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January 16, 2025 • 10 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's welcome to Governor. I'm back in.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Again. Governor Jim Pillen joins, you got to get back
on that horse, right, Governor, you.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Can't make me laugh that hardly.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
I know, I bet that hurt. I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (00:15):
I just you just said to the injury back two
weeks with that.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, well, I was very unconsidered. Good to have you
with us here we go.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Great to be You've been great to be with you
this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Good to have you here.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
A brand new legislative session State of the State message yesterday,
ninety days that allows for a lot to get done.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
And I know you're an optimistic kind of guy, and
I am too. What would you say if you had
to pick one I get by at the end of
those ninety days.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
This has to happen. What would it be?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Oh, gosh, there's obviously got to be more than more
than one. You know, I stay focused on kids, taxes, agriculture,
and values, and you know kids lead the way. Uh.
You know we uh we we we have to protect
our kids and uh we uh you know, we've we've

(01:08):
got to pass the legislation of the just the extraordinary
criminal behavior that's taken place on phones and the ability
to for education, to make sure there's no phones in
schools anywhere. Uh, and keep the social media away and
be able to make sure that this pornographic AI material

(01:31):
that's taken place. Those are those are really really big deals.
And then, needless to say, Senator Cows tend with Women's Act.
Nebraskans want common sense, the vast, vast majority, and we
just got to make sure that there's no boy in
a girl's locker room and boys or boys girls girls

(01:53):
and uh not have that conversation again.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Uh, yeah, that was You're pretty heavy there on the
social type issues, which are always contentious and they always
get filibustered and take a lot of time. But that's
part of the process. What about what about what about
the financial issues that we that that we have. Do
you think it's for at it? Let me let me

(02:18):
ask you this. Do you think we're at a crisis
point relative to people deciding they can't stay here anymore
in some parts of Nebraska because of taxes?

Speaker 3 (02:29):
Yeah, no, no question. That's that's why we called the
special session last summer. Uh. There's just some people that
are not willing to Uh. They all they can say
is no, not willing to roll up our sleeves and
fix the crisis. As they say, sales taxes increasing taxes,
and they call me a billion dollar tax increaser, and

(02:51):
yet no solution in our property taxes are going up
at an unprecedented rates. So, uh, you know, we're not
going to give up. We got to keep check away
at it. And you know the other key that six
is at all hand in hand is simply fixing the Teosa.
We're putting forth a blue ribbon commission, it'll get announced soon,

(03:15):
putting experts together to say, let's fix this thirty year
old law. You know this number, nobody can believe it.
But in two thousands, so TIOSA started about nineteen ninety.
In two thousand, two hundred and twenty four schools we're
getting equalization aid from the state. And now in twenty

(03:36):
twenty four there were sixty. That was not the intent
of the Teosa law. And so we have to have
the state fund schools K twelve education. Let me make
that clear, fund it, not run it. A lot of
people attacked that are taking over control of schools, not

(03:58):
in the least. Today the state funds about one point
three five billion. That number needs to be another billion
so that we solve the property tax crisis, and the
schools are strong across the state and there's equitable financing
across the state. It's extraordinarily simple, you know. We just

(04:22):
have to get common sense back in there.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
It's simple, gud.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
But you got eighteen hundred school board elected school board
members out there who don't want to lose their gigs,
who believe that the state does that, then they have control.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Over our schools. And why are we.

Speaker 4 (04:34):
Around What do you make of this? And I don't
believe for a minute that there's a four hundred and
ninety two million dollar budget gap coming in the next
two years. I think that's political posturing. You've seen that
by the end of this session you watched, that'll be
a two hundred million dollar surplus. That's just the games
that people play try and slow down tax changes.

Speaker 1 (04:53):
Number one, do you believe that there's.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
A crisis, a crisis within our budget?

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, well one thing that is real. There's not I
can assure you from my office and are working on
the budget. You know, I don't have any idea how
to hell you politically posture. I'm not a politician. The
fact is really simple. The federal government shafted us. They
clipped us at the knees because of the Nebraska economy.

(05:22):
So it's called the f MAP. Jim, I didn't understand this,
but I do now, and it's a reimbursement for federal
dollars for medicaid. They decreased our funding about two hundred
and twenty million dollars. That resulted in two hundred and
twenty million dollar loss to our cash funding. So that's
four hundred and forty million dollars. And you know that's

(05:45):
for a budget where we're trying to decrease our spend
five hundred million dollars a year. You know that that
really put a ding on us. And so that where
we would have been coming in with a fur hundred
fifty to five hundred million dollars decrease. Now because of this,
you know, we're we're you know, we're only about seventy

(06:09):
five million or something. So we do have a negative budget.
We're about seventy five million dollars negative spend to previous years.
Government is used. We have to change the language government
is used to talking about cutting their budget. And what
that means is is that after a fort or five
percent self appointed budget increase. You know, back where I

(06:32):
come from, that's hogwash. We everybody in business works off
of what they spent last year. They don't give themselves
a self appointed more five percent more spend. We have
to get that language corrected, and that's what we're working on,
and we'll keep plugging away at it and getting better.

(06:52):
But the but the four hundred and forty million dollars
gained from the federal government because we had a three
percent they diged us three percent of the funding, the
highest of any state in the country. Because our unemployment,
because our individual income is getting better. We plan on
after the dust settles from the inauguration, go to the

(07:14):
government and say, look, this math is not fair. It
makes no sense. It should be a straight pro rata reimbursement.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
On medical you're optimistic about that?

Speaker 3 (07:25):
That is real?

Speaker 1 (07:26):
Are you optimistic?

Speaker 3 (07:26):
You know? Yeah, you know, I tell you what. Unless
you go try and pound the door down and make
develop a relationship and explain how ridiculous it is. But
you know, we have conservatives in charge. That makes sense,
So yeah, I am. I think you can have a
conversation and say, what on earth are you doing here?
We got penalized, and it really really hurts our state's economy.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Governor pilling here just before we run, we had a
little fun with a beginnning here. God, but I don't
think the Nebraska Nebraska's have heard exactly what actually happened
with that accident. You were pretty graeve injured. And I
heard you're you're talking on Avenue one morning. You said,
you're you're on a hill right, Uh yeah, you were

(08:09):
going downhill.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah, going downhill and one horse, uh got got spooked.
And then that horse spooked the horse I was on.
We weren't going fast, but we were we were moving,
and then my horse took a right turn on a
dime and he's pretty explosive horse, and uh yeah, he

(08:33):
he sent me flying. And I'm, uh yeah, I'm you know,
I'm I'm incredibly grateful. It could have been a really
really bad deal. And so yeah, I'm grateful. My God's
given me a second shot, and he's all the prayers
of Nebraskans and sending me the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
There.

Speaker 3 (08:51):
I'm healing really fast. You know. Let's see, today's Friday,
Wednesday was twenty one days from being opened up.

Speaker 2 (08:59):
And now this is Thursday. You hit your head too.
This is Thursday.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
Oh hell it is. I love to hit my head.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah maybe Yeah, I just looked at it this way.
You're used to it, because I figured in the morning
after the accident was like the morning after the seventy
eight Missouri game. So I'm thinking you're used to this.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
Uh, you know, I've I've I've been hit hard by
I've been hit hard by Isaiah Hip and by Richard
Burns and by uh Steve Lindquist and George Andrews and
my brother. But yeah, I've never had this kind of
contact before.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Seriously, we're we're grateful to Govin. Thanks for the time
this morning. We'll talk again soon.

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Hey, thanks for having me on a gigantic Thanks to
all your listeners that sent pers my way. We're I'm
incredibly grateful.
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