, fertilizing, or harvesting.
These restrictions shall not apply to:
(N) Livestock futures contracts, livestock purchased
for slaughter, or livestock purchased and resold within two
weeks.
If a family farm corporation, which has qualified under
all the requirements of a family farm or ranch corporation,
ceases to meet the defined criteria, it shall have fifty years,
if the ownership of the majority of the stock of such corporation
continues to be held by persons related to one another within the
fourth degree of kindred or their spouses, and their landholdings
are not increased, to either re-qualify as a family farm
corporation or dissolve and return to personal ownership.
The Secretary of State shall monitor corporate and
syndicate agricultural land purchases and corporate and syndicate
farming and ranching operations, and notify the Attorney General
of any possible violations. If the Attorney General has reason
to believe that a corporation or syndicate is violating this
amendment, he or she shall commence an action in district court
to enjoin any pending illegal land purchase, or livestock
operation, or to force divestiture of land held in violation of
this amendment. The court shall order any land held in violation
of this amendment to be divested within two years. If land so
ordered by the court has not been divested within two years, the
court shall declare the land escheated to the State of Nebraska.
If the Secretary of State or Attorney General fails to
perform his or her duties as directed by this amendment, Nebraska
citizens and entities shall have standing in district court to
seek enforcement.
The Nebraska Legislature may enact, by general law,
further restrictions prohibiting certain agricultural operations
that the legislature deems contrary to the intent of this
section.