October 28, 2024 • 20 mins
Omaha Chamber President and CEO Heath Mello tries to allay my "philosophical differences" with these bond issues before voters Nov. 5th.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott Vordiez, it's a pleasure to be joined in the
studio by the President and CEO of your Omaha Chamber
of Commerce, Heath Mellow, is back here on news radio
eleven ten kfab and Heath, looks like you're going to
try and extract a bunch of money from the people
of Omaha through city bond issuance. Good morning, Good morning, Scott.
(00:21):
It's great to be back on the pack of eyes,
my friend. Yes, thank you very much for calling it
by its appropriate name. According to Jim Rose years ago, now,
this isn't something that the Chamber is like. You guys
didn't come up with it and said we want this,
we think we do. This is all stuff that, through
the natural order of city government, has ended up on
(00:42):
the Omaha portion of the ballot next Tuesday. But the
Chamber of Commerce thinks this is all a good idea. Here.
Let's go through it and figure out what we're doing here,
because some of this seems to be a little bit
stacked on top of each other, almost unnecessary, including the
first one here Special City of Omaha Election eight hundred
(01:07):
A pardon me, eighty million dollars plus for street and
highway transportation bonds. Didn't we just pass a bunch of
highway I mean for road bonds a few years ago
to take care of City of Omaha streets.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
The city did, but typically what happens every four years
is part of the city's capital improvement plan, the city
typically has bonds that expire, and this city election is
no different. And when Mayor Stothard and the City Council
looked at the Capital Improvement Plan and they noticed and
saw that there was existing bonds that were going to expire,
(01:43):
they were able to look at the Capital Improvement Plan
and see that there were a significant number of transportation
and street projects that were available to be able to
be funded by by new bonds as well, and so
that eighty million dollars in transportation bonds were part of
that cap improvement plan we're put in front of the
voters as part of this six bond bond package. And
(02:06):
I think when you look at the transportation and street
bonds its entirety. I think the unique component, which we're
very supportive of from the Chambers perspective, which were very
we're trying to reinforce to taxpayers, is that it draws
down in additional eighty million dollars of federal funding, which
I think that's the most important aspect. When you're able
(02:27):
to leverage existing tax dollars to bring in additional federal
funding and it's not raising your property taxes, that's a
win win for Omaha taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We got eighty million dollars for street and highway transportation bonds,
and then a couple of ballot initiatives later the Special
City of Omaha election seventy two million dollars for street
preservation bonds. What's the difference here?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The transportation bonds are broader, bigger transportation projects, such things
as viaducts, bridge repairs, where the street preservation is helping
directly deal with some of the potholes, the repaving of streets,
the things that we know at the end of the day,
everybody across the city knows we need to continue to
(03:12):
do more of every single day. And so both of
them combined, we just kind of lump both of them together.
They are separate bonds, but be able to bring that
federal money back to be able to connect them is
really important.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
A couple of questions here. First of all, like I said,
we just passed bond issues not long ago to resurface
over several years now all of cities, all of Omaha's
city streets. This is like we have to revote on that,
or this is new money, or how does that work
with what we've already done.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's separate money. It's separate money at the end of
the day. It's not raising taxes at the end of
the day, it's an existing bond. Once again, it's just
getting rolled over. And I think that's the difference. If
you look at the language in the bond, it's very clear, Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Wait, is it rolled over or is it new money.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It's money that's getting rolled over at the end of
the day. And that's the The unique component is that
that these bonds, if it was new money, you would
be raising taxes. And I think that's the that's the
unique aspect of what Mayor stopped in the city council
when they put this package together. They are very clear
that they didn't want to raise taxes with these bonds,
and it's been very very forthright in terms of their
(04:23):
They're pulling a variety of these proposals together to ensure
that it was not going to raise taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I woke up wide away and ready to go. Unfortunately,
that was twelve forty five. So excuse me if my
sleep deprivation caused me to ask the same question again. Here,
I'm just trying to be clear. We passed bond issues
a couple of years aguess for to take care of
all of Omaha City streets. Yes, why doesn't that bond
issue just handle all of it? Why do we need these.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That so that that that I think that was a
two hundred million dollar stream bond, and I think at
the time, I think the thought was that was not
going to handle all of our street preservation issues. I
think that was a significant investment in street preservation. There
was an existing street preservation bond as well, so realize
that there are multiple street preservation bonds. So that was
(05:15):
a new street preservation bond that was passed in twenty twenty.
This is an existing street preservation bond that gets passed
essentially every four years as part of the Capital Improvement Plan.
So two separate street preservation bonds. The one past four
years ago was a much larger one. This one is
one that gets passed every four or five years, give
(05:36):
or take. That's part of the Capital Improvement Plan. And
this one once again, no tax increase associated with it all.
And that's why the Chamber of Commerce is really big
on passing this one.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So Joe hollmeowner and Omaha, says, wait a second, I
got my property taxes that go towards the City of
Omaha budget. I pay tax every time I fill up
my gas tanks. Some of that goes to local roads,
and all the rest of this stuff wheel tax and
all this stuff. Some of what the restaurant tax ended
up was supposed to go has now gone back into
(06:06):
the general fund here, Why doesn't all of the taxes,
why don't all the taxes already pay already cause the
City of Omaha to say, before we do anything else,
we need to make sure we have good roads and
be able to build these bridges and so forth. Why
do we need more money here in the form of
these bonds.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, unfortunately, I would say that it's not really a
City of Omaha issue. There's really goes back to the
state of Nebraska issue, which this has been something that
has been a long seated challenge for the region, where
the Greater Metropolitan Area sends hundreds of millions of dollars
in taxes down to Lincoln and just doesn't get its
(06:45):
fair share back in terms of infrastructure and transportation dollars.
And so when the greater metropolitan area, when I say
that Omaha, Douglas County, Sarpeye County sends hundreds of millions
of dollars in gas taxes down to Lincoln, we just
don't get that money back and the same fair share.
And so that is part of the challenge that the
(07:06):
City of Omaha wrestles with in terms of not being
able to deal with some of the transportation infrastructure challenges
year in and year out. And so that's in some form
or another why we want to continue to invest in
transportation infrastructure. And in this bond, we're able to do
that Scott without having to raise property taxes, which I
think is a win win for taxpayers realizing we're able
(07:29):
to draw down eighty million dollars in federal funding.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We've got other bond questions here, doing some stuff for
public facilities and the parks and the sewer bonds and whatever.
A good live district is a lot of my here's
a spoiler alert, A lot of my questions are but
I thought, and why doesn't and how come this doesn't.
And it's all going to come back to a point
that you've said a few times here, and it's not
going to raise your property taxes. This is not a
(07:54):
new tax. The bond issue ins is not a new tax.
And we'll drill down a little bit more on that
point point. Heath Melow is with us. He's president and
CEO of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Will continue our
conversation about some of these sometimes confusing bond questions here
on your City of Omaha ballot next Tuesday. That conversation
continues next. Scott Voriez News Radio eleven ten KFAB surely
(08:20):
emails Scott at kfab dot com and says, wouldn't it
be nice if we could believe any politician about taxes. See,
this is the thing that you're going to run into,
is we're talking with President and CEO of the Omaha
Chamber of Commerce, Heath Mellow is here talking about these
bond issues. The official position of Heath in the Chamber
is all the bond issues should be passed here in
(08:41):
the City of Omaha. None of them will raise your taxes.
People said, I don't believe you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, the beauty is surely I'm not a politician. I
represent the business community.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Former member of the state legislature. You're ran for mayor
City of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Correct, And in this unique role, I get to represent
the businesusiness community in the business community's interests. And I
don't take that lightly. And I think, you know, in
talking to viewers, like, surely we don't.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We have listeners. Listeners, I mean you're the only viewer
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Right, Well, you're You're correct, I think in that sense,
but uh, we don't take we don't take taking positions
on issues like this lightly. And so when when we
chose to get engaged in wanting to support bond issues
of this magnitude, clearly we we wanted to make sure
that it wasn't going to raise taxes because, uh, the
impact on our chamber members across the city. We want
(09:35):
to ensure in terms of what's happening right now with
the economy, in terms of issues involving inflation particularly, we
did not want to, uh, we did not want to
have a negative impact on the greater Omaha economy. And
so surely if she's listening, she can be rest assured
that we valued and we evaluated these bond issues, We
study them, We did our due diligence, and that's why
(09:55):
we're very active right now in the bond campaign. Because
it doesn't raise taxes.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Do we need to have a little bond issue one
on one on how this works? Just the easiest way
of putting it.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, you know, I was really refreshed when Jim Vocal
from the Plat Institute was on last week with Gary
and Jim in the morning. And you know, the Plat
Institute's a very conservative think tank, you know, and Jim
came on last week and kind of reinforced the same thing,
which is, you know, they they're kind of a tax
watchdog at the end of the day. And he came
on and said the same exact thing, which is they
(10:27):
evaluate it and said, this doesn't raise people's taxes in Omaha.
So it's not just the Greater Amha Chamber of Commerce
saying this, which we evaluated. It's a conservative think tank
and tax watchdog saying the same exact thing. So to
the Kfaybe listeners out there, to the Pack of Lies listeners,
it's everybody saying.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So the bond issue, the people who buy the bonds,
they take on the red stats so they take on
that debt, they take on that risk, and they can't
like forfeit like I'm not going to pay any of
the money is already there, and so what if no
one what if we pass it and no one buys
the bonds.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, we don't have to worry about that. People buy
the bonds. That's the Yeah, the people are buying the bonds.
That's not a concern. And the money's already in the
city's budget. I think that's always the reality is is
that this is the reality is not a tax increase
because the money's already been spoken for in the city's budget.
As I've said, it's a rollover of existing bonds, and
(11:20):
so the money is already being incorporated in the city's budget.
Hence it's not increasing anybody's taxes.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Here's my philosophical problem with it. If the city knows
that they get all this tax money here and they
can issue bonds to be able to take care of
things like here we have street and highway street preservation bonds,
public facilities bonds, public safety bonds, parks and recreation bonds,
and so forth. If they know they can issue bond
(11:45):
issues and get the money for these things that way,
then what the heck am I paying taxes for? Shouldn't
they be taking my tax money and doing this stuff
with it?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Well, I think it's more of it. It's capital infrastructure, Scott.
I mean, I think that's where That's where the bond
issues and are always centered around, which is it's not
money that's going towards your day and day out operations
of city government, and bond issues that the city puts
on you know every typical four years is going to
pay for capital infrastructure that we know it's better to
(12:19):
pay for it now with bonds because of inflation.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Area, so my taxes can come down. A merist out
there will be quick to say, we reduce the levy
and so forth, And she has nothing to do with
the fact that my house has been valued to a
level that I can't afford. I can't possibly sell it
for that, so I'm paying property taxes out there's inflated
value and blah blah blah. But I look at this
and we got one hundred and forty six million dollars
for public facilities bonds, which includes police and fire, and
(12:43):
then we have ten million dollars for public safety bonds
that goes to police and fire. Part of the one hundred
and forty six public Facilities bonds also includes park maintenance facilities.
Then we got ten million dollars for parks and recreation bonds.
It seems like a lot of this is already covered
by another bund and we're it's all separated here.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
There are separate bonds, you know, the public Facilities bond.
I'll chat a little bit, Scott, because that is really
a really important bond for KFAB listeners. You mentioned it.
It does have a significant impact in the city's public safety,
both in terms of helping build out a new police
and fire station in the City of Omaha, which is
(13:24):
critical to ensure that our city remains a safe environment
across the city. But it also helps what I would
say is perhaps one of the most important economic development
drivers in the city, which is the Chi Convention Center.
You know, twenty four years ago when the city passed
the initial vote to build the Chi Convention Center. I
(13:46):
don't think anybody would have realized twenty four years ago
the magnitude of what's happened with the Chi Convention Center.
That convention center has turned back revenue to the City
of Omaha, every single year that it's in existence, and people.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Say, shouldn't it be paying for itself?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well, it does partially pay for itself. And I think
that's the point is it turns money back to the
City of Omaha every single year in terms of revenue.
It gives back to the City of Omaha. But I
think the point being is what we're looking at right
now is the convention center portion, not the arena. The
convention center portion right now has fallen behind and it's
(14:24):
not competitive with other cities. And right now we are
at a precipice of losing up to fifteen million dollars
a year in convention business against other competing cities if
we don't pass this public facilities bond.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh, they're not going to go to Des Moines. We're fine,
all right, A couple more here, we got a couple more.
Minister with Heath Mellow, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO,
fourteen and a half million dollars for sewer bonds. Aren't
I paying for this on my monthly mud bill? The
sewer separation project. Shouldn't this handle all of that?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
No, that the sewer separation bond, the sewer separation projects
is a separate and distinct. This pays for different sewer
infrastructure across the city that's not connected to the CSO project.
Let's not forget the CSO project is a e PA,
unfortunately mandated project that is outside the City of Omaha's control.
This deals with separate city and water infrastructure that's connected
(15:18):
partially with some of our transportation infrastructure across the city.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
What is a good Life district? And do we need
whatever this is?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
That is? This is not It's not the good Life bars,
which are great. We need those, especially on Taco night.
I love their tacos. This is not the Good Life
District in Gretna. The City of Omaha. City of Omaha
bond is a whole different thing. What is it?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So the Good Life District ballot initiative, which is not
connected to these six these six bond issues. It's a
separate issue on the ballot, which the Greater Alma Chamber
is also supportive of. This Good Life District that's on
the ballot. This is something that the City Council and
the mayor put on the ballot for voters to consider.
It would allow the City of Omaha to create an
(16:02):
economic development fund for the creation of a Good Life
District in Omaha, which is located out in West Omaha
off one hundred and ninety second in Dodge, which would
essentially allow the sales tax that's collected in that Good
Life District to be put in an economic development fund
with the City of Omaha for them to be able
to utilize that funding for economic development purposes with that
(16:25):
Good Life District. It's essentially a mechanism that the state
legislature has created to allow cities to be able to
do this. It just creates more flexibility for the City
of Omaha to do more economic development with these districts
that they couldn't do before. And I think, you know,
when people talk about economic development, Scott, a lot of
folks talk about just you know, what's happening in North Omaha,
(16:47):
what's happening in South Omaha downtown. This is unique because
this is happening in West Omaha. And so you know,
as the Greater Omaha Chamber, we're looking at economic development
across the whole city, and I think this is a
unique opportunity for the whole city to be able to
engage in this space. The Good Life District right now
is in West Omaha. There's an opportunity for a good
life district in North Omaha too with the Inland Port
(17:09):
Authority at some point in the future. So the passage
of this new bond issue or this this good Life
District bond fund will have a benefit in West Omaha
first and a likely possibility of impacting North Omaha some
time in the future, and we encourage voters to support
port that as well.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Do we need to have a good life district where
the Kellogg's facility is going to be empty here in
a couple of years, possibly.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well a good lie, you know, that may be something
we have to look at some point in time. You know,
I've been I've had some conversations with the Kellogg's corporation
in terms of the future, what's going to happen with Kellogg's,
you know, first and foremost, I think the priority that
we've been talking about as the future of their workforce
in terms of what's going to happen with the Kellogg's employees,
(17:50):
and you know, from the Greater Omaha Chambers perspective, we
want to ensure that the transition of Kellogg's employees first
and foremost, that they're staying in Omaha that are going
to be able to transition to quality jobs in the
Omaha area.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Realizing this post putting up a factory here in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, we don't know mills, we don't know what's going
to happen in terms of other potential cereal or food
and processing manufacturers. I think the biggest component that Kellogg's
conversations have is that we want to make sure and
Kellogg's has shared that they want to ensure that they
are good partners to the city of Omaha, to the
business community in this transition. Realizing that's a sixty acre
(18:28):
industrial site. So whether or not that is just leveling
that site at some point in time and doing something
as a Kellogg's industrial campus, or whether or not that's
utilizing that existing facility and turning it over to another manufacturer,
there's a lot of opportunities in terms of working with
Kellogg's moving forward. So that conversation is ongoing with Kellogg's
(18:50):
right now.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Could be a spirit Halloween, really big spirit or haunted house. No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I think it's a real big economic development opportunity for
the city. And I thinks right now is having those
real good conversations with us in the city moving forward.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So once again, Heath Mellow, President CEO of the Omaha
Chamber of Commerce, says, all these bond issues, they're just
finding you vote on them. The debt is taken up
by those who purchased the bonds. This is not something
that gets disseminated among the taxpayers. It's not going to
raise your taxes. So these are all fine. You can
vote for all of them. I still have my philosophical difference,
(19:26):
which is just basically me yelling into the wind. But
that's kind of like what this radio show is some days,
to be honest with you and why I don't know
why we should believe you know what you're talking about.
You coached your nine U flag football team to a
loss in the championship game yesterday. Is there anything you
could have done differently? Did you toss and turn last
night going maybe if we would have done more of
(19:48):
this or.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You know, Scott, you know, I thought about that a
little bit last night in terms of, you know, trying
to teach some nine year olds the good sportsmanship, in
terms of losing the you know, a hard fought like
football championship game. You know, I think the biggest thing
is you know, on defense, it's more of trying to
make sure that they got to realize you got to
(20:08):
try to grab those flags.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
And I think that's the biggest thing is did you
teach them that you should try and grab the flags?
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I think it's I think it's just that's always the
thing I keep reminding myself as defense wins championships. It
was always kind of the thing. So you kind of
thinking about that at the end of the day. But
it was a great experience, and hopefully I always kind
of remind myself as long as they want to come
back next year and keep playing, that's the That's the
biggest win of the end.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Of the day. Isn't it great? How much your kids sports,
whether you're coaching or watching, takes up so much room
in your brain throughout the day and night. All right, Heath,
my best you and your family have a great Halloween.
Share with the kids. Heath Mellow Omaha Chamber of Commerce
here on eleven ten Kfab Scott Boyes Mornings nine to
eleven on news Radio eleven ten Kfab
Scott Vordiez, it's a pleasure to be joined in the
studio by the President and CEO of your Omaha Chamber
of Commerce, Heath Mellow, is back here on news radio
eleven ten kfab and Heath, looks like you're going to
try and extract a bunch of money from the people
of Omaha through city bond issuance. Good morning, Good morning, Scott.
(00:21):
It's great to be back on the pack of eyes,
my friend. Yes, thank you very much for calling it
by its appropriate name. According to Jim Rose years ago, now,
this isn't something that the Chamber is like. You guys
didn't come up with it and said we want this,
we think we do. This is all stuff that, through
the natural order of city government, has ended up on
(00:42):
the Omaha portion of the ballot next Tuesday. But the
Chamber of Commerce thinks this is all a good idea. Here.
Let's go through it and figure out what we're doing here,
because some of this seems to be a little bit
stacked on top of each other, almost unnecessary, including the
first one here Special City of Omaha Election eight hundred
(01:07):
A pardon me, eighty million dollars plus for street and
highway transportation bonds. Didn't we just pass a bunch of
highway I mean for road bonds a few years ago
to take care of City of Omaha streets.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
The city did, but typically what happens every four years
is part of the city's capital improvement plan, the city
typically has bonds that expire, and this city election is
no different. And when Mayor Stothard and the City Council
looked at the Capital Improvement Plan and they noticed and
saw that there was existing bonds that were going to expire,
(01:43):
they were able to look at the Capital Improvement Plan
and see that there were a significant number of transportation
and street projects that were available to be able to
be funded by by new bonds as well, and so
that eighty million dollars in transportation bonds were part of
that cap improvement plan we're put in front of the
voters as part of this six bond bond package. And
(02:06):
I think when you look at the transportation and street
bonds its entirety. I think the unique component, which we're
very supportive of from the Chambers perspective, which were very
we're trying to reinforce to taxpayers, is that it draws
down in additional eighty million dollars of federal funding, which
I think that's the most important aspect. When you're able
(02:27):
to leverage existing tax dollars to bring in additional federal
funding and it's not raising your property taxes, that's a
win win for Omaha taxpayer.
Speaker 1 (02:35):
We got eighty million dollars for street and highway transportation bonds,
and then a couple of ballot initiatives later the Special
City of Omaha election seventy two million dollars for street
preservation bonds. What's the difference here?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
The transportation bonds are broader, bigger transportation projects, such things
as viaducts, bridge repairs, where the street preservation is helping
directly deal with some of the potholes, the repaving of streets,
the things that we know at the end of the day,
everybody across the city knows we need to continue to
(03:12):
do more of every single day. And so both of
them combined, we just kind of lump both of them together.
They are separate bonds, but be able to bring that
federal money back to be able to connect them is
really important.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
A couple of questions here. First of all, like I said,
we just passed bond issues not long ago to resurface
over several years now all of cities, all of Omaha's
city streets. This is like we have to revote on that,
or this is new money, or how does that work
with what we've already done.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
It's separate money. It's separate money at the end of
the day. It's not raising taxes at the end of
the day, it's an existing bond. Once again, it's just
getting rolled over. And I think that's the difference. If
you look at the language in the bond, it's very clear, Oh.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Wait, is it rolled over or is it new money.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It's money that's getting rolled over at the end of
the day. And that's the The unique component is that
that these bonds, if it was new money, you would
be raising taxes. And I think that's the that's the
unique aspect of what Mayor stopped in the city council
when they put this package together. They are very clear
that they didn't want to raise taxes with these bonds,
and it's been very very forthright in terms of their
(04:23):
They're pulling a variety of these proposals together to ensure
that it was not going to raise taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
I woke up wide away and ready to go. Unfortunately,
that was twelve forty five. So excuse me if my
sleep deprivation caused me to ask the same question again. Here,
I'm just trying to be clear. We passed bond issues
a couple of years aguess for to take care of
all of Omaha City streets. Yes, why doesn't that bond
issue just handle all of it? Why do we need these.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
That so that that that I think that was a
two hundred million dollar stream bond, and I think at
the time, I think the thought was that was not
going to handle all of our street preservation issues. I
think that was a significant investment in street preservation. There
was an existing street preservation bond as well, so realize
that there are multiple street preservation bonds. So that was
(05:15):
a new street preservation bond that was passed in twenty twenty.
This is an existing street preservation bond that gets passed
essentially every four years as part of the Capital Improvement Plan.
So two separate street preservation bonds. The one past four
years ago was a much larger one. This one is
one that gets passed every four or five years, give
(05:36):
or take. That's part of the Capital Improvement Plan. And
this one once again, no tax increase associated with it all.
And that's why the Chamber of Commerce is really big
on passing this one.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
So Joe hollmeowner and Omaha, says, wait a second, I
got my property taxes that go towards the City of
Omaha budget. I pay tax every time I fill up
my gas tanks. Some of that goes to local roads,
and all the rest of this stuff wheel tax and
all this stuff. Some of what the restaurant tax ended
up was supposed to go has now gone back into
(06:06):
the general fund here, Why doesn't all of the taxes,
why don't all the taxes already pay already cause the
City of Omaha to say, before we do anything else,
we need to make sure we have good roads and
be able to build these bridges and so forth. Why
do we need more money here in the form of
these bonds.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Well, unfortunately, I would say that it's not really a
City of Omaha issue. There's really goes back to the
state of Nebraska issue, which this has been something that
has been a long seated challenge for the region, where
the Greater Metropolitan Area sends hundreds of millions of dollars
in taxes down to Lincoln and just doesn't get its
(06:45):
fair share back in terms of infrastructure and transportation dollars.
And so when the greater metropolitan area, when I say
that Omaha, Douglas County, Sarpeye County sends hundreds of millions
of dollars in gas taxes down to Lincoln, we just
don't get that money back and the same fair share.
And so that is part of the challenge that the
(07:06):
City of Omaha wrestles with in terms of not being
able to deal with some of the transportation infrastructure challenges
year in and year out. And so that's in some form
or another why we want to continue to invest in
transportation infrastructure. And in this bond, we're able to do
that Scott without having to raise property taxes, which I
think is a win win for taxpayers realizing we're able
(07:29):
to draw down eighty million dollars in federal funding.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
We've got other bond questions here, doing some stuff for
public facilities and the parks and the sewer bonds and whatever.
A good live district is a lot of my here's
a spoiler alert, A lot of my questions are but
I thought, and why doesn't and how come this doesn't.
And it's all going to come back to a point
that you've said a few times here, and it's not
going to raise your property taxes. This is not a
(07:54):
new tax. The bond issue ins is not a new tax.
And we'll drill down a little bit more on that
point point. Heath Melow is with us. He's president and
CEO of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce. Will continue our
conversation about some of these sometimes confusing bond questions here
on your City of Omaha ballot next Tuesday. That conversation
continues next. Scott Voriez News Radio eleven ten KFAB surely
(08:20):
emails Scott at kfab dot com and says, wouldn't it
be nice if we could believe any politician about taxes. See,
this is the thing that you're going to run into,
is we're talking with President and CEO of the Omaha
Chamber of Commerce, Heath Mellow is here talking about these
bond issues. The official position of Heath in the Chamber
is all the bond issues should be passed here in
(08:41):
the City of Omaha. None of them will raise your taxes.
People said, I don't believe you.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, the beauty is surely I'm not a politician. I
represent the business community.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Former member of the state legislature. You're ran for mayor
City of Omaha.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Correct, And in this unique role, I get to represent
the businesusiness community in the business community's interests. And I
don't take that lightly. And I think, you know, in
talking to viewers, like, surely we don't.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
We have listeners. Listeners, I mean you're the only viewer
I have.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Right, Well, you're You're correct, I think in that sense,
but uh, we don't take we don't take taking positions
on issues like this lightly. And so when when we
chose to get engaged in wanting to support bond issues
of this magnitude, clearly we we wanted to make sure
that it wasn't going to raise taxes because, uh, the
impact on our chamber members across the city. We want
(09:35):
to ensure in terms of what's happening right now with
the economy, in terms of issues involving inflation particularly, we
did not want to, uh, we did not want to
have a negative impact on the greater Omaha economy. And
so surely if she's listening, she can be rest assured
that we valued and we evaluated these bond issues, We
study them, We did our due diligence, and that's why
(09:55):
we're very active right now in the bond campaign. Because
it doesn't raise taxes.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Do we need to have a little bond issue one
on one on how this works? Just the easiest way
of putting it.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Well, you know, I was really refreshed when Jim Vocal
from the Plat Institute was on last week with Gary
and Jim in the morning. And you know, the Plat
Institute's a very conservative think tank, you know, and Jim
came on last week and kind of reinforced the same thing,
which is, you know, they they're kind of a tax
watchdog at the end of the day. And he came
on and said the same exact thing, which is they
(10:27):
evaluate it and said, this doesn't raise people's taxes in Omaha.
So it's not just the Greater Amha Chamber of Commerce
saying this, which we evaluated. It's a conservative think tank
and tax watchdog saying the same exact thing. So to
the Kfaybe listeners out there, to the Pack of Lies listeners,
it's everybody saying.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
So the bond issue, the people who buy the bonds,
they take on the red stats so they take on
that debt, they take on that risk, and they can't
like forfeit like I'm not going to pay any of
the money is already there, and so what if no
one what if we pass it and no one buys
the bonds.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Well, we don't have to worry about that. People buy
the bonds. That's the Yeah, the people are buying the bonds.
That's not a concern. And the money's already in the
city's budget. I think that's always the reality is is
that this is the reality is not a tax increase
because the money's already been spoken for in the city's budget.
As I've said, it's a rollover of existing bonds, and
(11:20):
so the money is already being incorporated in the city's budget.
Hence it's not increasing anybody's taxes.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
Here's my philosophical problem with it. If the city knows
that they get all this tax money here and they
can issue bonds to be able to take care of
things like here we have street and highway street preservation bonds,
public facilities bonds, public safety bonds, parks and recreation bonds,
and so forth. If they know they can issue bond
(11:45):
issues and get the money for these things that way,
then what the heck am I paying taxes for? Shouldn't
they be taking my tax money and doing this stuff
with it?
Speaker 2 (11:56):
Well, I think it's more of it. It's capital infrastructure, Scott.
I mean, I think that's where That's where the bond
issues and are always centered around, which is it's not
money that's going towards your day and day out operations
of city government, and bond issues that the city puts
on you know every typical four years is going to
pay for capital infrastructure that we know it's better to
(12:19):
pay for it now with bonds because of inflation.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Area, so my taxes can come down. A merist out
there will be quick to say, we reduce the levy
and so forth, And she has nothing to do with
the fact that my house has been valued to a
level that I can't afford. I can't possibly sell it
for that, so I'm paying property taxes out there's inflated
value and blah blah blah. But I look at this
and we got one hundred and forty six million dollars
for public facilities bonds, which includes police and fire, and
(12:43):
then we have ten million dollars for public safety bonds
that goes to police and fire. Part of the one hundred
and forty six public Facilities bonds also includes park maintenance facilities.
Then we got ten million dollars for parks and recreation bonds.
It seems like a lot of this is already covered
by another bund and we're it's all separated here.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
There are separate bonds, you know, the public Facilities bond.
I'll chat a little bit, Scott, because that is really
a really important bond for KFAB listeners. You mentioned it.
It does have a significant impact in the city's public safety,
both in terms of helping build out a new police
and fire station in the City of Omaha, which is
(13:24):
critical to ensure that our city remains a safe environment
across the city. But it also helps what I would
say is perhaps one of the most important economic development
drivers in the city, which is the Chi Convention Center.
You know, twenty four years ago when the city passed
the initial vote to build the Chi Convention Center. I
(13:46):
don't think anybody would have realized twenty four years ago
the magnitude of what's happened with the Chi Convention Center.
That convention center has turned back revenue to the City
of Omaha, every single year that it's in existence, and people.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Say, shouldn't it be paying for itself?
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Well, it does partially pay for itself. And I think
that's the point is it turns money back to the
City of Omaha every single year in terms of revenue.
It gives back to the City of Omaha. But I
think the point being is what we're looking at right
now is the convention center portion, not the arena. The
convention center portion right now has fallen behind and it's
(14:24):
not competitive with other cities. And right now we are
at a precipice of losing up to fifteen million dollars
a year in convention business against other competing cities if
we don't pass this public facilities bond.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh, they're not going to go to Des Moines. We're fine,
all right, A couple more here, we got a couple more.
Minister with Heath Mellow, Chamber of Commerce President and CEO,
fourteen and a half million dollars for sewer bonds. Aren't
I paying for this on my monthly mud bill? The
sewer separation project. Shouldn't this handle all of that?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
No, that the sewer separation bond, the sewer separation projects
is a separate and distinct. This pays for different sewer
infrastructure across the city that's not connected to the CSO project.
Let's not forget the CSO project is a e PA,
unfortunately mandated project that is outside the City of Omaha's control.
This deals with separate city and water infrastructure that's connected
(15:18):
partially with some of our transportation infrastructure across the city.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
What is a good Life district? And do we need
whatever this is?
Speaker 2 (15:26):
So?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
That is? This is not It's not the good Life bars,
which are great. We need those, especially on Taco night.
I love their tacos. This is not the Good Life
District in Gretna. The City of Omaha. City of Omaha
bond is a whole different thing. What is it?
Speaker 2 (15:40):
So the Good Life District ballot initiative, which is not
connected to these six these six bond issues. It's a
separate issue on the ballot, which the Greater Alma Chamber
is also supportive of. This Good Life District that's on
the ballot. This is something that the City Council and
the mayor put on the ballot for voters to consider.
It would allow the City of Omaha to create an
(16:02):
economic development fund for the creation of a Good Life
District in Omaha, which is located out in West Omaha
off one hundred and ninety second in Dodge, which would
essentially allow the sales tax that's collected in that Good
Life District to be put in an economic development fund
with the City of Omaha for them to be able
to utilize that funding for economic development purposes with that
(16:25):
Good Life District. It's essentially a mechanism that the state
legislature has created to allow cities to be able to
do this. It just creates more flexibility for the City
of Omaha to do more economic development with these districts
that they couldn't do before. And I think, you know,
when people talk about economic development, Scott, a lot of
folks talk about just you know, what's happening in North Omaha,
(16:47):
what's happening in South Omaha downtown. This is unique because
this is happening in West Omaha. And so you know,
as the Greater Omaha Chamber, we're looking at economic development
across the whole city, and I think this is a
unique opportunity for the whole city to be able to
engage in this space. The Good Life District right now
is in West Omaha. There's an opportunity for a good
life district in North Omaha too with the Inland Port
(17:09):
Authority at some point in the future. So the passage
of this new bond issue or this this good Life
District bond fund will have a benefit in West Omaha
first and a likely possibility of impacting North Omaha some
time in the future, and we encourage voters to support
port that as well.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Do we need to have a good life district where
the Kellogg's facility is going to be empty here in
a couple of years, possibly.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well a good lie, you know, that may be something
we have to look at some point in time. You know,
I've been I've had some conversations with the Kellogg's corporation
in terms of the future, what's going to happen with Kellogg's,
you know, first and foremost, I think the priority that
we've been talking about as the future of their workforce
in terms of what's going to happen with the Kellogg's employees,
(17:50):
and you know, from the Greater Omaha Chambers perspective, we
want to ensure that the transition of Kellogg's employees first
and foremost, that they're staying in Omaha that are going
to be able to transition to quality jobs in the
Omaha area.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Realizing this post putting up a factory here in Omaha.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
Well, we don't know mills, we don't know what's going
to happen in terms of other potential cereal or food
and processing manufacturers. I think the biggest component that Kellogg's
conversations have is that we want to make sure and
Kellogg's has shared that they want to ensure that they
are good partners to the city of Omaha, to the
business community in this transition. Realizing that's a sixty acre
(18:28):
industrial site. So whether or not that is just leveling
that site at some point in time and doing something
as a Kellogg's industrial campus, or whether or not that's
utilizing that existing facility and turning it over to another manufacturer,
there's a lot of opportunities in terms of working with
Kellogg's moving forward. So that conversation is ongoing with Kellogg's
(18:50):
right now.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Could be a spirit Halloween, really big spirit or haunted house. No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I think it's a real big economic development opportunity for
the city. And I thinks right now is having those
real good conversations with us in the city moving forward.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
So once again, Heath Mellow, President CEO of the Omaha
Chamber of Commerce, says, all these bond issues, they're just
finding you vote on them. The debt is taken up
by those who purchased the bonds. This is not something
that gets disseminated among the taxpayers. It's not going to
raise your taxes. So these are all fine. You can
vote for all of them. I still have my philosophical difference,
(19:26):
which is just basically me yelling into the wind. But
that's kind of like what this radio show is some days,
to be honest with you and why I don't know
why we should believe you know what you're talking about.
You coached your nine U flag football team to a
loss in the championship game yesterday. Is there anything you
could have done differently? Did you toss and turn last
night going maybe if we would have done more of
(19:48):
this or.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
You know, Scott, you know, I thought about that a
little bit last night in terms of, you know, trying
to teach some nine year olds the good sportsmanship, in
terms of losing the you know, a hard fought like
football championship game. You know, I think the biggest thing
is you know, on defense, it's more of trying to
make sure that they got to realize you got to
(20:08):
try to grab those flags.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
And I think that's the biggest thing is did you
teach them that you should try and grab the flags?
You know?
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I think it's I think it's just that's always the
thing I keep reminding myself as defense wins championships. It
was always kind of the thing. So you kind of
thinking about that at the end of the day. But
it was a great experience, and hopefully I always kind
of remind myself as long as they want to come
back next year and keep playing, that's the That's the
biggest win of the end.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Of the day. Isn't it great? How much your kids sports,
whether you're coaching or watching, takes up so much room
in your brain throughout the day and night. All right, Heath,
my best you and your family have a great Halloween.
Share with the kids. Heath Mellow Omaha Chamber of Commerce
here on eleven ten Kfab Scott Boyes Mornings nine to
eleven on news Radio eleven ten Kfab
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