Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Plaid Institute's Jim Bocle for a few minutes here. Jim,
good to have you back. Good morning, Good morning. On
a couple of things. Number one, the Truth in Taxation
hearing in Douglas Counties downtown this evening, and folks who've
got their green cards and the mail, a green card
and the mail were notified of a proposed tax increase.
Imagine that. My primary question is, because we've talked about
(00:23):
the truth in Taxation legislation.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Before, well, to do any good? To go? What will
happen tonight?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I think it does good. First and foremost, we've increased transparency.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Before.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
You wouldn't understand that elective officials and all of these
entities are raising your property taxes. You would just get
upset at the assessor, right right, So I have my
postcard in front of me. Douglas County is raising my
taxes one hundred and eighty dollars, City of Omaha two
hundred and seventy two dollars in Omaha Public schools a
wap in eight hundred and four dollars more on pain
than last year. So now I know right exactly the
(00:57):
decisions that these entities are making. I have an opportunity
tonight to go and voice my concern before they set
the levy rate. Okay, it's not as great as it
could be. We're trying to strengthen that for next year
and have these hearings.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Before they do their budgets.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
But yes, it has increased transparency and increased taxpayer involvement.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, Now I was a little confused by the language
on this card. Will this be an opportunity for taxpayers
to actually speak or is it just these people saying
here's what we're doing and here's why we're doing.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Sure, each of the entities that are on these postcards
have an opportunity to present their decision they're spending. Then
taxpayers have the opportunity to also voice their concern to
these elected officials that are raising their taxes. When I
went to this hearing two years ago, there were over
three hundred and fifty people.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, how do you manage that?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Well, not everybody speaks, but I also know that there's
been standing room only across the state where they've had
to bring in more chairs. There have been entities that
have actually changed their decision and let's look to our
neighbors in to the South. In Kansas, they have Truth
and Taxation too, but they triggered their hearings. If there's
even one more penny of property tax increase, Nearly two
(02:13):
thirds of the tax and entities in Kansas are not
raising taxes this year. That's that's the strength of this law.
We've got to make it stronger here Nebraska. But it
does work all right.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Sex soh five tonight seems to me like they should
do more than one of these. But anyway, it's sex
so five this evening at the Omaha Douglas Civic Center downtown.
So Mike green Card just says car. Yeah, well that's
the color of the car they sent it. Uh, it
just says political subdivisions. So it doesn't say anything about
(02:47):
the schools. So apparently my side is just raising their
spending or their evaluation or but they can't raise it.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I looked at your postcard only Douglas County. So this Douglas,
this law applies to the county.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The city Nice Schools, Nice one Ma Polk.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Schools is increasing their spending by thirty eight million dollars.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, and apparently they're raising the rate too.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And apparently the assessor decided I now live at Downton Abbey.
I'm looking at the assessed value of my home. Good Lord,
I've been in your house. It's a very nice house.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, this is Lord.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
This isn't about the valuation. This is about what the is.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
It's about this He's talking about the whole.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's about the decision making that elect officials and these
boards do. Once evaluations go up. Are they going to
spend the wind for? Are they going to give it back?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So Douglas County decided to spend it, all right, because
that's all you have. All you have is the county.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
You don't have a mayor or a city, countyule district,
but you got a school district. Yeah, at the end
of the day, the school district will survive a nuclear bomb.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Blash.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay, what do you think of the governor's announcement yesterday
on twenty million dollars in property tax excess that he
wants to return to the taxpayers from a casino gambling
primarily and a couple other things.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, I applaud them for prioritizing property textually. If it's
no secret that the Plat Institute isn't necessarily and hasn't
been for a decade of the property tax credits because
it doesn't address the spending decisions on the local level.
It's subsidizing the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I'd rather see this money pooled like we did when
we eliminated community college's taxing authority in twenty twenty three,
versus pushing this more into the credit.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
But you know, I plot them for trying to do something.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Okay, so we know about the ballot initiatives. Now we've
got multiple ballot initiatives, which I think is actually harmful
because that's going to confuse people. We need one ballot
initiative that says X, Y, and Z, as opposed to
three that say a little bit of X, a little
bit of Z, and some of Why where are you
on the ballot initiatives right now?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think people are so frustrated that if any of
them get on the ballot there's a good chance that
they could advance.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
But the they want to address property taxes in a
significant way. I get that there is no plan with
these ballot initials of how political subdivisions make up the
money that they're going to lose.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And there's also no direction of how the.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
State, as an example, replaces the revenue right. It addresses
trying to reduce property taxes by a significant amount without
any plan revenue replacement.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
What it does is it blows up the current system
and says, okay, you forty nine people plus the governor,
you fix it. Go figure out what happened in nineteen
sixty six. In nineteen sixty seven, led by good solid
state senators, guys like Jerome Warner and Terry Carpenter, these
are the guys that rebuilt the Nebraska tax code. And
(05:53):
they did it with a two point five percent sales
tax on everything, no exemptions, and you paid ten percent
in state income tax on your federal income tax. So
if you paid one hundred dollars in federal income tax,
you paid ten dollars on Nebraska income.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And then all the exemptions can.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
And then over the course of sixty years, the political
giveaways came and went. There was no coverage of it,
and they, oh, this is just a little tiny one,
and it became six billion dollars. The plan is the
people will blow it to smithereens, and you forty nine
full brights and the governor in after you've been reelected,
because it'll be in the session of twenty twenty seven.
(06:32):
You get to fix it, and I think that's where
we are. I think the people of Nebraska are smarter
than the operatives think they are. I think they're tired
of it. They've given multiple legislatures and governors multiple chances
to fix this problem and they have not.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
We've got the highest property taxes in the country. We
have a sales tax system based on carve outs, and
that comes at the expense of lower taxes for everybody.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
So yeah, our system is broken.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Appreciate the work you do, Jim. Thanks thanks for coming
a Jim vocal Platt Institute here
Plaid Institute's Jim Bocle for a few minutes here. Jim,
good to have you back. Good morning, Good morning. On
a couple of things. Number one, the Truth in Taxation
hearing in Douglas Counties downtown this evening, and folks who've
got their green cards and the mail, a green card
and the mail were notified of a proposed tax increase.
Imagine that. My primary question is, because we've talked about
(00:23):
the truth in Taxation legislation.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Before, well, to do any good? To go? What will
happen tonight?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Well?
Speaker 3 (00:29):
I think it does good. First and foremost, we've increased transparency.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Before.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
You wouldn't understand that elective officials and all of these
entities are raising your property taxes. You would just get
upset at the assessor, right right, So I have my
postcard in front of me. Douglas County is raising my
taxes one hundred and eighty dollars, City of Omaha two
hundred and seventy two dollars in Omaha Public schools a
wap in eight hundred and four dollars more on pain
than last year. So now I know right exactly the
(00:57):
decisions that these entities are making. I have an opportunity
tonight to go and voice my concern before they set
the levy rate. Okay, it's not as great as it
could be. We're trying to strengthen that for next year
and have these hearings.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Before they do their budgets.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
But yes, it has increased transparency and increased taxpayer involvement.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Okay, Now I was a little confused by the language
on this card. Will this be an opportunity for taxpayers
to actually speak or is it just these people saying
here's what we're doing and here's why we're doing.
Speaker 3 (01:29):
Sure, each of the entities that are on these postcards
have an opportunity to present their decision they're spending. Then
taxpayers have the opportunity to also voice their concern to
these elected officials that are raising their taxes. When I
went to this hearing two years ago, there were over
three hundred and fifty people.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Yeah, how do you manage that?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
Well, not everybody speaks, but I also know that there's
been standing room only across the state where they've had
to bring in more chairs. There have been entities that
have actually changed their decision and let's look to our
neighbors in to the South. In Kansas, they have Truth
and Taxation too, but they triggered their hearings. If there's
even one more penny of property tax increase, Nearly two
(02:13):
thirds of the tax and entities in Kansas are not
raising taxes this year. That's that's the strength of this law.
We've got to make it stronger here Nebraska. But it
does work all right.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Sex soh five tonight seems to me like they should
do more than one of these. But anyway, it's sex
so five this evening at the Omaha Douglas Civic Center downtown.
So Mike green Card just says car. Yeah, well that's
the color of the car they sent it. Uh, it
just says political subdivisions. So it doesn't say anything about
(02:47):
the schools. So apparently my side is just raising their
spending or their evaluation or but they can't raise it.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
I looked at your postcard only Douglas County. So this Douglas,
this law applies to the county.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The city Nice Schools, Nice one Ma Polk.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Schools is increasing their spending by thirty eight million dollars.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
Yeah, and apparently they're raising the rate too.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
And apparently the assessor decided I now live at Downton Abbey.
I'm looking at the assessed value of my home. Good Lord,
I've been in your house. It's a very nice house.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, this is Lord.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
This isn't about the valuation. This is about what the is.
Speaker 5 (03:26):
It's about this He's talking about the whole.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
It's about the decision making that elect officials and these
boards do. Once evaluations go up. Are they going to
spend the wind for? Are they going to give it back?
Speaker 1 (03:39):
So Douglas County decided to spend it, all right, because
that's all you have. All you have is the county.
Speaker 5 (03:43):
You don't have a mayor or a city, countyule district,
but you got a school district. Yeah, at the end
of the day, the school district will survive a nuclear bomb.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
Blash.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
Okay, what do you think of the governor's announcement yesterday
on twenty million dollars in property tax excess that he
wants to return to the taxpayers from a casino gambling
primarily and a couple other things.
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Well, I applaud them for prioritizing property textually. If it's
no secret that the Plat Institute isn't necessarily and hasn't
been for a decade of the property tax credits because
it doesn't address the spending decisions on the local level.
It's subsidizing the problem.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I'd rather see this money pooled like we did when
we eliminated community college's taxing authority in twenty twenty three,
versus pushing this more into the credit.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
But you know, I plot them for trying to do something.
Speaker 5 (04:31):
Okay, so we know about the ballot initiatives. Now we've
got multiple ballot initiatives, which I think is actually harmful
because that's going to confuse people. We need one ballot
initiative that says X, Y, and Z, as opposed to
three that say a little bit of X, a little
bit of Z, and some of Why where are you
on the ballot initiatives right now?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Well?
Speaker 3 (04:51):
I think people are so frustrated that if any of
them get on the ballot there's a good chance that
they could advance.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
But the they want to address property taxes in a
significant way. I get that there is no plan with
these ballot initials of how political subdivisions make up the
money that they're going to lose.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
And there's also no direction of how the.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
State, as an example, replaces the revenue right. It addresses
trying to reduce property taxes by a significant amount without
any plan revenue replacement.
Speaker 5 (05:32):
What it does is it blows up the current system
and says, okay, you forty nine people plus the governor,
you fix it. Go figure out what happened in nineteen
sixty six. In nineteen sixty seven, led by good solid
state senators, guys like Jerome Warner and Terry Carpenter, these
are the guys that rebuilt the Nebraska tax code. And
(05:53):
they did it with a two point five percent sales
tax on everything, no exemptions, and you paid ten percent
in state income tax on your federal income tax. So
if you paid one hundred dollars in federal income tax,
you paid ten dollars on Nebraska income.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And then all the exemptions can.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
And then over the course of sixty years, the political
giveaways came and went. There was no coverage of it,
and they, oh, this is just a little tiny one,
and it became six billion dollars. The plan is the
people will blow it to smithereens, and you forty nine
full brights and the governor in after you've been reelected,
because it'll be in the session of twenty twenty seven.
(06:32):
You get to fix it, and I think that's where
we are. I think the people of Nebraska are smarter
than the operatives think they are. I think they're tired
of it. They've given multiple legislatures and governors multiple chances
to fix this problem and they have not.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
We've got the highest property taxes in the country. We
have a sales tax system based on carve outs, and
that comes at the expense of lower taxes for everybody.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
So yeah, our system is broken.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Appreciate the work you do, Jim. Thanks thanks for coming
a Jim vocal Platt Institute here
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