Race Battle Over a Balanced Budget

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is one of my favorite lines from one of
my favorite pre teen movies, The Bad News Bears. The original,
imbued with all of the political correctness of an NRA convention,
had no trouble using taboo words of the day to
get a laugh. Donk you mean of you a hockey
poosh spidermaker. Let's not bring race into this arm man.
We got enough problems as it is too bad. Nobody

(00:22):
suggested that. On the floor of the Nebraska Unicamera last
week we had a good old fashioned race exchange between
Senators Bob Anderson and Terrell McKinney, who bear the same
physical and philosophical resemblance as Andrew Tait and Roxane Gay.
In Nebraska, we have this stubborn constitutional amendment that requires

(00:43):
a balanced budget, so the senators are digging for savings.
The forecast comes up four hundred million short over the
next two years. One of McKinney's favorite ideas is to
cancel the construction of the new prison in Lincoln. He
thinks we lock up too many folks anyway, so why
build a new place. Two years ago, the senators and
Governor Pillon signed off on a three hundred and sixty

(01:05):
six million dollar deal to build one construction has begun.
We need it not just for public safety, but because
the ACLU thinks that crowding them all into the smaller
space infringes on their rights and have sued us for
more space. In response, Anderson, the conservative new representative of
District forty nine, who defeated incumbent Gen Day on a

(01:28):
platform of cutting property tax and law and order, offered this,
maybe we could pull back some of the four hundred
million we're sending to North and South Omaha for economic development.
That did it. McKenny, who is black, popped off, wondering
if the Caucasian Anderson had a problem that North and
South Omaha, populated by minorities, receives dollars. Anderson colon, those

(01:54):
are your words. My perspective is there's money allocated for
COVID relief that is being used for economic development, which
is misappropriated, and that money should be brought back side
note He's partially right. Originally half the money was federal
arp of funding to Nebraska from the government for COVID relief.

(02:14):
The state added two hundred million and converted the dollars
to general fund use. So yes, there was a time
that cash may have been misused, but not now. McKinney
to Anderson, colon, do you want to see communities like
North and South Omaha impoverished for eternity? That's what it
sounds like to me. And you probably would be happy

(02:36):
to see little black kids poor for the rest of
their lives, little Latino kids poor for the rest of
their lives, making sure that businesses that are owned by
blacks and Latinos are not successful. Hold on there, Spartacus,
that was a low blow. And given the uncertainty of
whether that cash will result in sustained economic growth in

(02:58):
parts of town that have struggled for decades, Anderson's question
is legitimate. That said, Anderson's suggestion is particularly insulting to McKinney,
who has actually been earnest in trying to lure private
investment to his district, among the most impoverished in the state.
So both of you knock it off. Where do we

(03:19):
go spending and taxes? That's where we go. At the
risk of starting a drinking game, there are primarily only
three mouths that get fed with tax money in Nebraska,
Medicaid K through twelve, education and the university. If we're
going to fund those folks at or slightly above their
current price tag. We need more money, or we cut

(03:41):
them dramatically. Going to cut school aid? Do it and
your local school board will raise the levee on your
property taxes university in exchange for more tax money. Have
they exhausted all reasonable revenue streams? I don't think so.
Not even close medicaid, Which rural hospital gets closed, which
rural nursing home, basic health care for the working poor

(04:04):
is their waist? And fraud I'd bet a lunch there is.
So why not hire five thousand, one hundred thousand dollars
a year investigators to find it. With benefits and expenses,
that's a million a year in costs. Bet they'd find
fifty million in savings. And we haven't even talked about
lowering property taxes, which is what all of the voters want.

(04:25):
Short of doing any of that, it boils down to revenue.
And until our forty nine fulbrights and the governor man
and woman up push back against a special interests and
surgically eliminate sales tax exemptions phased in over five years
to fund these priorities. The nasty talk down there and
in a lot of other places around Nebraska is only

(04:48):
getting louder