Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
8-16-2019

We are in the interim between sessions. This is the time when senators are able to spend time back in their districts, attend events, and work on legislation for the next session. Here are a few of the issues I plan to address in 2020.

First and foremost, I will continue to support efforts in the Legislature to find a way to deliver meaningful property tax relief. My colleagues have been deadlocked on this issue and have been unable to find a solution that attracts the 33 votes needed. But the voters know that this is our number one job. It has been my greatest frustration as a senator that so few of my colleagues understand that. I will have a table at the Willow Tree Festival in Gordon next month to collect signatures for the Property Tax Ballot Initiative. I encourage everyone to get involved in this important effort. To learn more about how you can help, visit truenebraskans.com.

It should come as no surprise that I remain concerned about protecting our legal right to keep and bear arms. I think a Concealed Handgun Permit (CHP) is nothing more than the government selling our Second Amendment-protected rights back to us. I think Nebraska should be like many other states with “Constitutional Carry” that doesn’t require a special permit. I will be looking for a way to reduce the bureaucratic and financial burden Nebraska law currently places on people trying to exercise this constitutional right.

Nebraska is one of six states that collect income taxes on Social Security benefits. This is wrong in so many ways. It angers me that the government has the audacity to tax a person’s income in the first place. When this benefit we all paid for is received, the government has the nerve to tax it again. Tax and spend senators will push back hard on this idea. I will be told that the legislature “can’t afford the lost revenue” that would happen if we un-tax social security. This is wrong-headed.

If Nebraskans choose — through their elected representatives — to reduce the revenue collected by the State, they are not somehow injuring the government. If the legislature passes a new law that results in you paying $1000 less in taxes next year, have you taken something from the State government that rightfully belongs to it? Or has the government simply taken less from you? You don’t cost the government money — the government costs you money! Two-thirds of Nebraskans receiving social security benefits utterly depend on their Social Security income. At the very least, lower income folks shouldn’t have to pay taxes on this income.

Please contact my office with any comments, questions or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.