March 19, 2026 • 21 mins
Important conversations from this morning's show while most of us were waiting for basketball to start: Scott Knudsen from the Patriot Guard Riders preparing for the metro's next military funeral procession next week; Platte Institute CEO Jim Vokal on the state budget shortfall and city wastewater expense controversy, and Nebraska Cattlemen president Craig Uden on how we can help the ag producers impacted by the sandhills wildfires.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and thank you very much for being here
with us. US includes Craig Evans. He's got the news
four times an hour during Nebraska's morning News, Lucy Chapman,
Timesaver traffic. I don't know, six times at one, two, three, four,
six times this hour, and I'm Scott voorh He's just
(00:20):
pressing the buttons and teeing them up. Jim rows out
for a few days. This is news Radio eleven ten
KFAB Right now, I welcome into the studio the State
Captain of the Nebraska Patriot Guard, writer Scott Knutson, is
here ahead of what, as Craig just told you, will
be Master Sergeant Noah Teaching's funeral procession through the metro
(00:43):
area a week from tomorrow. Or is that are we doing?
What are we doing here next week? I guess Scott,
you tell me the timing of all of this and
how you guys are involved with Patriot Guard.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay, the Patriot Guard is involved with the homecoming of
Noah Teachings, our hero who paid the supreme sacrifice sacrifice
in Kuwait. We are going to be providing flaglines at
(01:20):
the funeral. We're going to be providing flag lines during
the eight hour or the twelve hour visitation that's on
Thursday Thursday. On Thursday the twenty seventh, and then on
the twenty eighth is the funeral. The visitation is going
to be at Forest Lawn Cemetery Funeral Home, and the
(01:44):
visit and the the funeral itself is actually going to
be at the Bellevue Convention Center in Community Center in Bellevue.
We were we found out last night due to the
tremendous turnout we had with Dagan Page. We had over
(02:07):
seven hundred riders show up to escort Dagan Page home.
A few years back, the collaboration between the Bellevue Police
Department and the Omaha Police Department, they have requested that
we do not participate in the processions this weekend or
(02:28):
whenever it's going to happen. We still don't know exactly
when it's going to happen, exactly when our hero is
going to be coming home. But it was a disappointment,
but an understandable disappointment.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Why is that safety?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Traffic safety issues, traffic issues, safety for the police officers
on motorcycles, safety for us, safety for the people that
we anticipate will be standing on the sidewalks. It just
becomes with that many participations participants that it becomes a
(03:04):
bit of a challenge to keep everything in order. The
motorcycle officers in the Omaha and Bill w Police Department
are highly trained. Our people actually have been on motorcycles
for years and years. They're very good at what they do.
But it was their decision that we limit our participation
(03:29):
to five motorcycles coming from off at Air Force Base
to the funeral home and in other instances to across
this eight as we do various escorts with five motorcycles only.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
One of the big things the Patriot Guard has done
over the years is trying and protect the family from
seeing protesters along a funeral procession or even at the
funeral itself. Is the cult members from that joint in
Topeka still doing that? Is that still a concern?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
They are from their Row Baptist Church. That is always
a concern. They're still in existence. We don't see as
much of them as we used to. They come to
the high profile funerals and we have not. Fortunately, we
have not had that many high profile funerals in quite
some time now, and so we haven't seen them recently.
(04:22):
We're still there to shield and protect the families, to
kind of soften the edges with what's going on. We
do turn out typically with a flaglines either at the
church or at the funeral home or at the graveside,
and it's quite an impressive display. Typically.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was beautiful when you went through Omaha. And then
Millard for Corporal dagon Page a few years back, and
this next week here for Master Sergeant awarded that honor posthumously.
Noah Teachings as he comes back home to Bellevue, Scott
Canue and the Patriot Guard Riders, thank you so much
for all you guys. Do really appreciate you coming in
here on news radio eleven ten KFAB Sports Brief, The
(05:09):
Husker has got it done last night. This is for
the women. Here's their coach, Jamie Williams.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It was a true team effort today, just up and
down our roster, just contributions, whether it be a couple
of steals here or there, assists here, they're knocking down buckets,
grabbing a couple of rebounds, just playing great defense. Like
there were just contributions that came up and down our
roster and a true team win for us.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Including twenty two points from Elcorn. North's Britt Prince, the sophomore,
had twenty two in the victory seventy five fifty six
sover Richmond. They now had to turn it around. They're
the eleven seed taking on six seed Baylor tomorrow afternoon.
That's in Durham. The Husker Men play today in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
It is a great arena, There's no doubt about that.
Having coached in there. I coached on Christmas Day in
that arena. We had a great win on that day
playing the Thunder and it's it's a great arena with
unbelievable fans. So it's a great venue. You know, we'll
have a lot of support down there, obviously, but they're
very knowledgeable. They're really good fans right there in Oklahoma City.
(06:13):
And again I'm excited to see a lot of Huskers
in the building.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
What's that scene look like before Nebraska takes on Troy
at eleven forty this morning. Sean Callahan is live in
Oklahoma City and joins us at nine oh five here
on Big Red Radio News Radio eleven ten kfab Lucy Chapman,
Craig Evans right there. We welcome in here, the CEO
of the Plaid Institute, a think tank here in Nebraska
that has been given a lot to think about here
(06:37):
over the last few years with the Nebraska Unicaramel. We
just had a pretty good surplus here recently in Lincoln,
and now they're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars
in a shortfall. They have to pass a balanced budget.
They say, we don't want to raise taxes, but we
don't want to cut anything. I'm not great in math, Jim,
(06:58):
but perhaps you are. What is the Unica arameral going
to do to us as taxpayers in Nebraska? What should
they do? Jim vocal welcome.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Good morning.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Well, they're on the second round of budget debate and
they've shored it up. We started the session out with
almost an eight hundred million dollar gap, and through cash transfers,
tapping into the cash reserves, cuts to expenditures, I think
the numbers down to about thirty nine million, and they're
looking at some additional revenue sources, ending some exemptions and
(07:31):
applying a tax on some gaming birds as an example,
and increased taxes on skill games. But I think they're
going to get there without raising taxes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Is this just going to kick the can down the
road one more year and create a bigger headache next year.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Though, Yeah, I think to your point, we've got to
look at the systemic reasons that we're at this position
right now, and our tax system has not been modernized
since nineteen six, and I think that going forward we
need to look at some long term fixes on the
revenue sources. I think it was very prudent to lower
(08:10):
the income taxes back in twenty twenty three. We have
the highest income tax from North Dakota to Texas, but
our revenues have not kept up to the level that
we would need to sustain those moving forward.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And I think you're going to have to look at
the one hundred.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And nineteen sales tax exemptions that are on goods and
services that most states quite frankly taxed.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
To right size the budget.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
We have managed to get some of Nebraska is among
the leading states to do this, get some of those
who are receiving government care off of government care, but
that's not a state budget issue. That's more from a
federal standpoint. Did that help at all with any of this? Well,
there is a Medicaid. On Medicaid expansion, there is a
(08:59):
state match, and that does help the state coffers. And
you know when we when the legislature was looking at
medicaid expansion passed on the on the budget through a
ballot initiative. You know, our organization warned that if you
look at the states that expand and medicate, more people
come on than expected. And what happened in Nebraska n
or Governor Pillans leadership is that able body adults through
(09:23):
the efforts of also on the federal level, the requirements
are different and that will ease the burden going forward
in the growth of medicaid expenditures on the statewide level. Well,
most Nebraskans are complaining about property taxes have been for
a long time. People have been elected multiple times saying
I'm going to do something about property taxes, including Governor Pillin.
(09:45):
But then you look at the entities, whether it's the city,
the county, the state, and they all point at each other,
and most of them point at the schools and say, well,
it's the schools that take up most of your property taxes,
and that any time they try and do anything related
to school budgets, there comes a big teacher's lobby who
convinces people voters, we've got to take care of the schools.
(10:05):
We got to care about the children. Standards get watered down,
Fewer kids are graduating and able to go to work,
and our property taxes remain high. What do we do
about this?
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Yeah, everybody looks to the state to solve the issue,
but the state is not a property taxing entity. And
to your points, schools represent about sixty percent of your
tax bill. I think what's important here is to understand
that property taxes are the result of the local spending
decisions by schools, by cities, by counties, and when valuations
go up like they have over the last decade across
(10:39):
the state, your property taxes are determined by the spending
decisions of the elected officials of each one of those entities.
And what's happened is that they're spending the valuation wind falls.
I emailed my Omaha school board member and said, look,
you're raising Not only are you spending the windfall because
my valuation is going up, but you're actually raising the
levy rate. What's the ROI of that increase? Are we
(11:03):
getting better educational outcomes in Omaha?
Speaker 7 (11:05):
No?
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Well, that's that's that's you're certainly your editorial opinion yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And I'm right now, individual students are doing fine, but
collectively it's it's a Shinola show.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
So the answer sky. I mean, there's one bill in
this session LB. Twelve nineteen that would control the growth
of property tax collections. Right now, the bill sits at
two percent limit. At the end of the day, we've
got to find a way to ensure if the state's
going to get involved in the property tax reform game,
that local entities like schools and counties and cities don't
(11:43):
still have the ability to spend more because that's that's
the that's the catalyst for.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Increased property taxes in the state.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So we're not going to see any more spending cuts.
You've got families out there saying they've got kids with
special needs that they lost some of their state funding.
We're trying to restore that. You think that we're optimistically
going to get there to address the budget shortfall without
raising taxes, But what's going to be cut from who?
Speaker 6 (12:09):
Yeah, I don't know the specific cuts. You know, there's
several of them that are on the table to shore
up this shortfall that we have in Lincoln. I don't
think based on what I've seen that we're going to
see a decrease in road funding or decrease in education funding.
At the end of the day, I think they're taking
(12:31):
the right steps right now to shore up the budget,
but moving forward they're going to have to look at
because I don't think this is going away.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I think that we're going.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
To continue to see this until revenues catch up to
where they need to be to fund the expenditure of
the state. The property tax credit impact that the state
is providing that's over a billion dollars and that's growing too.
And that increase in that property tax credit doesn't solve
(13:00):
the property tax problem as an example, and so the
growth of state spanning has increased. And I think that
until revenues catch up, they're going to have to look
at some of the systemic deficiencies that we have in
our tax code, and that is we have more exemptions
than most states do, and that comes at the expense
of lower taxes for everybody.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
We have.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Jim Vocal, the CEO of the PLAT Institute online at
platinstitute dot org and in Your Hearts says a conservative
think tank here across the area. We talked about some
state budget issues and looks like there's some room for optimism,
not in terms of lowering my property taxes, but we
just addressed that, what about lowering my mud bill? And
(13:43):
this latest fight here on who's going to do what
when it comes to the sewer separation project.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
There's a wastewater project that's in the jurisdiction of Omaha repayers,
and I actually went down from the first time since
two thousand and nine when I left the City Council
to testify. Under this arrangement, there is a contractor selector
for the pre construction work, and if they want to
be the contractor for the construction work, they can based
(14:11):
on the agreement between the city and the contractor, but
they have to bid out the remaining work and they
have to be the lowest bid. What prompted me to
go down to the city council a few weeks ago
is that there was an amendment on the City Council
that would waive the requirement for that open bidding, and
that that bidding process. A reputable contractor here in Bread
(14:34):
and Omah came forth and said, look, we'll do this
for about our estimates, about eighty seventy eight million dollars
less than this, and that's significant money. And even though
it's not being paid through property tax, it's it's still
being paid by the rates that we pay for our
sewer services here in the Omahi area.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Help me understand here, MUD is not doing this. This
is this is City of Omaha. This is wastewater. This
is all part of this sewer separation project.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Yeah, I don't know exactly the details of what it handles,
but it's a four hundred and eighty million the current
estimate is four hundred and eighty million dollars for the
rest of the work. And they're not bidding it out.
And why wouldn't they do that? Well, that's a question
that you know. I asked the seven city council members.
I said, look, from a transparency standpoint, this is not
(15:23):
good for the taxpayers. We're not ensuring in giving them
the trust and the belief that the lowest and bid
is going to be selected here. And this probably needs
to We need to hear and bye by the contract
that we need to bid this out, even if it
delays a few months. Because eighty million dollars. This isn't
about who was selected. It's about the process. And these
(15:46):
are the decisions that happen on the local levels.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Good.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Even though this doesn't result into property taxes, if we're
not paying attention, the cumulative effect of decisions like this
contribute to the amount of rates and taxes that we
pay on the local level.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, there's some reason that they went ahead and accepted
this bid without bidding it out to try and see
who can do it for maybe less, and do it
better and so forth. Why wouldn't they do that the city?
You've got to have her? Is it because of this
is the governor's friend? You know, some people are alleging
to going on to the state. That's not the case here.
Why aren't they doing that?
Speaker 6 (16:21):
Councilwoman Melton engaged the city attorney on this project and
tried to get that answer out, and she finally threw
her hands up and said I'm done because they couldn't
explain it, they couldn't justify it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So it's been pushed off till April seventh.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
My point, and the reason why I went down there,
is that these decisions happen on a weekly and daily
bit basis on all levels of government. If we're not
paying attention, if we're not following transparent processes. That's what
leads to the higher taxes that we pay in the city.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Is it if any Palermo's Tree Service it's going to
do this sewer project, it's not well. Thank goodness, all right,
Jim Vocal Plant Institute CEO plat Institute dot org. Always
a pleasure, Thank you very much for hanging out here.
Good to be Here're gonna watch basketball today. We're driving
Lincoln for a couple appointments. Then we'll watch some basketball
with Craig Evans and Lucy Chapman.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
There.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm Scott for He's welcoming on too. Nebraska's morning News.
Craig Youton, who is the president of the Nebraska Cattleman.
We've been following since late last week the wildfires in
the sand Hills, which is Craig has been reporting, Craig
Evans has been reporting, are much more under control today
than twenty four hours ago, but for the next year
(17:30):
it's going to be a problem for agg producers in
that part of our state. Craig Youton from the Nebraska Cattleman,
Welcome to news radio eleven ten kfa B. What are
you guys doing and what can we do to help
these producers? In Nebraska.
Speaker 8 (17:48):
Well, right now, Scott, we've set up a we at
the Nebraska Cattleman and set up a fund that people
tribute to. I can go on to Nebraska Cattleman dot org.
Fire really fun and people can contribute. That's that's the
(18:10):
long term goal, when these folks get back on their
feet and get to everything, when they're going to need
to repair their facilities and stuff like that. The immediate
needs right now have been getting the cattle fed and
taken care of. And it is calving season, so it's
a busy time.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Of the year.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
It couldn't have come at a much worse.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Time, but it's strouthi out there. So there's a lot
of challenges out there for the producers.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, it's it's feed for the current cattle. It's trying
to produce more cattle, especially during a shortfall. And it's
also fence repair, right, Yeah, there'd be.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
A lot of fences when you when you look at
the fires, the size of the Rhode Island, that's that's
a pretty good sized area. So I believe the governor
said yesterday it's like thirty five by forty miles. That's
a that's a big chunk so there's a lot of
There could be a lot of need in the next
one to two years of repairing these operations out there.
(19:08):
But you have immediate needs and they have long term needs.
So one reason we put the relief, we put the
relief packaged together so people can contribute, so we can
find those folks that have need and help them out
at a future date.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a donation available for you there at Nebraska Cattleman
dot org. They're President Craig Euton with us here on
eleven to ten kfa B. This could not come at
a worse time for beef prices or head of cattle
across America. Right, we just had this plant and Lexington
closed down. We've got beef at historically low levels. Every
(19:49):
time I go to the meat counter, there's a long
line of people waiting there to buy beef. Why are
levels so low? And what is this wildfire activity in
Nebraska going to do for beef prices and and numbers
in the future.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
It probably doesn't change, probably doesn't change a lot these cows.
A lot of the cows were moved out of the
way of the fire where they could there'd be some losses,
but on the big picture that's fairly small, uh, you know,
and US we produce about thirty eight million cows and
(20:23):
forty five could be displayed. That doesn't mean they won't
be there. They'll just be moved to different locations and
handled different So really won't lose a lot as far
as production. And actually the beef production as far as
pounds in the US has been very static. It's just
the demand. I like to hear that there's lines waiting
to get our product, but actually is the demand for
(20:45):
our product that continues to pull and we want to
continue to build or even bigger to supply those needs,
even if they added amount of pounds of producing because
there seems to be a big draw for a product.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Well, I'm gonna tell my wife that you're telling me
to eat more steak.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
That would be great, all right.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Well, hey, I didn't think I could, but for you
and our friends across this industry, I will do it.
I'll put in the work. Craig, thank you very much
for what you're doing there in your efforts to help
out these agg producers impacted by the wildfires in Nebraska.
Thanks for being here on eleven ten KFAB this morning.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Thank you. It's devastating when people lose their operations in minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Absolutely the website Nebraska cattleman dot org. That's their president,
Craig Youuton here on Nebraska's Morning news
Good morning, and thank you very much for being here
with us. US includes Craig Evans. He's got the news
four times an hour during Nebraska's morning News, Lucy Chapman,
Timesaver traffic. I don't know, six times at one, two, three, four,
six times this hour, and I'm Scott voorh He's just
(00:20):
pressing the buttons and teeing them up. Jim rows out
for a few days. This is news Radio eleven ten
KFAB Right now, I welcome into the studio the State
Captain of the Nebraska Patriot Guard, writer Scott Knutson, is
here ahead of what, as Craig just told you, will
be Master Sergeant Noah Teaching's funeral procession through the metro
(00:43):
area a week from tomorrow. Or is that are we doing?
What are we doing here next week? I guess Scott,
you tell me the timing of all of this and
how you guys are involved with Patriot Guard.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Okay, the Patriot Guard is involved with the homecoming of
Noah Teachings, our hero who paid the supreme sacrifice sacrifice
in Kuwait. We are going to be providing flaglines at
(01:20):
the funeral. We're going to be providing flag lines during
the eight hour or the twelve hour visitation that's on
Thursday Thursday. On Thursday the twenty seventh, and then on
the twenty eighth is the funeral. The visitation is going
to be at Forest Lawn Cemetery Funeral Home, and the
(01:44):
visit and the the funeral itself is actually going to
be at the Bellevue Convention Center in Community Center in Bellevue.
We were we found out last night due to the
tremendous turnout we had with Dagan Page. We had over
(02:07):
seven hundred riders show up to escort Dagan Page home.
A few years back, the collaboration between the Bellevue Police
Department and the Omaha Police Department, they have requested that
we do not participate in the processions this weekend or
(02:28):
whenever it's going to happen. We still don't know exactly
when it's going to happen, exactly when our hero is
going to be coming home. But it was a disappointment,
but an understandable disappointment.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Why is that safety?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Traffic safety issues, traffic issues, safety for the police officers
on motorcycles, safety for us, safety for the people that
we anticipate will be standing on the sidewalks. It just
becomes with that many participations participants that it becomes a
(03:04):
bit of a challenge to keep everything in order. The
motorcycle officers in the Omaha and Bill w Police Department
are highly trained. Our people actually have been on motorcycles
for years and years. They're very good at what they do.
But it was their decision that we limit our participation
(03:29):
to five motorcycles coming from off at Air Force Base
to the funeral home and in other instances to across
this eight as we do various escorts with five motorcycles only.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
One of the big things the Patriot Guard has done
over the years is trying and protect the family from
seeing protesters along a funeral procession or even at the
funeral itself. Is the cult members from that joint in
Topeka still doing that? Is that still a concern?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
They are from their Row Baptist Church. That is always
a concern. They're still in existence. We don't see as
much of them as we used to. They come to
the high profile funerals and we have not. Fortunately, we
have not had that many high profile funerals in quite
some time now, and so we haven't seen them recently.
(04:22):
We're still there to shield and protect the families, to
kind of soften the edges with what's going on. We
do turn out typically with a flaglines either at the
church or at the funeral home or at the graveside,
and it's quite an impressive display. Typically.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It was beautiful when you went through Omaha. And then
Millard for Corporal dagon Page a few years back, and
this next week here for Master Sergeant awarded that honor posthumously.
Noah Teachings as he comes back home to Bellevue, Scott
Canue and the Patriot Guard Riders, thank you so much
for all you guys. Do really appreciate you coming in
here on news radio eleven ten KFAB Sports Brief, The
(05:09):
Husker has got it done last night. This is for
the women. Here's their coach, Jamie Williams.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
It was a true team effort today, just up and
down our roster, just contributions, whether it be a couple
of steals here or there, assists here, they're knocking down buckets,
grabbing a couple of rebounds, just playing great defense. Like
there were just contributions that came up and down our
roster and a true team win for us.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Including twenty two points from Elcorn. North's Britt Prince, the sophomore,
had twenty two in the victory seventy five fifty six
sover Richmond. They now had to turn it around. They're
the eleven seed taking on six seed Baylor tomorrow afternoon.
That's in Durham. The Husker Men play today in Oklahoma City.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
It is a great arena, There's no doubt about that.
Having coached in there. I coached on Christmas Day in
that arena. We had a great win on that day
playing the Thunder and it's it's a great arena with
unbelievable fans. So it's a great venue. You know, we'll
have a lot of support down there, obviously, but they're
very knowledgeable. They're really good fans right there in Oklahoma City.
(06:13):
And again I'm excited to see a lot of Huskers
in the building.
Speaker 1 (06:16):
What's that scene look like before Nebraska takes on Troy
at eleven forty this morning. Sean Callahan is live in
Oklahoma City and joins us at nine oh five here
on Big Red Radio News Radio eleven ten kfab Lucy Chapman,
Craig Evans right there. We welcome in here, the CEO
of the Plaid Institute, a think tank here in Nebraska
that has been given a lot to think about here
(06:37):
over the last few years with the Nebraska Unicaramel. We
just had a pretty good surplus here recently in Lincoln,
and now they're looking at hundreds of millions of dollars
in a shortfall. They have to pass a balanced budget.
They say, we don't want to raise taxes, but we
don't want to cut anything. I'm not great in math, Jim,
(06:58):
but perhaps you are. What is the Unica arameral going
to do to us as taxpayers in Nebraska? What should
they do? Jim vocal welcome.
Speaker 5 (07:06):
Good morning.
Speaker 6 (07:07):
Well, they're on the second round of budget debate and
they've shored it up. We started the session out with
almost an eight hundred million dollar gap, and through cash transfers,
tapping into the cash reserves, cuts to expenditures, I think
the numbers down to about thirty nine million, and they're
looking at some additional revenue sources, ending some exemptions and
(07:31):
applying a tax on some gaming birds as an example,
and increased taxes on skill games. But I think they're
going to get there without raising taxes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Is this just going to kick the can down the
road one more year and create a bigger headache next year.
Speaker 6 (07:47):
Though, Yeah, I think to your point, we've got to
look at the systemic reasons that we're at this position
right now, and our tax system has not been modernized
since nineteen six, and I think that going forward we
need to look at some long term fixes on the
revenue sources. I think it was very prudent to lower
(08:10):
the income taxes back in twenty twenty three. We have
the highest income tax from North Dakota to Texas, but
our revenues have not kept up to the level that
we would need to sustain those moving forward.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
And I think you're going to have to look at
the one hundred.
Speaker 6 (08:25):
And nineteen sales tax exemptions that are on goods and
services that most states quite frankly taxed.
Speaker 5 (08:34):
To right size the budget.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
We have managed to get some of Nebraska is among
the leading states to do this, get some of those
who are receiving government care off of government care, but
that's not a state budget issue. That's more from a
federal standpoint. Did that help at all with any of this? Well,
there is a Medicaid. On Medicaid expansion, there is a
(08:59):
state match, and that does help the state coffers. And
you know when we when the legislature was looking at
medicaid expansion passed on the on the budget through a
ballot initiative. You know, our organization warned that if you
look at the states that expand and medicate, more people
come on than expected. And what happened in Nebraska n
or Governor Pillans leadership is that able body adults through
(09:23):
the efforts of also on the federal level, the requirements
are different and that will ease the burden going forward
in the growth of medicaid expenditures on the statewide level. Well,
most Nebraskans are complaining about property taxes have been for
a long time. People have been elected multiple times saying
I'm going to do something about property taxes, including Governor Pillin.
(09:45):
But then you look at the entities, whether it's the city,
the county, the state, and they all point at each other,
and most of them point at the schools and say, well,
it's the schools that take up most of your property taxes,
and that any time they try and do anything related
to school budgets, there comes a big teacher's lobby who
convinces people voters, we've got to take care of the schools.
(10:05):
We got to care about the children. Standards get watered down,
Fewer kids are graduating and able to go to work,
and our property taxes remain high. What do we do
about this?
Speaker 6 (10:17):
Yeah, everybody looks to the state to solve the issue,
but the state is not a property taxing entity. And
to your points, schools represent about sixty percent of your
tax bill. I think what's important here is to understand
that property taxes are the result of the local spending
decisions by schools, by cities, by counties, and when valuations
go up like they have over the last decade across
(10:39):
the state, your property taxes are determined by the spending
decisions of the elected officials of each one of those entities.
And what's happened is that they're spending the valuation wind falls.
I emailed my Omaha school board member and said, look,
you're raising Not only are you spending the windfall because
my valuation is going up, but you're actually raising the
levy rate. What's the ROI of that increase? Are we
(11:03):
getting better educational outcomes in Omaha?
Speaker 7 (11:05):
No?
Speaker 6 (11:06):
Well, that's that's that's you're certainly your editorial opinion yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
And I'm right now, individual students are doing fine, but
collectively it's it's a Shinola show.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
So the answer sky. I mean, there's one bill in
this session LB. Twelve nineteen that would control the growth
of property tax collections. Right now, the bill sits at
two percent limit. At the end of the day, we've
got to find a way to ensure if the state's
going to get involved in the property tax reform game,
that local entities like schools and counties and cities don't
(11:43):
still have the ability to spend more because that's that's
the that's the catalyst for.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
Increased property taxes in the state.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
So we're not going to see any more spending cuts.
You've got families out there saying they've got kids with
special needs that they lost some of their state funding.
We're trying to restore that. You think that we're optimistically
going to get there to address the budget shortfall without
raising taxes, But what's going to be cut from who?
Speaker 6 (12:09):
Yeah, I don't know the specific cuts. You know, there's
several of them that are on the table to shore
up this shortfall that we have in Lincoln. I don't
think based on what I've seen that we're going to
see a decrease in road funding or decrease in education funding.
At the end of the day, I think they're taking
(12:31):
the right steps right now to shore up the budget,
but moving forward they're going to have to look at
because I don't think this is going away.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
I think that we're going.
Speaker 6 (12:40):
To continue to see this until revenues catch up to
where they need to be to fund the expenditure of
the state. The property tax credit impact that the state
is providing that's over a billion dollars and that's growing too.
And that increase in that property tax credit doesn't solve
(13:00):
the property tax problem as an example, and so the
growth of state spanning has increased. And I think that
until revenues catch up, they're going to have to look
at some of the systemic deficiencies that we have in
our tax code, and that is we have more exemptions
than most states do, and that comes at the expense
of lower taxes for everybody.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
We have.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
Jim Vocal, the CEO of the PLAT Institute online at
platinstitute dot org and in Your Hearts says a conservative
think tank here across the area. We talked about some
state budget issues and looks like there's some room for optimism,
not in terms of lowering my property taxes, but we
just addressed that, what about lowering my mud bill? And
(13:43):
this latest fight here on who's going to do what
when it comes to the sewer separation project.
Speaker 6 (13:48):
There's a wastewater project that's in the jurisdiction of Omaha repayers,
and I actually went down from the first time since
two thousand and nine when I left the City Council
to testify. Under this arrangement, there is a contractor selector
for the pre construction work, and if they want to
be the contractor for the construction work, they can based
(14:11):
on the agreement between the city and the contractor, but
they have to bid out the remaining work and they
have to be the lowest bid. What prompted me to
go down to the city council a few weeks ago
is that there was an amendment on the City Council
that would waive the requirement for that open bidding, and
that that bidding process. A reputable contractor here in Bread
(14:34):
and Omah came forth and said, look, we'll do this
for about our estimates, about eighty seventy eight million dollars
less than this, and that's significant money. And even though
it's not being paid through property tax, it's it's still
being paid by the rates that we pay for our
sewer services here in the Omahi area.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Help me understand here, MUD is not doing this. This
is this is City of Omaha. This is wastewater. This
is all part of this sewer separation project.
Speaker 6 (15:01):
Yeah, I don't know exactly the details of what it handles,
but it's a four hundred and eighty million the current
estimate is four hundred and eighty million dollars for the
rest of the work. And they're not bidding it out.
And why wouldn't they do that? Well, that's a question
that you know. I asked the seven city council members.
I said, look, from a transparency standpoint, this is not
(15:23):
good for the taxpayers. We're not ensuring in giving them
the trust and the belief that the lowest and bid
is going to be selected here. And this probably needs
to We need to hear and bye by the contract
that we need to bid this out, even if it
delays a few months. Because eighty million dollars. This isn't
about who was selected. It's about the process. And these
(15:46):
are the decisions that happen on the local levels.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
Good.
Speaker 6 (15:49):
Even though this doesn't result into property taxes, if we're
not paying attention, the cumulative effect of decisions like this
contribute to the amount of rates and taxes that we
pay on the local level.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Well, there's some reason that they went ahead and accepted
this bid without bidding it out to try and see
who can do it for maybe less, and do it
better and so forth. Why wouldn't they do that the city?
You've got to have her? Is it because of this
is the governor's friend? You know, some people are alleging
to going on to the state. That's not the case here.
Why aren't they doing that?
Speaker 6 (16:21):
Councilwoman Melton engaged the city attorney on this project and
tried to get that answer out, and she finally threw
her hands up and said I'm done because they couldn't
explain it, they couldn't justify it.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
So it's been pushed off till April seventh.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
My point, and the reason why I went down there,
is that these decisions happen on a weekly and daily
bit basis on all levels of government. If we're not
paying attention, if we're not following transparent processes. That's what
leads to the higher taxes that we pay in the city.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Is it if any Palermo's Tree Service it's going to
do this sewer project, it's not well. Thank goodness, all right,
Jim Vocal Plant Institute CEO plat Institute dot org. Always
a pleasure, Thank you very much for hanging out here.
Good to be Here're gonna watch basketball today. We're driving
Lincoln for a couple appointments. Then we'll watch some basketball
with Craig Evans and Lucy Chapman.
Speaker 4 (17:08):
There.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm Scott for He's welcoming on too. Nebraska's morning News.
Craig Youton, who is the president of the Nebraska Cattleman.
We've been following since late last week the wildfires in
the sand Hills, which is Craig has been reporting, Craig
Evans has been reporting, are much more under control today
than twenty four hours ago, but for the next year
(17:30):
it's going to be a problem for agg producers in
that part of our state. Craig Youton from the Nebraska Cattleman,
Welcome to news radio eleven ten kfa B. What are
you guys doing and what can we do to help
these producers? In Nebraska.
Speaker 8 (17:48):
Well, right now, Scott, we've set up a we at
the Nebraska Cattleman and set up a fund that people
tribute to. I can go on to Nebraska Cattleman dot org.
Fire really fun and people can contribute. That's that's the
(18:10):
long term goal, when these folks get back on their
feet and get to everything, when they're going to need
to repair their facilities and stuff like that. The immediate
needs right now have been getting the cattle fed and
taken care of. And it is calving season, so it's
a busy time.
Speaker 7 (18:28):
Of the year.
Speaker 8 (18:28):
It couldn't have come at a much worse.
Speaker 7 (18:31):
Time, but it's strouthi out there. So there's a lot
of challenges out there for the producers.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
Well, it's it's feed for the current cattle. It's trying
to produce more cattle, especially during a shortfall. And it's
also fence repair, right, Yeah, there'd be.
Speaker 7 (18:47):
A lot of fences when you when you look at
the fires, the size of the Rhode Island, that's that's
a pretty good sized area. So I believe the governor
said yesterday it's like thirty five by forty miles. That's
a that's a big chunk so there's a lot of
There could be a lot of need in the next
one to two years of repairing these operations out there.
(19:08):
But you have immediate needs and they have long term needs.
So one reason we put the relief, we put the
relief packaged together so people can contribute, so we can
find those folks that have need and help them out
at a future date.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
That's a donation available for you there at Nebraska Cattleman
dot org. They're President Craig Euton with us here on
eleven to ten kfa B. This could not come at
a worse time for beef prices or head of cattle
across America. Right, we just had this plant and Lexington
closed down. We've got beef at historically low levels. Every
(19:49):
time I go to the meat counter, there's a long
line of people waiting there to buy beef. Why are
levels so low? And what is this wildfire activity in
Nebraska going to do for beef prices and and numbers
in the future.
Speaker 7 (20:02):
It probably doesn't change, probably doesn't change a lot these cows.
A lot of the cows were moved out of the
way of the fire where they could there'd be some losses,
but on the big picture that's fairly small, uh, you know,
and US we produce about thirty eight million cows and
(20:23):
forty five could be displayed. That doesn't mean they won't
be there. They'll just be moved to different locations and
handled different So really won't lose a lot as far
as production. And actually the beef production as far as
pounds in the US has been very static. It's just
the demand. I like to hear that there's lines waiting
to get our product, but actually is the demand for
(20:45):
our product that continues to pull and we want to
continue to build or even bigger to supply those needs,
even if they added amount of pounds of producing because
there seems to be a big draw for a product.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Well, I'm gonna tell my wife that you're telling me
to eat more steak.
Speaker 7 (21:04):
That would be great, all right.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Well, hey, I didn't think I could, but for you
and our friends across this industry, I will do it.
I'll put in the work. Craig, thank you very much
for what you're doing there in your efforts to help
out these agg producers impacted by the wildfires in Nebraska.
Thanks for being here on eleven ten KFAB this morning.
Speaker 7 (21:24):
Thank you. It's devastating when people lose their operations in minutes.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Absolutely the website Nebraska cattleman dot org. That's their president,
Craig Youuton here on Nebraska's Morning news
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