Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The special session. Are you off for a couple of
days here or are you going back to it today?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, actually we're not really off. We're not in session.
Revenue Committee has been in Lincoln every day right since
itself has taken Yeah, the session itself took a break.
We weren't in Tuesday or Monday or yesterday. So we'll
go back in this afternoon.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, keep hearing. Like Jim said yesterday, there may be
white smoke bellowing from the Capitol pretty soon. Are we
close to a deal?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I think so?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I do we get a lot of conversations to keep having.
We are having a hearing this morning about tobacco patches
and electricity because we didn't have it in any of
the original bills we had I think sixty seven bills
brought the Revenue Committee. So we had a lot of
ideas brought to us, and things came up in the hearing.
One of the things came up in the hearing if
(00:51):
you're going to tax cigarettes, you're going to tax vape,
then why aren't you taxing I guess what's now really
popular kids is these patches they can put in their
mouth and you can't see them. So we're going to
back on pouches, right, tobacco patches. We're gonna have a
hearing about that this morning, nine o'clock.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
All right, Well, I thought you were originally talking about
the medical the patch that people are trying to quit
smoke and they can put on. This is something different.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Right, This is something different.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
This is recreation. I think that's right. Right, So any
medical stuff I assume would not be right.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Okay, So the Pill and Bill that you supported is
the one that Jim had been talking about for the
last two months, going from hobble to hobble and village
to village, speaking before crowds arranging from four to four hundred,
and it was essentially this, we're going to pay for
education K through twelve education, and we're going to catch
property taxes fifty percent. In order to do that, we
(01:46):
need to add some taxes to a couple things, and
we need to end some exemptions. So from that you
have Janna Hughes's bill, which does a lot of that,
doesn't take it to zero, doesn't pay for all K
through twelve educationation, but pays for a lot of it.
What else in the pill and bill is in this
one the key stuff from the pill and bill is
(02:06):
in the one that you're moving forward.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, one of the reasons everybody loved LB nine, which
is Senator Hughes's bill, and it's great and it was
very good idea, but they didn't pay for it.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's something. Yeah, yeah, somebody's got to write a check
for something.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And the other thing she did, they went down because
it's politically probably more people can see it go down slowly.
We're taking it from a dollar five maximum levy on
what you pay in schools today down to twenty five.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Cents, but you're going to do it sooner than ten years,
which is her origional plan. So in one year you're
going to go from one oh five to twenty five.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
The fundamental issue associated with this is not just cutting
taxes the land, but sustainable property tax controls because right
now the system allows for county assessors to assess property
and then we tax it based on the value of
the property. Governor Pilling has made it clear I don't
want any caps on valuations. What I want is caps
(03:04):
on what people can collect. So what is in this
bill that could get thirty three votes that says we
are only going to be able to collect so much
tax every year regardless of the value of the property.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, it's always a compromise and it's complicated, right. So
one thing we accomplished this week is an agreement with
public safety police environment that they're not going to be
under cap.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
And actually I think the cap.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Would have been easier because we could have worked something
out with Omaha and Lincoln. But where the caps are
really tough as you go out to Aura in Nebraska
where they don't have anybody in jail for two years,
and all of a sudden they get somebody that they
have to hold in jail that's fifty thousand a month
in medications. So they made a strong case that they
need to be taken out from the caps. So that
(03:52):
leaves I got the questions the press conference, well why
do you trust cities and counties on that?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well this is why. Well, this whole bill is.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
About needs versus. Once you need public safety, you need
an ambulance. People want that need that there's other things
that are once like shiny new things that it'd be nice,
but you don't really have to have it. So outside
public safety, what we're doing is we're capping what you
I'd learned when I Furcht down there. We're capping the answer.
(04:23):
You can cap levies, which we do, but if you
don't cap valuation, you multiply and property taxes go up.
What we're doing is capping the answer. In other words,
your tax taking, what you write a check for can't
go above inflation. And we're using the inflation that's for
state governments and cities, not CPI, but their inflation rate,
(04:45):
which is not much different than CPI but a little
bit higher. They can't go above that, or if there's none,
they can't.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Go above zero.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
So CPI, for those who may be unfamiliar to, could
consumer price index, which is what is established by the
by the federal government. But you're saying, and this is
one of the things that Governor Pillon said, is well,
let's see, the CPI may be one percent, but they
are collecting as if it were seven or eight percent,
and in some cases under President Trump it was less
(05:14):
than one percent, and yet they're collecting. So it's actually
a double gap because you should be collecting far less
than they are, but they're collecting far more than they should.
So is there a number? Is it two percent a year?
Is it three percent a year?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
You mentioned the CPI, But in real terms, if my valuation,
if my property goes up fifty thousand dollars, it used
to be I had to pay that on the tax
because the valuation was based on its number and then
the levy. What is the ceiling on an average home.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
The ceiling will be what you write your check for.
That's the difference check the check you wrote last year.
This year's check won't be more than the CPI for cities,
which a little bit higher than what we use for
people CPI or zero, so it won't go It's not
about your valuation, it's about how much you right.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Got you for inflation basically or zero, that's big. Senator
Danielle Conrad was one of the co sponsors of LB nine.
She said Nebraska Examiner quoted her that she is critical
of procedural Shenanigan, She said, where senators and supporters have
engaged in to hijack other bills and cobble together a
(06:30):
Frankenstein version of the same reverse Robin Hood's scheme. I
assume you have some differences with Senator Conrad on that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yes, I was shocked to see that in the paper
yesterday morning, and more than shocked, I was hurt and irritated.
She and I serve on the Education Committee. She's got
great insight, great experience. Last year, just not even last year.
A few months ago, she and I worked on two
bills in the Education Committee. Both of them contained twelve
different bills, two or three of which were hers, two
(07:01):
or three of which my were mine. Which that's what
we do down there. We build a compromise, we build agreements,
and she knows that. And the other thing that irritates
me about people who are talking against this bill. Everything
she said was words and emotion. There were no facts.
There were no numbers, there's no It's just I wish
(07:22):
people would realize when they're hearing emotion, that's to take
you off the facts, and you need to look at
the facts.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
She's calling one of the largest tax in Grace's in
Nebraska history.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, here's what nobody's saying. And we're going to talk
about today later this afternoon. If we don't fix TIOSA,
which is a school aid formula, the way it works
right now, valuations go up, your state aid goes down.
Now agg has been complaining about this for ten years
because when valuations went up after twenty twelve, all the
aide shifted away from them. Well, now, Millard public schools,
(07:57):
their valuations went up, they're going to lose mollions of
dollars in State eight. Link in public schools their valuations
went up. They're going to lose thirty two million in
State eight this year. So what's going to happen if
we don't fix this is everybody's property taxes are going
to go up. And she knows that. Everybody knows that.
But that's the one thing they're not talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
We don't have.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
If you don't vote for this bill, you are voting
to raise property taxes.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
And she's pandering because she will looked at her demographics
and say it, a whole bunch of my people don't
own property, so this doesn't help them. But they do
have monthly needs. They leave paycheck to paycheck, and so
any increase in sales taxes adversely affects them. There are
smart economists who would argue against that. Let me go
back to again, this is to the average in Nebraska
(08:41):
who's listening right now driving down the road, because the
number they're hearing is my taxes are going to go
down thirty five percent on average, which means half of
them will be more than that and half will be less.
How do you decide who's more and who's less? A
and B. When you say the check you write, will
it be after I get my thirty five percent cut,
or it'll be on top of what I'm paying right now,
(09:02):
which is before the legislation.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And can you answer that in one minute?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes, I can answer, I think it actually, but more
like thirty eight percent.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And it will depend on your levee.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Higher levee districts will see bigger cuts, because if you
one hundred dollars, you're going to be a bigger cut
than if you owe fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And nobody I saw more than that. But that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
The other thing we can do for low income people
we're going to increase in the bill. We increase the EITC,
which is the earned income Tax Credit, which goes to
working people.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yes, and if you're.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Single and living, you don't get much, but if you're
a family two or three kids, it's a big deal.
So we're going to increase that. The other thing we're
having and hearing on this morning is we're going to
take sales tax off electricity because we're we've said it
all along, we shouldn't tax essentials, and this week has
proved electricity is essential. So we're going to take sales tax.
It should never been on there. But the state's portion
(09:53):
of sales tax and electricity is coming off.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And you're going to pay for county schools and you're
going to pay for the NRD, So that comes off
the property tax bill. On e jails in the county
county jails, that comes off the property tax bill. So
I'm gonna get my cut, you know, based on the number,
and then we're gonna plug in the formula for you
know what you paid plus CPI or whatever the inflation
rate is for next year, right ezpc thanks one.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Change that's for cities and counties and schools. What the
villains LB one did and what we're sticking with if
they get a three percent increase every year.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Great to see it. Thanks for stopping in. Thank you
appreciated that. State Senator Layanne Lenehan here ok AB's Morning
News
The special session. Are you off for a couple of
days here or are you going back to it today?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Well, actually we're not really off. We're not in session.
Revenue Committee has been in Lincoln every day right since
itself has taken Yeah, the session itself took a break.
We weren't in Tuesday or Monday or yesterday. So we'll
go back in this afternoon.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Okay, keep hearing. Like Jim said yesterday, there may be
white smoke bellowing from the Capitol pretty soon. Are we
close to a deal?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I think so?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
I do we get a lot of conversations to keep having.
We are having a hearing this morning about tobacco patches
and electricity because we didn't have it in any of
the original bills we had I think sixty seven bills
brought the Revenue Committee. So we had a lot of
ideas brought to us, and things came up in the hearing.
One of the things came up in the hearing if
(00:51):
you're going to tax cigarettes, you're going to tax vape,
then why aren't you taxing I guess what's now really
popular kids is these patches they can put in their
mouth and you can't see them. So we're going to
back on pouches, right, tobacco patches. We're gonna have a
hearing about that this morning, nine o'clock.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
All right, Well, I thought you were originally talking about
the medical the patch that people are trying to quit
smoke and they can put on. This is something different.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Right, This is something different.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
This is recreation. I think that's right. Right, So any
medical stuff I assume would not be right.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
Okay, So the Pill and Bill that you supported is
the one that Jim had been talking about for the
last two months, going from hobble to hobble and village
to village, speaking before crowds arranging from four to four hundred,
and it was essentially this, we're going to pay for
education K through twelve education, and we're going to catch
property taxes fifty percent. In order to do that, we
(01:46):
need to add some taxes to a couple things, and
we need to end some exemptions. So from that you
have Janna Hughes's bill, which does a lot of that,
doesn't take it to zero, doesn't pay for all K
through twelve educationation, but pays for a lot of it.
What else in the pill and bill is in this
one the key stuff from the pill and bill is
(02:06):
in the one that you're moving forward.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Well, one of the reasons everybody loved LB nine, which
is Senator Hughes's bill, and it's great and it was
very good idea, but they didn't pay for it.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
That's something. Yeah, yeah, somebody's got to write a check
for something.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And the other thing she did, they went down because
it's politically probably more people can see it go down slowly.
We're taking it from a dollar five maximum levy on
what you pay in schools today down to twenty five.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Cents, but you're going to do it sooner than ten years,
which is her origional plan. So in one year you're
going to go from one oh five to twenty five.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (02:44):
The fundamental issue associated with this is not just cutting
taxes the land, but sustainable property tax controls because right
now the system allows for county assessors to assess property
and then we tax it based on the value of
the property. Governor Pilling has made it clear I don't
want any caps on valuations. What I want is caps
(03:04):
on what people can collect. So what is in this
bill that could get thirty three votes that says we
are only going to be able to collect so much
tax every year regardless of the value of the property.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Well, it's always a compromise and it's complicated, right. So
one thing we accomplished this week is an agreement with
public safety police environment that they're not going to be
under cap.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
And actually I think the cap.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Would have been easier because we could have worked something
out with Omaha and Lincoln. But where the caps are
really tough as you go out to Aura in Nebraska
where they don't have anybody in jail for two years,
and all of a sudden they get somebody that they
have to hold in jail that's fifty thousand a month
in medications. So they made a strong case that they
need to be taken out from the caps. So that
(03:52):
leaves I got the questions the press conference, well why
do you trust cities and counties on that?
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Well this is why. Well, this whole bill is.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
About needs versus. Once you need public safety, you need
an ambulance. People want that need that there's other things
that are once like shiny new things that it'd be nice,
but you don't really have to have it. So outside
public safety, what we're doing is we're capping what you
I'd learned when I Furcht down there. We're capping the answer.
(04:23):
You can cap levies, which we do, but if you
don't cap valuation, you multiply and property taxes go up.
What we're doing is capping the answer. In other words,
your tax taking, what you write a check for can't
go above inflation. And we're using the inflation that's for
state governments and cities, not CPI, but their inflation rate,
(04:45):
which is not much different than CPI but a little
bit higher. They can't go above that, or if there's none,
they can't.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Go above zero.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
So CPI, for those who may be unfamiliar to, could
consumer price index, which is what is established by the
by the federal government. But you're saying, and this is
one of the things that Governor Pillon said, is well,
let's see, the CPI may be one percent, but they
are collecting as if it were seven or eight percent,
and in some cases under President Trump it was less
(05:14):
than one percent, and yet they're collecting. So it's actually
a double gap because you should be collecting far less
than they are, but they're collecting far more than they should.
So is there a number? Is it two percent a year?
Is it three percent a year?
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What is it?
Speaker 4 (05:27):
You mentioned the CPI, But in real terms, if my valuation,
if my property goes up fifty thousand dollars, it used
to be I had to pay that on the tax
because the valuation was based on its number and then
the levy. What is the ceiling on an average home.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
The ceiling will be what you write your check for.
That's the difference check the check you wrote last year.
This year's check won't be more than the CPI for cities,
which a little bit higher than what we use for
people CPI or zero, so it won't go It's not
about your valuation, it's about how much you right.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Got you for inflation basically or zero, that's big. Senator
Danielle Conrad was one of the co sponsors of LB nine.
She said Nebraska Examiner quoted her that she is critical
of procedural Shenanigan, She said, where senators and supporters have
engaged in to hijack other bills and cobble together a
(06:30):
Frankenstein version of the same reverse Robin Hood's scheme. I
assume you have some differences with Senator Conrad on that.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yes, I was shocked to see that in the paper
yesterday morning, and more than shocked, I was hurt and irritated.
She and I serve on the Education Committee. She's got
great insight, great experience. Last year, just not even last year.
A few months ago, she and I worked on two
bills in the Education Committee. Both of them contained twelve
different bills, two or three of which were hers, two
(07:01):
or three of which my were mine. Which that's what
we do down there. We build a compromise, we build agreements,
and she knows that. And the other thing that irritates
me about people who are talking against this bill. Everything
she said was words and emotion. There were no facts.
There were no numbers, there's no It's just I wish
(07:22):
people would realize when they're hearing emotion, that's to take
you off the facts, and you need to look at
the facts.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
She's calling one of the largest tax in Grace's in
Nebraska history.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Well, here's what nobody's saying. And we're going to talk
about today later this afternoon. If we don't fix TIOSA,
which is a school aid formula, the way it works
right now, valuations go up, your state aid goes down.
Now agg has been complaining about this for ten years
because when valuations went up after twenty twelve, all the
aide shifted away from them. Well, now, Millard public schools,
(07:57):
their valuations went up, they're going to lose mollions of
dollars in State eight. Link in public schools their valuations
went up. They're going to lose thirty two million in
State eight this year. So what's going to happen if
we don't fix this is everybody's property taxes are going
to go up. And she knows that. Everybody knows that.
But that's the one thing they're not talking about.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
We don't have.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
If you don't vote for this bill, you are voting
to raise property taxes.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
And she's pandering because she will looked at her demographics
and say it, a whole bunch of my people don't
own property, so this doesn't help them. But they do
have monthly needs. They leave paycheck to paycheck, and so
any increase in sales taxes adversely affects them. There are
smart economists who would argue against that. Let me go
back to again, this is to the average in Nebraska
(08:41):
who's listening right now driving down the road, because the
number they're hearing is my taxes are going to go
down thirty five percent on average, which means half of
them will be more than that and half will be less.
How do you decide who's more and who's less? A
and B. When you say the check you write, will
it be after I get my thirty five percent cut,
or it'll be on top of what I'm paying right now,
(09:02):
which is before the legislation.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And can you answer that in one minute?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Yes, I can answer, I think it actually, but more
like thirty eight percent.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
And it will depend on your levee.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Higher levee districts will see bigger cuts, because if you
one hundred dollars, you're going to be a bigger cut
than if you owe fifty dollars.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
And nobody I saw more than that. But that's one thing.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
The other thing we can do for low income people
we're going to increase in the bill. We increase the EITC,
which is the earned income Tax Credit, which goes to
working people.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yes, and if you're.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Single and living, you don't get much, but if you're
a family two or three kids, it's a big deal.
So we're going to increase that. The other thing we're
having and hearing on this morning is we're going to
take sales tax off electricity because we're we've said it
all along, we shouldn't tax essentials, and this week has
proved electricity is essential. So we're going to take sales tax.
It should never been on there. But the state's portion
(09:53):
of sales tax and electricity is coming off.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And you're going to pay for county schools and you're
going to pay for the NRD, So that comes off
the property tax bill. On e jails in the county
county jails, that comes off the property tax bill. So
I'm gonna get my cut, you know, based on the number,
and then we're gonna plug in the formula for you
know what you paid plus CPI or whatever the inflation
rate is for next year, right ezpc thanks one.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Change that's for cities and counties and schools. What the
villains LB one did and what we're sticking with if
they get a three percent increase every year.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Great to see it. Thanks for stopping in. Thank you
appreciated that. State Senator Layanne Lenehan here ok AB's Morning
News
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