Linhan: 'I Appreciate Stothert, but...'

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Looming. The special session of theNebraska Legislature. Special session opens up on
Thursday, the twenty fifth, allabout property tax policy and property tax relief.
The Governor unveiled, well, nota lot of details yesterday, but
said, look, he said,I think we can do a lot of

(00:21):
good here by eliminating a lot ofsales tax exemptions and hiking up sales tax
is big time on what's known assin taxes. Mayor Stothard pushed back a
little bit, saying there's a lotof specifics here. I don't know,
and she referenced not only the GovernorPilling, but Senator Lwyne Lenahan, who's

(00:44):
chairman of the Revenue Committee and joinsus for a few minutes this morning.
Senator Lenahan, good morning, goodto have you back. Good morning,
Jerry, thank you very much forhaving me. Appreciate it. So the
governor says we can do this,and the Mayor says, I don't know.
We only got about twenty percent orso of the property owner's total tax
bill in the city of Omaha,and we spend the majority of that on

(01:06):
property tax revenue on or property taxrevenue on police and fire. And I'm
worried that that's going to be affectedto what you would say. What there
is a fallacy that hopefully one ofthe reasons I'm glad you called this morning
that we have to overcome in Nebraskaand it was getting in a pavent.
And first, let me say Iappreciate the mayor very very much. I

(01:27):
know she works hard. But inthis morning paper she is quoted just saying
they're going to do a two hundredmillion dollar bond, put it up for
election or two hundred and twenty million. I forget the exact number, but
it won't. But she'll still dropthe levee. That doesn't mean your taxes
go down. We have. Eversince I've been in the legislature, I've

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noticed that, whether it's the countyboard or and this isn't just in Douglas
County, I mean across the state. People say, well, we kept
the levee. Steady. Who caresif my vague suations going up twenty percent,
my taxes are going up twenty percent. It's keep the levee. I
want people to stop talking about thelevee and start talking about how much they're

(02:08):
increasing property taxes. Well, yougo back five years and you you headed
up a bill one oh three whichwas passed that was supposed to at least
provide some transparency, right, Andthey just think they hide that vote.
They clearly do because the law iswhen valuations go up, the levee has

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to drop so they can collect thesame amount of money. Clearly, they
have an out they can vote overto raise it again. So clearly,
as the governor said repeatedly in thelast few weeks, they're all voting to
raise the levee even though they saythey're not or they're not following the law

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one of the two. Right,What do you suspect is doable here?
The governor? Let me ask youthis first, because you, Governor Pillen
is known as a conservative. You'reknown as a conservative. I don't think
targeting specific products for confiscatory sales taxeslike you call sin taxes is a conservative

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principle, do you. Here's whatI've recognized in the legislature in Lincoln,
and it happens whether I'm at thedoctor or wherever I go out, and
people know I'm in the legislature.The biggest concern in Nebraska by any measure,

(03:35):
is property taxes. Yes, butthere's no lobby in Lincoln that comes
down except maybe the Farm Bureau andtalks to us about property taxes. Mostly
they want more money. Mostly.Governor Ricketts and Governor Pillen have done a
fantastic job saying no but yet,and we haven't. It's not like we

(04:01):
haven't done anything on property taxes.Since I've been in the legislature. We've
increased property tax relief that is accessibleto Nebraskans by over a billion dollars.
That's one billion dollars. The problemis, since I've been in the legislature,
property tax taking has gone up onepoint three billions. So while we're

(04:25):
in Lincoln working very hard, noneof that was easy. It all took
thirty three votes every time to geta supermajority. The people who are taking
the money using the property taxes,I don't feel like we have any partnership
with them, like no effort.Even two years ago, we increased public

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school funding by thirty eight percent,the largest increase in decades, actually since
the first time we did TIOSA inthe night late eighties. Yeah. No,
the school district increased taxes. It'slike, I don't we have to
see up and do our job.I agree, I agree, you have
the authority. Yes, I agree. So he's talking alcohol, what cigarettes?

(05:13):
Vapes? Uh? I don't knowwhat else that fall into that broad
category of syntax. It would bepopping candy, popping candy? Are you
in favor of that? I am. I haven't been. I've been.
I've had that position since the firstyears and legislature. All right. I
think maybe some of this is generational. I mean, I didn't have pop

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every day when I was a kid. I think you didn't need it was
a big treat. Yes, there'sa big treat that you usually got on
Saturday if you were lucky enough toget to get gashes. All right,
So you got to get to thirtythree? Do you do you believe you
can get there with the Governor's planas it stands now? Or will there
be all kinds of horse trading goingon in the special session? The legislature

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is a horse trading place. Ofcourse, there will be many horse tradings
going on. Well, let's stayup, go ahead. I'm sorry,
Well, I'm just gonna say thatwe've got a run here. But let's
stay in touch on it because it'sgoing to be very, very very interesting
and potentially very impactful to property taxplayers. What happened starting on the twenty
fifth, Luanne, thanks for thetime this morning, appreciate it. Thank

(06:20):
you very much. You bet StateSenator Luyne Lenahan