April 10, 2026 • 41 mins
A long conversation today about newly annexed roads in Elkhorn. alls and emails from listeners provided real examples and emotion.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We've got a lot to talk about. If you want
to give us a call today, you can call us
at four oh two five five eight eleven ten, or
you can email us at comment at kfab dot com.
I'm here with peytonick In today. Good morning, Good morning,
Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you too. Do you notice
what I have on today? I have bright Green on
to celebrate the Masters. I know Scott talked about it
(00:22):
endlessly on his show this morning. What a big Golf Now,
let me tell you you golf I do. Yes, I
live on a golf course. I've lived there for thirty
three years. I'm a terrible golfer.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, if I golfed on that course, I let's just
hope that you have some insurance for that window in
the back.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You know, after thirty three years and I live right,
everybody knows where I live. It's no it's no secret.
I live on off Oakills Country Club, right off the
six tea box. And in thirty three years of living there,
right on the golf course, I've had one broken window.
Now I shouldn't say that knock on wood, because it's
probably coming this year, but I have had golf balls
(01:01):
in my front yard. So I think if people really
hit off that tea box and hit a ball in
my front yard, I can do at least that good.
I really, come on, I'm going to start taking lessons again. Now.
My husband, Kevin, he is a golfer, and he feels
like he's dyed in going to heaven that he lives
on a golf course now, so he loves being there.
And that's a nice golf course too. You know, the
(01:22):
City of Omaha has nice public golf courses. We have eight,
we have four eighteen, and we have four nines, and
they are well cupped and they around. A golf in
one of the city courses is really inexpensive and affordable too.
And there's not quite the dress code at the city
courses that you might see at a country club. You know,
(01:45):
sometimes they're pretty strict at a country club. But City
of Omaha, I mean, they don't want you to dress
like a slob. But at the same time, yes, you know,
you can dress a little more casually there. But I
can't say enough about the golf courses that the city has. Plus,
and it was when Mayor Subtle was just going out
of office, is when we change golf into an enterprise
(02:08):
and so that's really helped our golf courses because that
what that means is all the money that is generated
from the golf courses goes back into the golf courses,
that doesn't go back into the general fund. So that's
a really good thing. So anyway, enough about golf. The
Masters will go on, Masters will go on.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's a nice green you have on.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And it works for the Masters, it works for Christmas,
it works for Saint Patrick's Day. So I have green.
You know, I want to talk a little bit about
and review a little bit and hopefully the gentleman that
called from Elcorn along Skyline is still listening. But I
really want to get others opinions of this too, because
this reflects on something that I did when I was mayor.
(02:46):
But he called about the streets out on Skyline and
Elcorn and obviously he was pretty angry about it, and
his position is those streets are deteriorating. They don't have sidewalks,
storm drains, curve gutters, and what the city has called
those is that they are substandard streets is what they
(03:07):
have kind of labeled them. And what that means is
they were built many, many years ago by a developer,
but they were not built to today's standards. And today's
standards are what I just said, Out of about the
five thousand lane miles of road in Omaha, there's about
three hundred lane miles that are considered substandard. Most of
(03:29):
them are in the West Side area and there are
some out in the Elkhorn area also. So when I
did become mayor, that was back in twenty thirteen, the
policy for the city was if you lived on one
of those substandard streets and you wanted it improved to
today's standards. There I go again with this this allergy
(03:51):
thing I have every morning. Excuse me, But anyway, if
you wanted them improved, you had to pay one hundred
percent of it. That the city was not going to
come in and rehabilitate these streets and make them to
today's standards because they were not built to the current standards,
but they wouldn't pay for any of it. And I
thought this is not fair. I thought, you know, these
(04:12):
are city streets. The city owns them. Now, the West
Side area has been part of the city for a
long time. Elkhorn was not, you know, it was just
it was annexed in two thousand and five, and so
I looked into it. I appointed a group of citizens.
They met for at least a year. But the goal
was to create a policy that applied fairly to all applicants.
(04:36):
And I mean we wanted it to be fair for
those people that want of their streets improved, and also
for the taxpayers, because eventually the taxpayers are going to
be panned for this. So anyway, that group came up
with a policy. That policy was that I pointed the
board in twenty seventeen. The policy was approved by the
city council in twenty eighteen. And that policy basically a
(05:00):
cost sharing policy. It was the city would come out
and engineer it, they would design it, the city would
pay basically for half in the homeowners whose property abutted
on that property would pay for the other half. In
a high poverty area, the city would pay one hundred
percent if they thought if there were certain guidelines that
were met. So anyway, that has been followed now for
(05:21):
since twenty nineteen. And in the Capital Improvement Plan for
the City of Omaha, which that we do every year
with the budget, it's a six year plan. Money was
put in there for six years it was about eight
hundred and twenty thousand annually, almost a million annually for
the city's half of that, so we were ready to
go forward with the half. Since then, there has been
(05:42):
a lot of neighborhoods that have taken part in that.
In fact, there's been dozens more in the West Side
area than anywhere else. But even the first year of it,
there was a lot of applicants to take part of
that program, of the cost sharing program. Now what this
gentleman was talking about yesterday, I understand the frustration because
(06:07):
again Elcorn was annexed by the city of Omaha back
in two thousand and five. That was in mayfair fayhe
was the mayor, and a lot of those streets are unimproved,
and so this became a real point of contention during
the campaign. I know there was a lot of people
along Skyline that were very, very angry, and they were
(06:28):
angry at me, And this gentleman said, I didn't vote
for you because of this, and that's fine, but I
felt like I could not say, well, then, just this
one little area of Elcorn, the city will come in
and pay for all of it. When we've had since
twenty nineteen multiple neighborhoods already doing the cost sharing. How
fair would that be? And so I asked Public Works
(06:49):
to determine what all of the Elcorn would cost area
that was annexed in two thousand and five. You couldn't
just do a couple streets or a couple neighborhoods. That
wouldn't be fair. The costs came out to about five
hundred million. Now, that was cost prohibitive and it would
definitely result in a huge tax increase for all of
(07:09):
Omaha to pay for for just the streets in Elkhorn
to be done without any cost to them. Now, that
was not acceptable to the folks out there. I understand
the frustrations. But they did sue the city in twenty
twenty four over the street and they lost, and then
they appealed again and they lost the appeal in twenty
(07:29):
twenty five with the Nebraska Court of Appeals to hold
the city responsible for all of those repairs. So that's
where I left it. I said, you know, it did
become a source of contention during the campaign. I know Ewing,
current mayor. Ewing even did a commercial saying Jean stout there.
It says, if you want your streets and you got
(07:50):
to pay from yourself. That is not accurate, not accurate
at all. I did not say that. I said, you know,
those three hundred lane mills out of five thousand that
were on it would be a cost sharing. I didn't
say you have to pay for him yourself. Now, it
is true since Mary Ewing has become mayor, he has
kept with the policy that we've already established, and I
know he has met with some of those folks out
(08:12):
in Melcorn and said we can't do it where I
think he led them to believe that he would be
able to do it. So that's the way it is now.
Obviously I don't have any authority over what happens now,
but I would really like to know what people think.
I mean, do they think that that policy that we
established for the cost sharing for this three hundred lane
(08:32):
miles out of the five thousand in Omaha is fair.
There's already quite a few people that are probably listening
to this show that have already taken part in it
and are paying for half of it, and that can
be assessed over a period of fifteen to twenty years,
and so I don't think they would think it was fair.
I don't think the city council members would think it
was fair that represented those areas that their constituents have
(08:57):
already paid for half of their streets and the city
half if we would go ahead and say, but one
area of Omaha only, we are going to pay for
all of it. So I would really like to hear
people's comments about that. And if the gentleman that called
in yesterday wants to call again, I know I was
trying to explain it and explain it, and I think
he accused me of filibustering, and I wasn't trying to
(09:18):
do that. It's a bit complicated because you know, at
the end of the day, when you do the city budget,
you do the budget and then you do the Capital
Improvement Plan, which is a six year plan, and it's
just known. People want better services. They want good fire
and police, they deserve that. They want better streets, they
want you know, good trash pick up, they want good
(09:39):
snow plowing. They want all of those city services that
at the to be improved. But at the same time,
you hear a lot, but you need to spend a
lot less. You're spending too much, and you need to
lower taxes. Even more, and so it is a really
difficult thing to manage a city budget and to provide
all of those things and still keep taxes as low
(10:00):
as you possibly can. Lower property taxes is the number
one issue to taxpayers and citizens in the state, and
it's the number one issue in Omaha. So I'd be
interested to see what people have to say about that.
So if anybody wants to call in give me their opinion,
I'd sure like to hear it and let me know
if you think it's fair. Now, I will say this,
(10:22):
if that policy is changed, it's not the mayor that
can just change it. If the policy was approved by
the city council, it would have to go back to
the council for an amendment, and so that would be
the process. So, you know, the city council members that
were representing West Omaha, they got re elected, it would
have to be up to them to change the policy.
(10:44):
It could be a recommendation of the mayor. But I
really want to know what people have to say about it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The phone lines are wide open four zero, two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. If you have an opinion, you can
also email us comment at kfab dot com. This email
comes from Mark Gene. I was wondering, this is in
regards to the Sunset Hills golf course. I'm sure that
you've dealt with this. I was wondering what your reason
was for backing the Sunset Hills two hundred and ten
(11:10):
apartments and thirty seven home development. The people that live
in the area did not want twenty five hundred vehicles
a day going through two small streets.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I know that, and you know that I remember dealing
with that when that was being planned. And again, understand,
I hear this a lot, as mayor is. And I'll
give you an example in my own neighborhood. But there
is private property owners' rights. And somebody owned that property
(11:42):
there and they decided to make it into apartments there.
It was just their decision. It was their decision, and
you private property owners do have rights. Now, there is
a city master plan. It has to be compliant with
the master plan, it has to fit the neighborhood. But
I'm going to give you a good example in my neighborhood.
(12:03):
I tell everybody I live about one hundred and twentieth
in Q, right on the corner of one hundred and
twentieth in Q, and that would be the southeast corner.
There used to be a huge parking lot in a
movie theater, an indoor movie theater called the Q nine,
And then I live in a neighborhood adjacent to that.
(12:24):
Years ago, a developer bought that corner there, and first
of all, there was an insurance company there and that
is now Project Harmony. But he also bought the whole
area behind, knocked down the movie theater and built apartments,
and the neighborhood that I live in, my neighbors were
furious and they were coming to me and they were saying,
(12:46):
how can you let you know, we had this nice
open corner. How can you let somebody build apartments there?
We don't want apartments there, And they were coming to
me right and left. But it was zoned for well,
it's originally zone commercial there and it could have had
anything there. I mean, it could have had a doctor
John's there for all. I mean, it was zoned properly
(13:08):
for it. So but that private property owner asked for
it to be rezoned to I believe that our six
are apartments multifamily, and the city council approved that, and
then Project Harmony is on the corner there, so there
happens all over Omaha. There's an issue right now at
one hundred and sixty eighth a street between Pacific and
(13:30):
Center that on the west side there is a big
green space that I know that somebody has called about
that before. That actually is owned by the same person
that built the apartments by my house, and so there
are private property owners' rights. However, it has to be
compliant with a master plan, it has to be zoned properly,
(13:51):
and so I remembered when that happened there. But because
that the city council at the time didn't have any
real reason to turn it down. I mean, the neighbors
opposed to it were opposed to it, the neighbors my
neighbors were opposed to it where I live too, But
there isn't really a legal reason to say no, we
don't want those there because it is owned by a
(14:14):
private person or company and it is compliant with the
city master plan.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In the same vein here with properties in Omaha. This
one is what's Mayor Jean's opinion on the ruling of
the longtime blighted hotel property one hundred and eighth and.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
L I know all, I mean, I know all about
that and that that is a bit confusing to me.
That hotel, I mean it is. It is absolutely blighted.
There were homeless living in there. It did have a
private owner. That was an issue once again about what
the city can do. It was boarded up to try
to keep it safe. Don Roe is the council member
(14:55):
in that area and it was just a source of
irritation to him for years. They did just move forward
with it. But the mayor is having he said, he
is using some funds so that the city pays for
the demo entirely, and I don't really understand that. I
(15:18):
actually talked to a city council member last night for
quite a while, which I appreciated because I guess the
mayor has not blocked city council from talking to me.
But they better not do that because they are elected officials.
But anyway, talk to a city council member a long
time last night, and they also were a bit confused
(15:38):
about why Mayor Ewing was taking this direction to get
money to pay one hundred percent for this when the
owner should be paying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
There's about eighteen different hotels on that intersection.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, and there was shady things going on in a
lot of those hotels we knew about it. Some there
was some trafficking going on. But that one that was
that is in question right now is certainly an eye sore.
And I think we can't wait to see that not
there anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Okay, we're going to go to a streetcar question here,
but let's not get too nitty gritty here. This is
just kind of an interesting one. It's a different angle here,
big fan of yours, but not of the downtown amusement ride.
Can you tell me you're con Can you tell me
your conversation with Warren Buffett about his opposition. This is
a guy who rarely steps into local issues, but he
(16:31):
felt the need to make his opinion here.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And I'm not laughing at you, but I've heard the
streetcar called everything. I've been called street car stothard too.
But you know, Warren Buffett what And I like Warren Buffett,
and you know Warren supported me, and when I ran
for mayor. Different is night and day politically. But what
a great guy. But he what he did, if you
all recall he wrote a letter to the public pulse
(16:54):
and he thought, oh well, I'm just writing a little
letter to the public pulse. And when I did meet
with him, and I did go meet with him about
this that I'll explain that. He said, I just wrote
a letter to the public pulse. I said, Warren, mister Buffett,
when you write a letter to the public pulse, it's
front page news. But anyway, I went and met with
him after he made that statement. I went Susie, his
daughter is a friend of mine. She helped arrangement. I
(17:16):
took some of my team with me and we went
there and talked to him about it. And he was
as friendly and nice as he could be. And you
know what he said to me is Mayor, you know
I buy railroads. Yes he does, and he goes I
know a lot about public transportation. He certainly does. And
he says, I don't support the street car for public transportation.
(17:39):
That's what he said. I mean, for no, I take
that back. He didn't say for public transportation. He said
I don't support the street car for mass transportation. That's
what he said. Those were his exact words. And we
all said, understand and agree, this is for this is
not for mass transportation. This is for public transportation's economic
(18:00):
development tool. It's to bring people just in around and
out of downtown, not math transportation. And it's to better
utilize the land that we have in our urban core,
that it's not just primarily dedicated to parking, but we
can replace those all that parking lots surface parking lots.
We have downtown with buildings and businesses and jobs and people.
(18:26):
And he said he understood it. I mean, he really did,
and he wasn't not what the last thing he told
me that day is I'm not going to make another statement,
but you know they're not streetcar fans. Either is his
daughter Susie, who again is a good friend of mine,
And you know, I appreciate how they think about it.
But again, there were let me remind you all, there
(18:46):
were so many people that were so against the Arena
Convention Center. I will never go downtown. I will never
go there and watch a baseball game, a soccer game
or whatever, a swim trial, a concert. There were so
many people that oppose the new ballpark downtown said the
same thing. I will never go down there. I won't
use it, I liked Rosenblatt. I won't go to another
(19:08):
College World Series game. There were people that protested the
redevelopment of the Riverfront Parks. There were people that really
were against the Dodge Expressway. I mean, there's all sorts
of things that the city has moved forward with and
done that in the long run, after it's up and running,
they're very successful and people really appreciate it. I feel
(19:30):
like people will be the same way with the street car.
I really do. Roger, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Thank you for that. You've mentioned on the air two
before your relationship with mister Warren Buffett, despite your guys's differences,
that you guys have always been a really pretty good
in communication with each other.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yes, and it's Susie too. Susie Buffett has her you know,
she has a foundation called Sherwood And truly you know
why she named it that it's truly from Robinhood. I
remember that the theme of robin Hood was steal from
they're from the rich and give to the poor. Yeah,
and you know, Susie Buffett's focus, her her passion is
(20:08):
those that are lower income, those that are in poverty,
children early childhood, getting children good education, getting them services
they need. That is her focus and her passion, and
she does things very quietly. She doesn't want her name
all over everything. She doesn't want to be thanked and recognized.
She does a lot of things quietly, but she has
(20:30):
truly helped this community a lot, and I really, I
really enjoy my friendship with her. And of course we
are as a different night and day politically, but that
to me, that doesn't matter. I agree, it really doesn't
matter at all. She does a lot for the community
and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And Gene, I'm gonna get you in here. I know
you wanted to talk about this soccer stadium. You got
the Omaha World Herald in front of you, per usual
like you do every morning, and the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But the Wall Street Journal is not talking about the
a soccer state, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
This is a talk here on the iHeart Sorry, I'm
the iHeartRadio app. This is from Tommy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Good morning, miss Gene.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah, this whole tip thing is obviously borrowing from our
future selves, which I don't It doesn't seem like a
good recipe for success in my book. But regardless, since
we're able to use tip money, now, let's not use
it for I mean the street cars, all right, but
let's use it for knocking down property taxes too. Something
(21:29):
that will directly benefit the taxpayers.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Appreciate your comment here. I think there's a little confusion though. Now.
First of all, the soccer stadium, the city council was
on their agenda yesterday and the discussion for financing of
that stadium was delayed for a week because some of
the council members had some questions. This soccer stadium, I'll
just give a little background. It's for Union Soccer. It's
(21:56):
about a sixty five hundred fixed seat soccer stadium down
town in that area right adjacent to where the ballpark is,
kind of where the Union Pacific lot was where the
train used to sit, and it has a capacity to
increase to about eighty five hundred. The property where the
soccer stadium is going to be built was owned by
(22:17):
Union Pacific. The city is going to purchase that land
because and then lease it basically because the city can
obviously they can get better rates on bonds and things
than a private developer can. But it is being funded well.
The city can get borrow at lower interest rates. But
(22:40):
I think there's a little confusion in the tiff that
you were just brought up, because the funding of this
soccer stadium has multiple sources of funding, and it gets
a little confusing, and I think that's why the city
council wanted to delay it over a week so they
all had it straight in their mind. It involves about
forty eight million in TIS and TIFF is not borrowing,
(23:02):
in my opinion, at all against the future. You know
that there's only certain TIFF eligible expenses that are allowed
by state law. And when they go through, a developer
comes in and he says, I'm going to do this development,
and I think I qualify for TIFF. He goes through
the Planning department first, and then it goes on the
Mayor's desk, and then the mayor signs off and it
(23:24):
goes to the City Council. Then if it is approved,
that developer goes to the bank and takes out a loan,
and that developer pays back the loan, So the city
is not on the hook at all. There's no risk
to the city with TIFF. And what he is doing
that developer is as he develops that property and the
(23:44):
value of that property goes up and up and up
and up, he pays to the city that increased property
taxes whatever that value is determined by the Douglas County Assessor.
He pays that year after year after year that increased
amount of taxes, but of what he pays then goes
back for him to help pay off the development. Now,
(24:05):
when you said you're borrowing off future, this is part
I think what you're talking about here is the turnback tax,
and that is something different and what the turnbacks tax
is it was first developed by state law to help
the Gretna outlet out there. And what the turnback tax
is is a portion of the new sales tax, not
(24:28):
the existing sales tax, but the new sales tax that
is generated from that new development would go be turned
back and go to help pay for the development. So
that's a little bit different than what TIFF would be
and how TIFF would be used. So this is a combination.
The funding for this is a combination of TIFF. That's
(24:51):
about forty eight million. There is about thirty five million
from an occupation tax, and then there's an additional sales
tax that is applied only within the district. Only in
that district. They're going to add a little more sales
tax and that then there's the state turnback tax. So
it's it's confusing because there's multiple sources of revenue that
(25:14):
are going in to help pay for that project. And
the partners they requested about twenty five million in turnback
taxes over twenty years, so that's just a little more
than a million a year of turnback that would go
back to help pay for the development. Now, again, that
turnback tax is brand new sales tax, and you excuse me,
(25:39):
and you wouldn't have that new sales tax as the
development wasn't there, So it's not really borrowing off the future.
It's determining what that additional sales tax will be because
it'll be a mixed use development, it'll have retail, it'll
have a hotel, it'll have residential in there. And this
is just really what a true public private partnership is. Now,
(26:01):
that turnback's application that has to be approved by a
committee at the state level, and that committee includes Nebraska
Governor Jim Pillen, and that hearing on that application for
them to get that turnback tax, and again that is
future sales tax. That hearing has been scheduled for April
(26:23):
twenty first, so that has not even been approved yet.
And I think the feeling is from Union Soccer and
from the city of Omaha is it is unlikely that
the city would proceed with this project for the soccer
stadium if that application is not approved. So there's still
a lot of ifs about how that project is going
(26:44):
to be funded. I think it's a great project. I
think it would be great for downtown, but there's still
some ifs. But it is a little confusing how there's
multiple funding sources to get that stadium funded.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And this is something that we'll probably touch on again
next week when it goes back, and this is something
that we'll continue to talk about as it evolves. So
I have Dave on the phone line here, who's gonna
bring up the Elkhorn Roads again. I thought it would
be good to get a caller in here with some
personal experience. This is from Penny, though it's an email
just for some context, and I don't know if this
(27:17):
is for Dave in particular, but I'm just gonna fill
it out here. I live in a neighborhood where the
streets are substandard. Less than five years ago, our neighborhood
worked with the city on potential improvements. We were told
it would cost approximately seventeen thousand per homeowner to replace
our current asphalt. We were also quoted fifty thousand per
(27:38):
homeowner to replace the asphalt with concrete streets, drainage curbs, etc.
This was in agreement with the city. And now I'm
gonna bring on Dave. Dave, thank you for calling news
radio eleven to ten KFAB. You are live with jeanst Author.
You can correct anything that I said there, but I
was just trying to provide some context.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Sure, good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
My comments to the mayor is I think, very very
simply this. I'm one of those residents of I'm from Elkcoorn,
I'm one of the people that lives on one of
those substandard streets. And the comments that Mayor Southor that
you made are correct. That is often the case with
a politician. You left off some of the stuff that's
(28:20):
really important. And here's one of the here's the catch
twenty two that the city has us in. I live
in Skyline Ranches. Our roads are a disaster. And you
said that the city standard is curbs and gutters. Well,
that's great, except we're all on septic and it is
also city code that we can't have curbs and drainage gutters.
(28:41):
If we have if we're on septic and not on
city sores. So you've pretty much just left us hanging.
Our roads weren't substandard. Our roads were built to code
when the subdivision was developed, back before we were even
part of Elcorn. They were maintained by the city of
Elkhorn to In fact, our streets were ground and resurfaced
(29:03):
within two years of the City of Omaha taking us over.
When Omaha an Xlcorn, my streets and my subdivision were
better than just about anything that you had in Omaha.
The second point I want to make, and then I'd
like to hear your comment. My taxes didn't go down
because the city all of a sudden doesn't want to
do the street maintenance. I still make task tax. My
(29:24):
property taxes went up. So why am I supposed to
be okay with you just washing your hands of it
and saying, you guys take care of it. Where do
I go to get my tax money back so that
I can pay for this? So if you want me
to do it myself, I'll do it myself. But what
about getting my tax money back.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well, I guess I would go back to and you know,
first of all, I was going to tell you I
don't look at myself as a politician anymore. I'm I
am not an elected official. I'm doing a radio show now.
So we got to get rid of that. That's why
I don't ask people to call me mayor Stothard anymore.
But you know, at the same time, we're trying to
figure out I was trying to figure out a way
(30:02):
that I thought was fair for everyone. And like I said,
there's about three hundred lane miles of those streets that
are considered unimproved by two days standards out of the
five thousand. But would it be fair in your opinion,
that we would go out there and do all of Elcorn,
which I don't think it would be fair if we
(30:23):
only did Skyline. I think we should do all of
the areas in Elcorn that were annexed and improve them.
And it can be asphalt. I mean, you can just
do an asphalt overlay or you could do the concrete.
Either one one is the street Improvement District is the concrete.
And as you said, it cost a lot more, about
fifty thousand dollars per home owner that can be assessed
(30:45):
over a long period of time, say fifteen years or
seventeen thousand for the asphalt. The concrete is going to
last twice as long, but it's twice as expensive too.
But if you figure out if it was seventeen thousand
per homeowner over fifteen years, you know, that's a little
over one thousand dollars a year that the homeowner could
pay for. Now, some of the of the areas in
(31:07):
the West Side district, I know that they just paid
up front. They paid for it, and it was done,
and it wasn't assessed on their property taxes. But I
understand the frustration because when it was Elkhorn, they took
care of the streets and they maintained them, and then
you know, the big city of Omaha comes in and
they annex them and they say, but these aren't aren't
(31:29):
compliant with what our standards are today. And so I
remember going out there and doing some resurfacing, a little
resurfacing in that Skyline area when I was mayor, and
it didn't last. It didn't last because some of those
those ditches along the side of the road they were
filled in with dirt. They weren't draining right. So there's
a lot of issues out there that I think need
(31:50):
to be addressed. But I'm not just washing my hands
and walking away from it. I tried to come up
with a policy, which I explained to you, a cost
sharing policy, rather than the existing policy that had been
in existent forever that said you had to pay for
all of it. Try to come up with something that
was absolutely more fair for everybody. But to raise everybody's
(32:13):
taxes in Omaha wouldn't be fair either, just to do
one area. So it is. It's a difficult situation, and
you try to Government should not be picking winners and losers.
Government should make decisions that would be fair for everybody.
And that's why I had a committee of people of
citizens try to come up with what a policy they
(32:33):
think would be the most fair for everyone.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
All right, Uh, mister Dave, just a quick closing thoughts
he or anything you'd like to rebuttle with here.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Well, yeah, with all due respect there with you grind,
you know it is city code that you'll have asphalt,
you'll have concrete down when it needs repair, you grind
and resurface it. How many times you do that? You
do that all over the place. At it in Chaffel
Hill right next to our subdivision. Yes, and that was
fine because they have curbs and gutters. You will not
(33:06):
allow us to have curbs and gutters, even if we
would pay for it because we're on septic. Yet you
still collect the same amount of taxes from these subdivisions.
You know, when you say substandard, that is such a
misnomer because our roads were maintained just like the City
of Omaha maintains the roads before we were annexed. They
(33:27):
need work, you grind them, you overlay them with asphalt.
It wouldn't It's not like it's costing this city more money.
And you're giving us something that we didn't already have.
We already had great roads. We had great roads went
Omaha annexus, and now you just won't take care of them.
You don't get me any of my tax money back,
but you're not spending any more to do my roads
(33:48):
than you are anybody else's roads. You just won't take
care of them.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And again, I'm not the hair anymore. So have you
have you gone in and talked to Mary Ewing about this,
because let me just clarify one thing, and that is
when I say substandard, it's a term the city uses,
and it's not about the condition of the street. It's
not about the street needs rehabilitation. The street has potholes,
(34:13):
substandard means it the street itself isn't built to today's
city code. In today's city code, whether it be asphalt
or whether it be concrete, has different standards than it
did when your streets were built out there in Elkhore.
Now there is got brought up before. There is a
major drainage problem out there, and you know that. And
(34:36):
I know that too, because a lot of those ditches
on the side of the road are filled in with
dirt now and sometimes they are done that. They are
that way because of the horse trails around there too.
They don't drain and the resurfacing that we did do
in that area they quickly washed out because the water
went underneath the road again. So I'm not saying I'm
(34:57):
not going to do anything. I'm telling you I don't
have the authority to do anything anymore. I tried to
do when I was mayor what I thought was best
with the new policy. But I don't know what you
were promised by the new mayor, by Mary Ewing. But
I would you know, I would be more than happy
to have you tell us, you know, at today or
at a later time, what it is that he promised
(35:20):
you out there and what is he going to do?
And we have a special guest that's coming on on
Monday that you'll all want to listen to because he
agreed to stay the whole show with me and to
answer your questions in your calls and your concerns. And
Gary Sattlemeyer will be here, the famous, the world famous,
the Gary Satlemyer will be back and Gary Sattlemeyer studio
(35:40):
here with us and Peyton, and we're gonna have a
lot of fun. So on Monday, he's going to spend
the whole hour with me. He gave me the probably
the best advice when I said I was going to
do this show and I said any advice from the master,
and he said just be yourself, which I thought was great.
And I mean everybody everybody loves Gary Satlmira and misses him,
(36:02):
and it's going to be fun. I'm going to have
him take some calls and answer some questions with me too.
So Gary will be here with me the full hour
on Monday, So be sure and listen.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
And if you have any questions comments too, throw him
in now you know, we'll get him ready on Monday,
so we'll have it all ready to go.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Absolutely, well, queue him up. One other thing I have
to reinforce along with what the last caller was calling
about the streets in Elkhorn, just and he said, my
property taxes have not gone down. Just remember this, the
Douglas County Assessor assesses the value of your property, not
the City of Omaha. And when you look at your
(36:39):
property tax bill, the City of Omaha is about twenty
two percent of the entire bill. The schools get about
sixty two sixty three percent, city of Omaha gets twenty
two percent. And with that twenty two percent, the City
of Omaha has to fund the fire department, the police department,
the Planning department, the law department, the Public Works department,
(37:01):
the libraries at community centers, the golf. All of those
things are funded with twenty two percent of what you
pay in your entire bill. So just keep that in mind.
When the caller said, my taxes haven't gone down because
you're not rehabilitating our streets, you know that it's the
City of Omaha is such a very small portion of that.
(37:21):
And every time I have reduced the levee when I
was mayor, i did it five times. The city's levee.
You didn't see that much really of a difference in
your bill because it was it was, you know, a
property levee reduction of that twenty two percent, and so
it didn't seem like it was this big impact on
(37:41):
your property tax bill. But I will tell you if
a mayor would try to raise your taxes and raise
your levee, you would hear about it.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You recently reminded people to vote for the candidates for
the board of the Learning Community. Can you explain the
value and responsibilities of the learning community? Taxpayers fund the
federal Department of Edge, the state Board of Education, the
learning community, and the school districts. I do not know
how the learning community originated.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, it originated a long time ago, David. Yeah, when
I was on the city council, and you know, to
be honest with you, I was mentioning all of these
these different offices that are going to be on the ballot,
from the governor to the US Senator to the congressman.
You know, I was mentioning all of those, and I
(38:28):
did mention learning community. It's considered a lower ballot, you
know election there with the learning community. I honestly I
can't say that I'm a big fan of the learning community.
I'm really not, and so because I'm not sure how
functional they really are, because you know, each school has
its own elected school board, there is the state board
(38:50):
of Education, and you know, I am just not sure
that I would agree with the value of what the
learning community does. And I would like, I mean, I
would love for somebody from the learning community to come
on and say, these are all the great things we do,
and this is why we need to continue to exist.
And I think that that actually is being questioned. Is
(39:12):
that something that needs to exist, be you know, in existence.
Maybe more out in rural areas it would be beneficial.
But I can't really I don't think since I have
been on you know, an elected position, and that's eleven
years on a school board too, I'm not sure I
really understand the value of the learning community. I'm just
(39:33):
saying it's on the ballot, and so if you don't
understand the value of it either, maybe you know that's
something that you have to decide how you're going to
vote on.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
It, absolutely real quick here as we wrap up the show,
this one comes from Randy. Has there been any money
allocated for the removal of gang graffiti or maybe just
graffiti in general that will ultimately be plastered all over
the wonderful street cars.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Uh you know, I mean, look, you know, and that
could be. Graffiti is one thing that I can't I
hate if you when I was on the city council,
if you all remember councilman Gary Grenette, that was his
big pet. Peeve hated graffiti. It's art. Yeah, no it isn't.
I mean, I mean he hated it. And when they
would sit there, you know, gang members would mark their
(40:19):
territory that the thing you have to do is get
it down that day. And so we had that graffiti
abatement plan and graffiti van that would go out in
a bait and get all of that that paint. And
when they would do it on the railroad overpasses, look
at our railroad, Look at our rail cars. I mean,
that's their big thing is to put graffiti all over it. So, yes,
(40:40):
we will keep we will keep those street cars clean
and free of graffiti. I can guarantee you that, yes,
of course.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
And just a reminder as we wrap up the show here,
Gary Sadomayer in the studio on Monday and the whole hour.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
The whole hour, and we're gonna have fun. And I
can't wait for Gary to answer some of these questions
with And you can have your questions towards Gary, like
what the heck you been doing right or where you've
been traveling to or talk about he's engaged now and
so we can ask all we want with Gary Saddlemeyer.
But please tune in on Monday. Thanks for listening, Thanks
for being with us today. Have a wonderful weekend.
We've got a lot to talk about. If you want
to give us a call today, you can call us
at four oh two five five eight eleven ten, or
you can email us at comment at kfab dot com.
I'm here with peytonick In today. Good morning, Good morning,
Happy Friday. Happy Friday to you too. Do you notice
what I have on today? I have bright Green on
to celebrate the Masters. I know Scott talked about it
(00:22):
endlessly on his show this morning. What a big Golf Now,
let me tell you you golf I do. Yes, I
live on a golf course. I've lived there for thirty
three years. I'm a terrible golfer.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, if I golfed on that course, I let's just
hope that you have some insurance for that window in
the back.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
You know, after thirty three years and I live right,
everybody knows where I live. It's no it's no secret.
I live on off Oakills Country Club, right off the
six tea box. And in thirty three years of living there,
right on the golf course, I've had one broken window.
Now I shouldn't say that knock on wood, because it's
probably coming this year, but I have had golf balls
(01:01):
in my front yard. So I think if people really
hit off that tea box and hit a ball in
my front yard, I can do at least that good.
I really, come on, I'm going to start taking lessons again. Now.
My husband, Kevin, he is a golfer, and he feels
like he's dyed in going to heaven that he lives
on a golf course now, so he loves being there.
And that's a nice golf course too. You know, the
(01:22):
City of Omaha has nice public golf courses. We have eight,
we have four eighteen, and we have four nines, and
they are well cupped and they around. A golf in
one of the city courses is really inexpensive and affordable too.
And there's not quite the dress code at the city
courses that you might see at a country club. You know,
(01:45):
sometimes they're pretty strict at a country club. But City
of Omaha, I mean, they don't want you to dress
like a slob. But at the same time, yes, you know,
you can dress a little more casually there. But I
can't say enough about the golf courses that the city has. Plus,
and it was when Mayor Subtle was just going out
of office, is when we change golf into an enterprise
(02:08):
and so that's really helped our golf courses because that
what that means is all the money that is generated
from the golf courses goes back into the golf courses,
that doesn't go back into the general fund. So that's
a really good thing. So anyway, enough about golf. The
Masters will go on, Masters will go on.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
That's a nice green you have on.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
And it works for the Masters, it works for Christmas,
it works for Saint Patrick's Day. So I have green.
You know, I want to talk a little bit about
and review a little bit and hopefully the gentleman that
called from Elcorn along Skyline is still listening. But I
really want to get others opinions of this too, because
this reflects on something that I did when I was mayor.
(02:46):
But he called about the streets out on Skyline and
Elcorn and obviously he was pretty angry about it, and
his position is those streets are deteriorating. They don't have sidewalks,
storm drains, curve gutters, and what the city has called
those is that they are substandard streets is what they
(03:07):
have kind of labeled them. And what that means is
they were built many, many years ago by a developer,
but they were not built to today's standards. And today's
standards are what I just said, Out of about the
five thousand lane miles of road in Omaha, there's about
three hundred lane miles that are considered substandard. Most of
(03:29):
them are in the West Side area and there are
some out in the Elkhorn area also. So when I
did become mayor, that was back in twenty thirteen, the
policy for the city was if you lived on one
of those substandard streets and you wanted it improved to
today's standards. There I go again with this this allergy
(03:51):
thing I have every morning. Excuse me, But anyway, if
you wanted them improved, you had to pay one hundred
percent of it. That the city was not going to
come in and rehabilitate these streets and make them to
today's standards because they were not built to the current standards,
but they wouldn't pay for any of it. And I
thought this is not fair. I thought, you know, these
(04:12):
are city streets. The city owns them. Now, the West
Side area has been part of the city for a
long time. Elkhorn was not, you know, it was just
it was annexed in two thousand and five, and so
I looked into it. I appointed a group of citizens.
They met for at least a year. But the goal
was to create a policy that applied fairly to all applicants.
(04:36):
And I mean we wanted it to be fair for
those people that want of their streets improved, and also
for the taxpayers, because eventually the taxpayers are going to
be panned for this. So anyway, that group came up
with a policy. That policy was that I pointed the
board in twenty seventeen. The policy was approved by the
city council in twenty eighteen. And that policy basically a
(05:00):
cost sharing policy. It was the city would come out
and engineer it, they would design it, the city would
pay basically for half in the homeowners whose property abutted
on that property would pay for the other half. In
a high poverty area, the city would pay one hundred
percent if they thought if there were certain guidelines that
were met. So anyway, that has been followed now for
(05:21):
since twenty nineteen. And in the Capital Improvement Plan for
the City of Omaha, which that we do every year
with the budget, it's a six year plan. Money was
put in there for six years it was about eight
hundred and twenty thousand annually, almost a million annually for
the city's half of that, so we were ready to
go forward with the half. Since then, there has been
(05:42):
a lot of neighborhoods that have taken part in that.
In fact, there's been dozens more in the West Side
area than anywhere else. But even the first year of it,
there was a lot of applicants to take part of
that program, of the cost sharing program. Now what this
gentleman was talking about yesterday, I understand the frustration because
(06:07):
again Elcorn was annexed by the city of Omaha back
in two thousand and five. That was in mayfair fayhe
was the mayor, and a lot of those streets are unimproved,
and so this became a real point of contention during
the campaign. I know there was a lot of people
along Skyline that were very, very angry, and they were
(06:28):
angry at me, And this gentleman said, I didn't vote
for you because of this, and that's fine, but I
felt like I could not say, well, then, just this
one little area of Elcorn, the city will come in
and pay for all of it. When we've had since
twenty nineteen multiple neighborhoods already doing the cost sharing. How
fair would that be? And so I asked Public Works
(06:49):
to determine what all of the Elcorn would cost area
that was annexed in two thousand and five. You couldn't
just do a couple streets or a couple neighborhoods. That
wouldn't be fair. The costs came out to about five
hundred million. Now, that was cost prohibitive and it would
definitely result in a huge tax increase for all of
(07:09):
Omaha to pay for for just the streets in Elkhorn
to be done without any cost to them. Now, that
was not acceptable to the folks out there. I understand
the frustrations. But they did sue the city in twenty
twenty four over the street and they lost, and then
they appealed again and they lost the appeal in twenty
(07:29):
twenty five with the Nebraska Court of Appeals to hold
the city responsible for all of those repairs. So that's
where I left it. I said, you know, it did
become a source of contention during the campaign. I know Ewing,
current mayor. Ewing even did a commercial saying Jean stout there.
It says, if you want your streets and you got
(07:50):
to pay from yourself. That is not accurate, not accurate
at all. I did not say that. I said, you know,
those three hundred lane mills out of five thousand that
were on it would be a cost sharing. I didn't
say you have to pay for him yourself. Now, it
is true since Mary Ewing has become mayor, he has
kept with the policy that we've already established, and I
know he has met with some of those folks out
(08:12):
in Melcorn and said we can't do it where I
think he led them to believe that he would be
able to do it. So that's the way it is now.
Obviously I don't have any authority over what happens now,
but I would really like to know what people think.
I mean, do they think that that policy that we
established for the cost sharing for this three hundred lane
(08:32):
miles out of the five thousand in Omaha is fair.
There's already quite a few people that are probably listening
to this show that have already taken part in it
and are paying for half of it, and that can
be assessed over a period of fifteen to twenty years,
and so I don't think they would think it was fair.
I don't think the city council members would think it
was fair that represented those areas that their constituents have
(08:57):
already paid for half of their streets and the city
half if we would go ahead and say, but one
area of Omaha only, we are going to pay for
all of it. So I would really like to hear
people's comments about that. And if the gentleman that called
in yesterday wants to call again, I know I was
trying to explain it and explain it, and I think
he accused me of filibustering, and I wasn't trying to
(09:18):
do that. It's a bit complicated because you know, at
the end of the day, when you do the city budget,
you do the budget and then you do the Capital
Improvement Plan, which is a six year plan, and it's
just known. People want better services. They want good fire
and police, they deserve that. They want better streets, they
want you know, good trash pick up, they want good
(09:39):
snow plowing. They want all of those city services that
at the to be improved. But at the same time,
you hear a lot, but you need to spend a
lot less. You're spending too much, and you need to
lower taxes. Even more, and so it is a really
difficult thing to manage a city budget and to provide
all of those things and still keep taxes as low
(10:00):
as you possibly can. Lower property taxes is the number
one issue to taxpayers and citizens in the state, and
it's the number one issue in Omaha. So I'd be
interested to see what people have to say about that.
So if anybody wants to call in give me their opinion,
I'd sure like to hear it and let me know
if you think it's fair. Now, I will say this,
(10:22):
if that policy is changed, it's not the mayor that
can just change it. If the policy was approved by
the city council, it would have to go back to
the council for an amendment, and so that would be
the process. So, you know, the city council members that
were representing West Omaha, they got re elected, it would
have to be up to them to change the policy.
(10:44):
It could be a recommendation of the mayor. But I
really want to know what people have to say about it.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The phone lines are wide open four zero, two, five, five,
eight eleven ten. If you have an opinion, you can
also email us comment at kfab dot com. This email
comes from Mark Gene. I was wondering, this is in
regards to the Sunset Hills golf course. I'm sure that
you've dealt with this. I was wondering what your reason
was for backing the Sunset Hills two hundred and ten
(11:10):
apartments and thirty seven home development. The people that live
in the area did not want twenty five hundred vehicles
a day going through two small streets.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I know that, and you know that I remember dealing
with that when that was being planned. And again, understand,
I hear this a lot, as mayor is. And I'll
give you an example in my own neighborhood. But there
is private property owners' rights. And somebody owned that property
(11:42):
there and they decided to make it into apartments there.
It was just their decision. It was their decision, and
you private property owners do have rights. Now, there is
a city master plan. It has to be compliant with
the master plan, it has to fit the neighborhood. But
I'm going to give you a good example in my neighborhood.
(12:03):
I tell everybody I live about one hundred and twentieth
in Q, right on the corner of one hundred and
twentieth in Q, and that would be the southeast corner.
There used to be a huge parking lot in a
movie theater, an indoor movie theater called the Q nine,
And then I live in a neighborhood adjacent to that.
(12:24):
Years ago, a developer bought that corner there, and first
of all, there was an insurance company there and that
is now Project Harmony. But he also bought the whole
area behind, knocked down the movie theater and built apartments,
and the neighborhood that I live in, my neighbors were
furious and they were coming to me and they were saying,
(12:46):
how can you let you know, we had this nice
open corner. How can you let somebody build apartments there?
We don't want apartments there, And they were coming to
me right and left. But it was zoned for well,
it's originally zone commercial there and it could have had
anything there. I mean, it could have had a doctor
John's there for all. I mean, it was zoned properly
(13:08):
for it. So but that private property owner asked for
it to be rezoned to I believe that our six
are apartments multifamily, and the city council approved that, and
then Project Harmony is on the corner there, so there
happens all over Omaha. There's an issue right now at
one hundred and sixty eighth a street between Pacific and
(13:30):
Center that on the west side there is a big
green space that I know that somebody has called about
that before. That actually is owned by the same person
that built the apartments by my house, and so there
are private property owners' rights. However, it has to be
compliant with a master plan, it has to be zoned properly,
(13:51):
and so I remembered when that happened there. But because
that the city council at the time didn't have any
real reason to turn it down. I mean, the neighbors
opposed to it were opposed to it, the neighbors my
neighbors were opposed to it where I live too, But
there isn't really a legal reason to say no, we
don't want those there because it is owned by a
(14:14):
private person or company and it is compliant with the
city master plan.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
In the same vein here with properties in Omaha. This
one is what's Mayor Jean's opinion on the ruling of
the longtime blighted hotel property one hundred and eighth and.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
L I know all, I mean, I know all about
that and that that is a bit confusing to me.
That hotel, I mean it is. It is absolutely blighted.
There were homeless living in there. It did have a
private owner. That was an issue once again about what
the city can do. It was boarded up to try
to keep it safe. Don Roe is the council member
(14:55):
in that area and it was just a source of
irritation to him for years. They did just move forward
with it. But the mayor is having he said, he
is using some funds so that the city pays for
the demo entirely, and I don't really understand that. I
(15:18):
actually talked to a city council member last night for
quite a while, which I appreciated because I guess the
mayor has not blocked city council from talking to me.
But they better not do that because they are elected officials.
But anyway, talk to a city council member a long
time last night, and they also were a bit confused
(15:38):
about why Mayor Ewing was taking this direction to get
money to pay one hundred percent for this when the
owner should be paying.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
There's about eighteen different hotels on that intersection.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yes, and there was shady things going on in a
lot of those hotels we knew about it. Some there
was some trafficking going on. But that one that was
that is in question right now is certainly an eye sore.
And I think we can't wait to see that not
there anymore.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Okay, we're going to go to a streetcar question here,
but let's not get too nitty gritty here. This is
just kind of an interesting one. It's a different angle here,
big fan of yours, but not of the downtown amusement ride.
Can you tell me you're con Can you tell me
your conversation with Warren Buffett about his opposition. This is
a guy who rarely steps into local issues, but he
(16:31):
felt the need to make his opinion here.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
And I'm not laughing at you, but I've heard the
streetcar called everything. I've been called street car stothard too.
But you know, Warren Buffett what And I like Warren Buffett,
and you know Warren supported me, and when I ran
for mayor. Different is night and day politically. But what
a great guy. But he what he did, if you
all recall he wrote a letter to the public pulse
(16:54):
and he thought, oh well, I'm just writing a little
letter to the public pulse. And when I did meet
with him, and I did go meet with him about
this that I'll explain that. He said, I just wrote
a letter to the public pulse. I said, Warren, mister Buffett,
when you write a letter to the public pulse, it's
front page news. But anyway, I went and met with
him after he made that statement. I went Susie, his
daughter is a friend of mine. She helped arrangement. I
(17:16):
took some of my team with me and we went
there and talked to him about it. And he was
as friendly and nice as he could be. And you
know what he said to me is Mayor, you know
I buy railroads. Yes he does, and he goes I
know a lot about public transportation. He certainly does. And
he says, I don't support the street car for public transportation.
(17:39):
That's what he said. I mean, for no, I take
that back. He didn't say for public transportation. He said
I don't support the street car for mass transportation. That's
what he said. Those were his exact words. And we
all said, understand and agree, this is for this is
not for mass transportation. This is for public transportation's economic
(18:00):
development tool. It's to bring people just in around and
out of downtown, not math transportation. And it's to better
utilize the land that we have in our urban core,
that it's not just primarily dedicated to parking, but we
can replace those all that parking lots surface parking lots.
We have downtown with buildings and businesses and jobs and people.
(18:26):
And he said he understood it. I mean, he really did,
and he wasn't not what the last thing he told
me that day is I'm not going to make another statement,
but you know they're not streetcar fans. Either is his
daughter Susie, who again is a good friend of mine,
And you know, I appreciate how they think about it.
But again, there were let me remind you all, there
(18:46):
were so many people that were so against the Arena
Convention Center. I will never go downtown. I will never
go there and watch a baseball game, a soccer game
or whatever, a swim trial, a concert. There were so
many people that oppose the new ballpark downtown said the
same thing. I will never go down there. I won't
use it, I liked Rosenblatt. I won't go to another
(19:08):
College World Series game. There were people that protested the
redevelopment of the Riverfront Parks. There were people that really
were against the Dodge Expressway. I mean, there's all sorts
of things that the city has moved forward with and
done that in the long run, after it's up and running,
they're very successful and people really appreciate it. I feel
(19:30):
like people will be the same way with the street car.
I really do. Roger, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Thank you for that. You've mentioned on the air two
before your relationship with mister Warren Buffett, despite your guys's differences,
that you guys have always been a really pretty good
in communication with each other.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Yes, and it's Susie too. Susie Buffett has her you know,
she has a foundation called Sherwood And truly you know
why she named it that it's truly from Robinhood. I
remember that the theme of robin Hood was steal from
they're from the rich and give to the poor. Yeah,
and you know, Susie Buffett's focus, her her passion is
(20:08):
those that are lower income, those that are in poverty,
children early childhood, getting children good education, getting them services
they need. That is her focus and her passion, and
she does things very quietly. She doesn't want her name
all over everything. She doesn't want to be thanked and recognized.
She does a lot of things quietly, but she has
(20:30):
truly helped this community a lot, and I really, I
really enjoy my friendship with her. And of course we
are as a different night and day politically, but that
to me, that doesn't matter. I agree, it really doesn't
matter at all. She does a lot for the community
and I really appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And Gene, I'm gonna get you in here. I know
you wanted to talk about this soccer stadium. You got
the Omaha World Herald in front of you, per usual
like you do every morning, and the Wall Street Journal.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
But the Wall Street Journal is not talking about the
a soccer state, no kidding.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
This is a talk here on the iHeart Sorry, I'm
the iHeartRadio app. This is from Tommy.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Good morning, miss Gene.
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Yeah, this whole tip thing is obviously borrowing from our
future selves, which I don't It doesn't seem like a
good recipe for success in my book. But regardless, since
we're able to use tip money, now, let's not use
it for I mean the street cars, all right, but
let's use it for knocking down property taxes too. Something
(21:29):
that will directly benefit the taxpayers.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Appreciate your comment here. I think there's a little confusion though. Now.
First of all, the soccer stadium, the city council was
on their agenda yesterday and the discussion for financing of
that stadium was delayed for a week because some of
the council members had some questions. This soccer stadium, I'll
just give a little background. It's for Union Soccer. It's
(21:56):
about a sixty five hundred fixed seat soccer stadium down
town in that area right adjacent to where the ballpark is,
kind of where the Union Pacific lot was where the
train used to sit, and it has a capacity to
increase to about eighty five hundred. The property where the
soccer stadium is going to be built was owned by
(22:17):
Union Pacific. The city is going to purchase that land
because and then lease it basically because the city can
obviously they can get better rates on bonds and things
than a private developer can. But it is being funded well.
The city can get borrow at lower interest rates. But
(22:40):
I think there's a little confusion in the tiff that
you were just brought up, because the funding of this
soccer stadium has multiple sources of funding, and it gets
a little confusing, and I think that's why the city
council wanted to delay it over a week so they
all had it straight in their mind. It involves about
forty eight million in TIS and TIFF is not borrowing,
(23:02):
in my opinion, at all against the future. You know
that there's only certain TIFF eligible expenses that are allowed
by state law. And when they go through, a developer
comes in and he says, I'm going to do this development,
and I think I qualify for TIFF. He goes through
the Planning department first, and then it goes on the
Mayor's desk, and then the mayor signs off and it
(23:24):
goes to the City Council. Then if it is approved,
that developer goes to the bank and takes out a loan,
and that developer pays back the loan, So the city
is not on the hook at all. There's no risk
to the city with TIFF. And what he is doing
that developer is as he develops that property and the
(23:44):
value of that property goes up and up and up
and up, he pays to the city that increased property
taxes whatever that value is determined by the Douglas County Assessor.
He pays that year after year after year that increased
amount of taxes, but of what he pays then goes
back for him to help pay off the development. Now,
(24:05):
when you said you're borrowing off future, this is part
I think what you're talking about here is the turnback tax,
and that is something different and what the turnbacks tax
is it was first developed by state law to help
the Gretna outlet out there. And what the turnback tax
is is a portion of the new sales tax, not
(24:28):
the existing sales tax, but the new sales tax that
is generated from that new development would go be turned
back and go to help pay for the development. So
that's a little bit different than what TIFF would be
and how TIFF would be used. So this is a combination.
The funding for this is a combination of TIFF. That's
(24:51):
about forty eight million. There is about thirty five million
from an occupation tax, and then there's an additional sales
tax that is applied only within the district. Only in
that district. They're going to add a little more sales
tax and that then there's the state turnback tax. So
it's it's confusing because there's multiple sources of revenue that
(25:14):
are going in to help pay for that project. And
the partners they requested about twenty five million in turnback
taxes over twenty years, so that's just a little more
than a million a year of turnback that would go
back to help pay for the development. Now, again, that
turnback tax is brand new sales tax, and you excuse me,
(25:39):
and you wouldn't have that new sales tax as the
development wasn't there, So it's not really borrowing off the future.
It's determining what that additional sales tax will be because
it'll be a mixed use development, it'll have retail, it'll
have a hotel, it'll have residential in there. And this
is just really what a true public private partnership is. Now,
(26:01):
that turnback's application that has to be approved by a
committee at the state level, and that committee includes Nebraska
Governor Jim Pillen, and that hearing on that application for
them to get that turnback tax, and again that is
future sales tax. That hearing has been scheduled for April
(26:23):
twenty first, so that has not even been approved yet.
And I think the feeling is from Union Soccer and
from the city of Omaha is it is unlikely that
the city would proceed with this project for the soccer
stadium if that application is not approved. So there's still
a lot of ifs about how that project is going
(26:44):
to be funded. I think it's a great project. I
think it would be great for downtown, but there's still
some ifs. But it is a little confusing how there's
multiple funding sources to get that stadium funded.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
And this is something that we'll probably touch on again
next week when it goes back, and this is something
that we'll continue to talk about as it evolves. So
I have Dave on the phone line here, who's gonna
bring up the Elkhorn Roads again. I thought it would
be good to get a caller in here with some
personal experience. This is from Penny, though it's an email
just for some context, and I don't know if this
(27:17):
is for Dave in particular, but I'm just gonna fill
it out here. I live in a neighborhood where the
streets are substandard. Less than five years ago, our neighborhood
worked with the city on potential improvements. We were told
it would cost approximately seventeen thousand per homeowner to replace
our current asphalt. We were also quoted fifty thousand per
(27:38):
homeowner to replace the asphalt with concrete streets, drainage curbs, etc.
This was in agreement with the city. And now I'm
gonna bring on Dave. Dave, thank you for calling news
radio eleven to ten KFAB. You are live with jeanst Author.
You can correct anything that I said there, but I
was just trying to provide some context.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Sure, good morning to you.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
My comments to the mayor is I think, very very
simply this. I'm one of those residents of I'm from Elkcoorn,
I'm one of the people that lives on one of
those substandard streets. And the comments that Mayor Southor that
you made are correct. That is often the case with
a politician. You left off some of the stuff that's
(28:20):
really important. And here's one of the here's the catch
twenty two that the city has us in. I live
in Skyline Ranches. Our roads are a disaster. And you
said that the city standard is curbs and gutters. Well,
that's great, except we're all on septic and it is
also city code that we can't have curbs and drainage gutters.
(28:41):
If we have if we're on septic and not on
city sores. So you've pretty much just left us hanging.
Our roads weren't substandard. Our roads were built to code
when the subdivision was developed, back before we were even
part of Elcorn. They were maintained by the city of
Elkhorn to In fact, our streets were ground and resurfaced
(29:03):
within two years of the City of Omaha taking us over.
When Omaha an Xlcorn, my streets and my subdivision were
better than just about anything that you had in Omaha.
The second point I want to make, and then I'd
like to hear your comment. My taxes didn't go down
because the city all of a sudden doesn't want to
do the street maintenance. I still make task tax. My
(29:24):
property taxes went up. So why am I supposed to
be okay with you just washing your hands of it
and saying, you guys take care of it. Where do
I go to get my tax money back so that
I can pay for this? So if you want me
to do it myself, I'll do it myself. But what
about getting my tax money back.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well, I guess I would go back to and you know,
first of all, I was going to tell you I
don't look at myself as a politician anymore. I'm I
am not an elected official. I'm doing a radio show now.
So we got to get rid of that. That's why
I don't ask people to call me mayor Stothard anymore.
But you know, at the same time, we're trying to
figure out I was trying to figure out a way
(30:02):
that I thought was fair for everyone. And like I said,
there's about three hundred lane miles of those streets that
are considered unimproved by two days standards out of the
five thousand. But would it be fair in your opinion,
that we would go out there and do all of Elcorn,
which I don't think it would be fair if we
(30:23):
only did Skyline. I think we should do all of
the areas in Elcorn that were annexed and improve them.
And it can be asphalt. I mean, you can just
do an asphalt overlay or you could do the concrete.
Either one one is the street Improvement District is the concrete.
And as you said, it cost a lot more, about
fifty thousand dollars per home owner that can be assessed
(30:45):
over a long period of time, say fifteen years or
seventeen thousand for the asphalt. The concrete is going to
last twice as long, but it's twice as expensive too.
But if you figure out if it was seventeen thousand
per homeowner over fifteen years, you know, that's a little
over one thousand dollars a year that the homeowner could
pay for. Now, some of the of the areas in
(31:07):
the West Side district, I know that they just paid
up front. They paid for it, and it was done,
and it wasn't assessed on their property taxes. But I
understand the frustration because when it was Elkhorn, they took
care of the streets and they maintained them, and then
you know, the big city of Omaha comes in and
they annex them and they say, but these aren't aren't
(31:29):
compliant with what our standards are today. And so I
remember going out there and doing some resurfacing, a little
resurfacing in that Skyline area when I was mayor, and
it didn't last. It didn't last because some of those
those ditches along the side of the road they were
filled in with dirt. They weren't draining right. So there's
a lot of issues out there that I think need
(31:50):
to be addressed. But I'm not just washing my hands
and walking away from it. I tried to come up
with a policy, which I explained to you, a cost
sharing policy, rather than the existing policy that had been
in existent forever that said you had to pay for
all of it. Try to come up with something that
was absolutely more fair for everybody. But to raise everybody's
(32:13):
taxes in Omaha wouldn't be fair either, just to do
one area. So it is. It's a difficult situation, and
you try to Government should not be picking winners and losers.
Government should make decisions that would be fair for everybody.
And that's why I had a committee of people of
citizens try to come up with what a policy they
(32:33):
think would be the most fair for everyone.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
All right, Uh, mister Dave, just a quick closing thoughts
he or anything you'd like to rebuttle with here.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Well, yeah, with all due respect there with you grind,
you know it is city code that you'll have asphalt,
you'll have concrete down when it needs repair, you grind
and resurface it. How many times you do that? You
do that all over the place. At it in Chaffel
Hill right next to our subdivision. Yes, and that was
fine because they have curbs and gutters. You will not
(33:06):
allow us to have curbs and gutters, even if we
would pay for it because we're on septic. Yet you
still collect the same amount of taxes from these subdivisions.
You know, when you say substandard, that is such a
misnomer because our roads were maintained just like the City
of Omaha maintains the roads before we were annexed. They
(33:27):
need work, you grind them, you overlay them with asphalt.
It wouldn't It's not like it's costing this city more money.
And you're giving us something that we didn't already have.
We already had great roads. We had great roads went
Omaha annexus, and now you just won't take care of them.
You don't get me any of my tax money back,
but you're not spending any more to do my roads
(33:48):
than you are anybody else's roads. You just won't take
care of them.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
And again, I'm not the hair anymore. So have you
have you gone in and talked to Mary Ewing about this,
because let me just clarify one thing, and that is
when I say substandard, it's a term the city uses,
and it's not about the condition of the street. It's
not about the street needs rehabilitation. The street has potholes,
(34:13):
substandard means it the street itself isn't built to today's
city code. In today's city code, whether it be asphalt
or whether it be concrete, has different standards than it
did when your streets were built out there in Elkhore.
Now there is got brought up before. There is a
major drainage problem out there, and you know that. And
(34:36):
I know that too, because a lot of those ditches
on the side of the road are filled in with
dirt now and sometimes they are done that. They are
that way because of the horse trails around there too.
They don't drain and the resurfacing that we did do
in that area they quickly washed out because the water
went underneath the road again. So I'm not saying I'm
(34:57):
not going to do anything. I'm telling you I don't
have the authority to do anything anymore. I tried to
do when I was mayor what I thought was best
with the new policy. But I don't know what you
were promised by the new mayor, by Mary Ewing. But
I would you know, I would be more than happy
to have you tell us, you know, at today or
at a later time, what it is that he promised
(35:20):
you out there and what is he going to do?
And we have a special guest that's coming on on
Monday that you'll all want to listen to because he
agreed to stay the whole show with me and to
answer your questions in your calls and your concerns. And
Gary Sattlemeyer will be here, the famous, the world famous,
the Gary Satlemyer will be back and Gary Sattlemeyer studio
(35:40):
here with us and Peyton, and we're gonna have a
lot of fun. So on Monday, he's going to spend
the whole hour with me. He gave me the probably
the best advice when I said I was going to
do this show and I said any advice from the master,
and he said just be yourself, which I thought was great.
And I mean everybody everybody loves Gary Satlmira and misses him,
(36:02):
and it's going to be fun. I'm going to have
him take some calls and answer some questions with me too.
So Gary will be here with me the full hour
on Monday, So be sure and listen.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
And if you have any questions comments too, throw him
in now you know, we'll get him ready on Monday,
so we'll have it all ready to go.
Speaker 1 (36:16):
Absolutely, well, queue him up. One other thing I have
to reinforce along with what the last caller was calling
about the streets in Elkhorn, just and he said, my
property taxes have not gone down. Just remember this, the
Douglas County Assessor assesses the value of your property, not
the City of Omaha. And when you look at your
(36:39):
property tax bill, the City of Omaha is about twenty
two percent of the entire bill. The schools get about
sixty two sixty three percent, city of Omaha gets twenty
two percent. And with that twenty two percent, the City
of Omaha has to fund the fire department, the police department,
the Planning department, the law department, the Public Works department,
(37:01):
the libraries at community centers, the golf. All of those
things are funded with twenty two percent of what you
pay in your entire bill. So just keep that in mind.
When the caller said, my taxes haven't gone down because
you're not rehabilitating our streets, you know that it's the
City of Omaha is such a very small portion of that.
(37:21):
And every time I have reduced the levee when I
was mayor, i did it five times. The city's levee.
You didn't see that much really of a difference in
your bill because it was it was, you know, a
property levee reduction of that twenty two percent, and so
it didn't seem like it was this big impact on
(37:41):
your property tax bill. But I will tell you if
a mayor would try to raise your taxes and raise
your levee, you would hear about it.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
You recently reminded people to vote for the candidates for
the board of the Learning Community. Can you explain the
value and responsibilities of the learning community? Taxpayers fund the
federal Department of Edge, the state Board of Education, the
learning community, and the school districts. I do not know
how the learning community originated.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
Well, it originated a long time ago, David. Yeah, when
I was on the city council, and you know, to
be honest with you, I was mentioning all of these
these different offices that are going to be on the ballot,
from the governor to the US Senator to the congressman.
You know, I was mentioning all of those, and I
(38:28):
did mention learning community. It's considered a lower ballot, you
know election there with the learning community. I honestly I
can't say that I'm a big fan of the learning community.
I'm really not, and so because I'm not sure how
functional they really are, because you know, each school has
its own elected school board, there is the state board
(38:50):
of Education, and you know, I am just not sure
that I would agree with the value of what the
learning community does. And I would like, I mean, I
would love for somebody from the learning community to come
on and say, these are all the great things we do,
and this is why we need to continue to exist.
And I think that that actually is being questioned. Is
(39:12):
that something that needs to exist, be you know, in existence.
Maybe more out in rural areas it would be beneficial.
But I can't really I don't think since I have
been on you know, an elected position, and that's eleven
years on a school board too, I'm not sure I
really understand the value of the learning community. I'm just
(39:33):
saying it's on the ballot, and so if you don't
understand the value of it either, maybe you know that's
something that you have to decide how you're going to
vote on.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
It, absolutely real quick here as we wrap up the show,
this one comes from Randy. Has there been any money
allocated for the removal of gang graffiti or maybe just
graffiti in general that will ultimately be plastered all over
the wonderful street cars.
Speaker 1 (39:57):
Uh you know, I mean, look, you know, and that
could be. Graffiti is one thing that I can't I
hate if you when I was on the city council,
if you all remember councilman Gary Grenette, that was his
big pet. Peeve hated graffiti. It's art. Yeah, no it isn't.
I mean, I mean he hated it. And when they
would sit there, you know, gang members would mark their
(40:19):
territory that the thing you have to do is get
it down that day. And so we had that graffiti
abatement plan and graffiti van that would go out in
a bait and get all of that that paint. And
when they would do it on the railroad overpasses, look
at our railroad, Look at our rail cars. I mean,
that's their big thing is to put graffiti all over it. So, yes,
(40:40):
we will keep we will keep those street cars clean
and free of graffiti. I can guarantee you that, yes,
of course.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
And just a reminder as we wrap up the show here,
Gary Sadomayer in the studio on Monday and the whole hour.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
The whole hour, and we're gonna have fun. And I
can't wait for Gary to answer some of these questions
with And you can have your questions towards Gary, like
what the heck you been doing right or where you've
been traveling to or talk about he's engaged now and
so we can ask all we want with Gary Saddlemeyer.
But please tune in on Monday. Thanks for listening, Thanks
for being with us today. Have a wonderful weekend.
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