Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome Tom Brewer back to the program. Nebraska State senator
who is there and the belly of the beast in
this special session and watching this mess trying to get
property tax relief and doesn't look like we're going to
get any time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Good morning guy. Well, I don't know if
I would say we'll get any really. Our challenge is
how much, and you know, the try and visualize where
we started. So the governor said we're going to do this.
He forms a Blue Ribbon panel, he has him meet,
(00:35):
it's a bipartisan group. They come up with a plan,
and that become LB one or elements of LB one.
LB one did not survive first contact and it become
LB nine, which was Senator Hughes's bill, which you know,
they hung a lot of stuff on it and then
it become unusable. So then they hung it on my bill,
(00:57):
which is LB thirty four, and that's the we're debating
right now now. My bill. Originally, all I did is
it flatlined folks for a few years and forced them
to kind of pull the purse strings back and take
a look at what right looks like when it comes
to taxation, because right now there's just not enough people
(01:17):
that understand it to do it justice, and unfortunately, many
of them on the floor the legislature don't understand enough
about it to do justice to it. But they're the
ones getting to vote on it or not vote on it.
And that's kind of where we're at is. There's been
an orchestrated effort to kill anything and everything, and even
LB thirty four has morphed into AM seventy three, which
(01:38):
is morphed into AM eighty four, and you know, it
just keeps getting pared down because the ultimate goal is
to do nothing, and they're working really hard at it.
But I think what we have left will give some help.
But it's not what we had envisioned when this.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Whole thing started, and it's not what Nebraskans need tom.
I mean, there are a lot of people in your
district that have ranches and homes that would benefit greatly
by this. The school aid formula in your district needed
to be tweaked to provide for equalization so that there
wasn't such a burden on property taxes. The truth of
the matter is this is a Republican circular firing squad.
(02:18):
There are four or five state senators who personally do
not like this governor, and they are obstructing this. Is
that so.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, there are those who have become difficult to work
with on this and have not been with us through
the votes, or at least some have not. We also
have an orchestrated effort on the other side, though, So
you know, if we could find folks that could look
at it and just in an educated, reasonable way say
(02:49):
what is best for Nebraska, we really could make some
progress here. And there's been a couple on the other
side that have come and have some ideas, and you know,
we're just there, but I think it's not impossible to
get there. But we're on a compressed schedule now, and
of course everybody's everybody's saying, well, you're you know, you're
you're burning money and you're wasting time and all that.
(03:09):
But need to understand is when we're talking about a budget,
you know, upwards of nine billion dollars and we're talking
you know, however many you know, tens of thousands a day,
it really isn't that big a deal if we can
figure out a solution. But if you look at the
votes on the board, and that's what I invite folks
to do, because that really tells the truth about what's
going on here. You can see who supports it and
(03:32):
who doesn't support it, and why it's so hard. And
to your point, Western Nebraska, you're right, Western Nebraska's being
depopulated because of income tax and and we've got eleven
centers representing eighty percent of the state who can't swing
votes because they don't control enough to be effective.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean property tax right, property tax. Yeah, let me
ask you to you say there is there is some
relief maybe in this one my understanding is the only
relief well, there'd be a cap on municipality, which they're
fighting tooth and nail, but but there is also uh
front your front load the property tax credit for people
(04:08):
that haven't been claiming it. But for people who haven't
who have been claiming it, there's nothing. I mean, you're
already you're they're already taking that. So where's the relief.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, we're gonna the a bill that goes with LB
thirty four will be up. I'll be up on the
mic first thing today. And so what all do is
talk about that we're moving seven hundred and fifty million
from the school district property tax cash fund the first year,
seven hundred and eighty million the second year, and again
in the big picture, that's not huge numbers, but it's
(04:41):
going to help some and it is trying to shift
as much as we can with the limitations that we
have currently. But this, you know, if we go down
the long session, they string it out and people wear
it out, and you know, in ways, a special session
is the right idea because a total focus and you're
not having people run doug drug deals on some other
(05:01):
bill and everything else. This is the you know, the focus.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, let me talk about Republicans again, and Tom, you
and I have talked about this for the last several
years that there have always been two or three Republicans
in name only who will at the last minute obstruct
some sort of transformative property tax legislation. And that's happening again.
You know this is important. And tell me where the
(05:28):
Republican Party is and is there somebody whether it's you
or the speaker, John Arch, can you get these people
together and say could you put your personal problems aside
and look at the bigger picture, which is property tax
relief for your people, not just for rich landowners, but
for the guy that's paying seven thousand dollars in property
(05:51):
tax that now would pay you know, five thousand in
property tax. Is that narrative gone? Is that still possible
to be impact.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I would love to say yes, that's possible, but I'm
not sure it is for a number of reasons. The
personalities that come into play into things, and there's other
players outside of the unicameral that are pulling some strings
that are affecting things. And I'm not missing things here,
but if you look at the fact that you have
(06:25):
the best class that the unic Caral's probably hadn't a
long time, the senior class that have most of the chairmanships,
when they leave, this place is going to get gutted overnight.
And now there may be a lot of great talent
coming in and elections will decide that. And hopefully when
people are electing folks, they really get to know them
and they don't do it on impulse or speeches. Because
(06:47):
we've got a lot of folks that are great politicians,
they just suck as senators. So what we need to
do is figure out the right folks because when we
leave and this place gets really gutted, and now you
have guys that come in there snake oils salesman, and
they're going to try and figure out ways to make
sure this doesn't happen because you've got a lobby fool
folks that don't want change. That's what lobbists get paid
(07:07):
to do, don't change things. And that's the hard part
is you're going to have to educate this new group,
and that's two years down the road to really get
them to where they understand what they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Voters have to pay attention. Tom Brewers, Senator, thank you
so much for the time. We'll stay in touch
Welcome Tom Brewer back to the program. Nebraska State senator
who is there and the belly of the beast in
this special session and watching this mess trying to get
property tax relief and doesn't look like we're going to
get any time.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, Good morning guy. Well, I don't know if
I would say we'll get any really. Our challenge is
how much, and you know, the try and visualize where
we started. So the governor said we're going to do this.
He forms a Blue Ribbon panel, he has him meet,
(00:35):
it's a bipartisan group. They come up with a plan,
and that become LB one or elements of LB one.
LB one did not survive first contact and it become
LB nine, which was Senator Hughes's bill, which you know,
they hung a lot of stuff on it and then
it become unusable. So then they hung it on my bill,
(00:57):
which is LB thirty four, and that's the we're debating
right now now. My bill. Originally, all I did is
it flatlined folks for a few years and forced them
to kind of pull the purse strings back and take
a look at what right looks like when it comes
to taxation, because right now there's just not enough people
(01:17):
that understand it to do it justice, and unfortunately, many
of them on the floor the legislature don't understand enough
about it to do justice to it. But they're the
ones getting to vote on it or not vote on it.
And that's kind of where we're at is. There's been
an orchestrated effort to kill anything and everything, and even
LB thirty four has morphed into AM seventy three, which
(01:38):
is morphed into AM eighty four, and you know, it
just keeps getting pared down because the ultimate goal is
to do nothing, and they're working really hard at it.
But I think what we have left will give some help.
But it's not what we had envisioned when this.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Whole thing started, and it's not what Nebraskans need tom.
I mean, there are a lot of people in your
district that have ranches and homes that would benefit greatly
by this. The school aid formula in your district needed
to be tweaked to provide for equalization so that there
wasn't such a burden on property taxes. The truth of
the matter is this is a Republican circular firing squad.
(02:18):
There are four or five state senators who personally do
not like this governor, and they are obstructing this. Is
that so.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, there are those who have become difficult to work
with on this and have not been with us through
the votes, or at least some have not. We also
have an orchestrated effort on the other side, though, So
you know, if we could find folks that could look
at it and just in an educated, reasonable way say
(02:49):
what is best for Nebraska, we really could make some
progress here. And there's been a couple on the other
side that have come and have some ideas, and you know,
we're just there, but I think it's not impossible to
get there. But we're on a compressed schedule now, and
of course everybody's everybody's saying, well, you're you know, you're
you're burning money and you're wasting time and all that.
(03:09):
But need to understand is when we're talking about a budget,
you know, upwards of nine billion dollars and we're talking
you know, however many you know, tens of thousands a day,
it really isn't that big a deal if we can
figure out a solution. But if you look at the
votes on the board, and that's what I invite folks
to do, because that really tells the truth about what's
going on here. You can see who supports it and
(03:32):
who doesn't support it, and why it's so hard. And
to your point, Western Nebraska, you're right, Western Nebraska's being
depopulated because of income tax and and we've got eleven
centers representing eighty percent of the state who can't swing
votes because they don't control enough to be effective.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
I mean property tax right, property tax. Yeah, let me
ask you to you say there is there is some
relief maybe in this one my understanding is the only
relief well, there'd be a cap on municipality, which they're
fighting tooth and nail, but but there is also uh
front your front load the property tax credit for people
(04:08):
that haven't been claiming it. But for people who haven't
who have been claiming it, there's nothing. I mean, you're
already you're they're already taking that. So where's the relief.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Well, we're gonna the a bill that goes with LB
thirty four will be up. I'll be up on the
mic first thing today. And so what all do is
talk about that we're moving seven hundred and fifty million
from the school district property tax cash fund the first year,
seven hundred and eighty million the second year, and again
in the big picture, that's not huge numbers, but it's
(04:41):
going to help some and it is trying to shift
as much as we can with the limitations that we
have currently. But this, you know, if we go down
the long session, they string it out and people wear
it out, and you know, in ways, a special session
is the right idea because a total focus and you're
not having people run doug drug deals on some other
(05:01):
bill and everything else. This is the you know, the focus.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Well, let me talk about Republicans again, and Tom, you
and I have talked about this for the last several
years that there have always been two or three Republicans
in name only who will at the last minute obstruct
some sort of transformative property tax legislation. And that's happening again.
You know this is important. And tell me where the
(05:28):
Republican Party is and is there somebody whether it's you
or the speaker, John Arch, can you get these people
together and say could you put your personal problems aside
and look at the bigger picture, which is property tax
relief for your people, not just for rich landowners, but
for the guy that's paying seven thousand dollars in property
(05:51):
tax that now would pay you know, five thousand in
property tax. Is that narrative gone? Is that still possible
to be impact.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
I would love to say yes, that's possible, but I'm
not sure it is for a number of reasons. The
personalities that come into play into things, and there's other
players outside of the unicameral that are pulling some strings
that are affecting things. And I'm not missing things here,
but if you look at the fact that you have
(06:25):
the best class that the unic Caral's probably hadn't a
long time, the senior class that have most of the chairmanships,
when they leave, this place is going to get gutted overnight.
And now there may be a lot of great talent
coming in and elections will decide that. And hopefully when
people are electing folks, they really get to know them
and they don't do it on impulse or speeches. Because
(06:47):
we've got a lot of folks that are great politicians,
they just suck as senators. So what we need to
do is figure out the right folks because when we
leave and this place gets really gutted, and now you
have guys that come in there snake oils salesman, and
they're going to try and figure out ways to make
sure this doesn't happen because you've got a lobby fool
folks that don't want change. That's what lobbists get paid
(07:07):
to do, don't change things. And that's the hard part
is you're going to have to educate this new group,
and that's two years down the road to really get
them to where they understand what they're talking about.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Voters have to pay attention. Tom Brewers, Senator, thank you
so much for the time. We'll stay in touch
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