Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
6-7-2019

Local control.

It is a sacred philosophy in Nebraska. It’s the best way to handle things that are peculiar and unique to a given place, like a town or a county or a school district. Most of the time, the more local government is, the better it is.

This week I had back surgery, so I asked my legislative aide to attend a county planning commission meeting in Valentine. The subject of the meeting was a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) application that has been made by a wind energy developer. They are proposing a 19-turbine project in northwest Cherry County. At the four-hour meeting, 30 people testified, 25 of whom were in opposition to the project. The way that wind energy development has progressed has troubled me greatly, most especially in the Sandhills.

The one aspect of wind energy that has always bothered me the most is what it does to the fabric of a community. It rips it apart, which is exactly what it is doing in the Sandhills. The animosity it has created between friends, neighbors and family members is very sad and is getting worse. The planning commission missed three different opportunities to begin healing this rift.

First, it was pointed out that by county rules, one of the commission members had a conflict of interest and should recuse themselves from further proceedings. The person chose not to vote or participate in the discussion, but they remained on the commission.

Second, there was a motion to table the issue in order to further study the question of decommissioning. The motion failed.

Third, twenty-five different people testified and brought a substantial amount of information for the commission to consider. They might have tabled the issue for a subsequent meeting so it could have a chance to think about all the concerns they had heard and read and consider the mountain of evidence that had been presented. Instead, the board voted 4–3 to approve and advance the CUP to the County Board of Commissioners.

The 93 counties in Nebraska were created by the Legislature. That is where all the county powers come from. When they are not responsive to their residents, it is the role of the Legislature to act. Sometimes it has not set the proper guardrails on local government.

This meeting provided an excellent example of why we need to pass my bill, LB 373. It requires counties wishing to host industrial wind energy facilities to enact zoning regulations that address many of the concerns that were ignored at this meeting. The voices of all local residents should be heard and considered.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
5-31-2019

The first session of the 106th legislature has adjourned “Sine Die.” We quit six days early. Normally the motion to adjourn is a simple “yea or nay” voice vote. This year, several of us requested a roll call vote before adjourning for the year. I don’t think we should have adjourned early without addressing the number one issue facing Nebraska – property taxes. Only eight of my colleagues agreed with me.

In spite of this, I was able to get 14 out of 23 bills passed that I introduced this session. I am blessed to have such an effective team and couldn’t have done it without them.

It should come as no surprise to my constituents that I am motivated to work on bills that encourage and enable Nebraskans to serve honorably in the military. LB 152 provides stronger legal protections for sensitive personnel information for National Guard members serving in a law enforcement support role. LB 575 requires that public schools give military recruiters the same access to students at job fairs and other events as is provided to other employers and colleges. LB 156 creates a legal process for titling surplus military vehicles for use on state roadways.

The 43rd District is the most rural district in Nebraska, and that means that we face challenges that city dwellers never have to think about. My priority bill, LB 155, protects non-participating property owners by creating a new way to challenge eminent domain takings used by industrial wind energy projects. LB 374 updated an old law about falconry and provides another option for problem bird abatement at airports. LB 660 updated the laws concerning the Brand Committee.

As a legislator with Native American roots, I also worked with my colleagues to pass LB 154, which directs the Nebraska State Patrol to investigate and report on the epidemic of missing Native American women and children.

As chairman of the Government, Military & Veterans Affairs Committee, our committee election package included three of my bills: the Secretary of State’s election law update (LB 246), an increase to the fine amount for campaign ethics and public corruption violations (LB 280), and a change to the meeting requirements for a Metropolitan Utility District (LB 574).

LB 212, which I introduced as a Government Committee bill, will ensure that rural representatives in certain public bodies can participate in more meetings remotely. LB 375 will allow the Nebraska Historical Society to accept and preserve more donated historical collections. LB 505 streamlines how child support payments flow through the courts and the State Treasurer’s office.

Finally, I worked with Coach Tom Osborne, TeamMates, and Mentor Nebraska to pass LB 511, which will allow state government employees to adjust their work schedules to allow an hour each week for volunteer mentoring with at-risk children and teens.

Not all of these bills are glamorous, but my job is to help make government in Nebraska serve the people better. I think each of these bills makes progress on that.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
5-24-2019

Last week I wrote about the failure of LB 289 to advance. This was our best chance of lowering property taxes this year. Since then, another bill, LB 183, has also failed to advance. This bill was a stripped-down version of LB 289 that would have delivered a much smaller amount of property tax relief. The vote was 23 Yes, 7 No, and 16 Present Not Voting. Three of my colleagues were excused. In this example, a “yes” vote was a vote to lower property taxes. 33 votes were needed.

In the meantime, LB 720 — called the ImagiNE Nebraska Act — has also failed to advance. This bill would replace the Nebraska Advantage Act. It is a business incentive bill. It starts with $125 million in spending, and grows at three percent a year for the next ten years. The vote was 30 Yes, 18 No, 1 Excused. A “no” vote on this motion was also a vote to lower property taxes. Again, 33 votes were needed. I was the excused senator for this vote, because I was among a number of Purple Heart recipients asked to participate in an Honor Flight to our nation’s Capital. I would have voted “No” with my eighteen colleagues who opposed the motion.

The 18 senators who voted “no” on the motion to stop debate on LB 720 actually support economic incentives for business. Most do not “oppose” LB 720. These 18 senators know that there is a lot of support for this bill and it will easily pass if it ever makes it to a vote. Stopping this bill by failing to end the filibuster (33 votes) will now compel senators interested in business incentives to work with senators who want property tax relief. A majority of senators want both.

For the first time this session, I believe conditions have finally been set to bring senators together on these two very important issues. It is clear from the votes on these two bills that the fate of property tax relief and business incentives are now joined at the hip. Either they both pass, or they both fail. One cannot advance without the other. This is a very good thing. Now another important issue hangs in the balance. In the Army we used to call this “being properly motivated.”

In the few remaining days of this session, I hope senators leading both of these efforts will come together and craft a single compromise amendment that will address both of these important issues. After the previous attempts to pass property tax relief have all failed, these 18 senators have given us one last chance. I remain cautiously optimistic we will still get some kind of property tax relief done this session. Instead of adjourning early, we should spend every available minute on negotiating an agreement that addresses both high property taxes and other economic development needs. That is better than a special session, but we must act now!

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
5-17-2019

The bill that had the best chance of lowering property taxes and making public education funding more equal – LB 289 – has failed to advance. Aside from lowering everyone’s property taxes, this bill would have helped correct the terrible unfairness in funding for the 213 mostly rural school districts who receive no equalization aid from the state. Ask yourself why a child in the Gordon-Rushville School District is only worth about $80 in state aid to schools, but a child in the Omaha Public Schools is worth about $5,500.

I wish I could name names and publish a vote count and show the people where their senators stand on this bill, but a vote was never taken. LB 289 did not have at least 33 supporters to end the filibuster, so we couldn’t even take a vote on the most important issue facing Nebraska. I can tell you a lot of politicians opposed to this bill breathed a sigh of relief. They didn’t want to be on the record voting against property tax relief. Good for them. Bad for Nebraska.

The speaker announced at the end of the work week that the Legislature would adjourn “Sine Die” on 31 May. That’s four working days early. The speaker only has so much he can work with, so I understand his decision, but I am frustrated and disheartened by it. I cannot speak for others, but I am ready and willing to spend whatever time it takes to pass the most important piece of unfinished business we have.

The 1.9 million Nebraskans outside of the capitol building see this legislature skipping out early without addressing the #1 problem facing our State – the property tax crisis. This is not the first time the legislature has done this. This is my third session as a state senator and we have adjourned every single year without addressing the property tax crisis. This has been going on for decades and it makes me sick.

It makes me sick because it is all based on a wrong idea. It is based on the idea that the masterminds in government bureaucracies are somehow more important than what happens on farms and ranches and in family homes and businesses across the state. Too many of my colleagues believe that their ideas for the people’s money are smarter and better and more important than what the people would choose for themselves. They forget it is private enterprise that grows our food and builds our houses. They forget that families are what make those houses into homes. When government spends too much, the answer cannot always be to take more from the people.

In the few remaining days of this session, I am still hopeful there will be a final, successful effort to get property tax relief passed. The time for bickering and delay is long over. My message for my fellow senators is simple: let’s get this done for Nebraska now!

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
5-10-2019

In 1985, a woman was brutally raped and murdered in Beatrice. After a seriously flawed investigation, six people were convicted of the murder and spent the next twenty years in prison. They all insisted they were innocent.

A few years later, a different man named Bruce A. Smith died in 1992 in the custody of the State of Oklahoma. Information about his activities on the night of the Beatrice murder drew fresh attention to the case. Analysis of DNA evidence found at the scene revealed he was the real killer, not the six previously convicted.

The “Beatrice 6” won their court appeals and were released from prison. They successfully sued Gage County in federal court for their wrongful conviction and imprisonment. After many appeals by Gage County, a final judgment has been handed down in the amount of about $30 million.

LB 472 was introduced by Sen. Myron Dorn of District 30, which includes Gage and part of Lancaster County. The bill provides a way to pay the $30 million civil judgment against Gage County by giving the County Board additional authority to increase their county sales tax. Revenue from this higher tax could only be used to pay a major federal civil judgment, and when that debt is settled, the tax automatically stops. This new law will sunset altogether at the beginning of 2027. I voted for LB 472, and I voted to override the Governor’s veto of this bill.

I hate taxes as much as the next person, and there are almost no circumstances where I would vote in favor of raising one without lowering another. Here is the reason I voted for LB 472: it prevents more harm being done to property tax owners. The only other way the county could pay this debt is to raise the county levy to the max (50 cents). Over 90 percent of the property in Gage County is agricultural land.

Without a sales tax devoted to paying off this debt that everyone in Gage County will pay, a handful of landowners will end up liable for maxed-out property taxes to pay this $30 million civil judgment. They had absolutely nothing to do with this miscarriage of justice. It is wrong for them to have to bear the burden alone.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
5-3-2019

This week has felt like a long one, but it has been very productive. My office saw five of my bills advance in the legislative process. But the biggest tasks of the session are still ahead: passing property tax relief and passing a budget. A heavy orange book was laid on my desk at the end of this legislative work week. It is the Biennial Budget proposed by the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee. We fund the operation of the State of Nebraska one “biennium” (two years) at a time. Nebraska’s Constitution requires the legislature to do only two things: we have to meet, and in the odd-numbered years, we have to pass a balanced budget. That is it. We don’t “have to” do anything else. Technically, we do not need to pass a single bill.

Normally, the Speaker sets aside ten legislative days on the agenda—often with late nights planned—to navigate the contentious process of passing a budget. The legislative rules say the budget has to be introduced by the 70th legislative day and passed by the 80th legislative day, which will be the 22nd of May.

When important bills are not up for debate until late in the session, sometimes we run out of time. Waiting until the end of the session to debate property tax relief virtually guarantees its defeat. I am pleased to report that Senator Linehan, Senator Groene, and many others have been able to advance a property tax proposal from committee, and we will take it up on the floor for the first time before we debate the budget. This proposal, LB 289, with Senator Linehan’s new amendment, AM 1572, is on the Speaker’s agenda for debate on the afternoon of Tuesday, May 7th.

This bill is our best hope for real property tax relief this year. It limits school levies, controls over-spending, reduces taxable valuations for all property owners, broadens the sales tax base, and guarantees that a third of local school costs will be paid for with state funds. It contains spending controls, and long-term plans for keeping property taxes down. Concerns about the impact of the sales tax changes are addressed with an increase to the earned income tax credit.

This legislation is a product of a lot of hard work and compromise. It’s not perfect. It does not cut government spending the way I would prefer. It does not offer as much tax relief as I would like, but it has real, immediate property tax relief. Half the taxes paid in Nebraska are property taxes; almost the highest of any state. This bill brings more balance to how we fund K–12 public schools in Nebraska. I remain hopeful the legislature can continue to make progress on this critical issue yet this year.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
4-26-2019

LB 289 is a bill from Sen. Lou Ann Linehan. She chairs the Revenue Committee. It is one of about twenty different bills a variety of Senators have introduced this session that address property taxes this session. A combined hearing of the Revenue, Education and Retirement Committees was held on LB 289 this past Wednesday. The hearing went on until 11:00pm. Most of the people testified in opposition to it because the bill raises sales tax 3/4 of a cent, and it does away with certain sales tax exemptions. Also this week, the Governor published an editorial in the paper that voiced his strong opposition to the bill calling it a “tax shift” from property tax to sales tax.

I am carefully evaluating LB 289. There is over $550 million of property tax relief in this bill. I have not seen this much money in a proposal to lower property taxes since I have been in the legislature. If history is any guide, I never will again. The bill does away with the Property Tax Credit fund, which right now is the best guaranteed way agriculture property receives what little relief they do get. The bill certainly is a tax shift, but shifting some of the funding responsibility for our K–12 schools off of property taxes and onto the Legislature to plan for is absolutely essential and long overdue. As things are, I see a troubling and growing disconnect between the folks who mandate by law what the school districts must do (the Legislature) and the folks who have to pay for most it (the property tax payers).

Nebraska is currently 44th in the country in terms of state funding for K–12 schools. Forty-three other state legislatures appropriate a bigger portion of the funding for schools than we do in Nebraska. We have a huge over-reliance on property taxes to fund schools, and that is the main reason we are in the mess we are in. Myself and maybe twenty other Senators would gladly slash the state budget and use the savings to “pay” for property tax relief. Sadly, that is not a viable option. The majority of the Senators in the body would not support this approach.

School spending in Nebraska has also increased dramatically over the years, out-pacing inflation and other government spending. There is no constitutional limit to how much property taxes can be used to fund schools, so there is nothing stopping this problem from continuing to get worse. LB 289 addresses many of these problems.

Exactly how these and other aspects of the plan are addressed is the issue. The devil is always in the details. What measures may help agriculture property tax payers, and be good for small, rural schools can “hurt” the urban areas and the big Omaha and Lincoln schools, and the reverse can be true, too.

Property tax relief is the most important issue before the Legislature. It should have been LB 1. It should have been the first bill voted out of committee and the first bill we debated and passed. We need to resolve our differences, address these important concerns, and pass property tax relief for Nebraska. It will continue to be my primary focus this legislative session.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
4-19-2019

This week my priority bill, LB 155, was again debated on the floor. Senator Rob Clements was very generous and used his priority designation on my bill. After this bill failed to advance the first time we debated it in February, things looked grim. The action Senator Clements took brought the bill back to life. This almost never happens. I cannot thank him enough. I must also recognize the many concerned Nebraskans from all over our great state who steadfastly supported this effort through telephone calls, emails, in-person visits to the Capitol, and their stories about why they want to preserve their property rights and their way of life.

Right now, there is a sentence in Nebraska law stating that connection to a privately-developed wind energy facility is a “public use.” This special status gives wind energy developers access to the government power of eminent domain. It allows them to use a state agency like NPPD to forcibly seize private property from their neighbor to build power lines to connect a wind farm to the power grid. This sentence in the law is an absolute statement and cannot be challenged in a courtroom, regardless of the evidence.

Originally, LB 155 did away with private wind energy’s “public use” status entirely by deleting that sentence from the law. Unfortunately, the bill faced significant opposition the first time it was debated, and we fell two votes short. A filibuster was planned for this latest round of debate. Wind energy still enjoys considerable support in the Legislature, so I could not put together enough votes to fight the filibuster head-on. I was facing a battle I could not win, so I had to find a different option. After numerous meetings with opponents and with allies, we put together an amendment to the bill.

With the amendment, there would still be a statement in the law about connection to wind and other renewables being a “public use.” But this statement would no longer be absolute. With the change in the amended version of LB 155, a landowner would be able to challenge the use of eminent domain in court. If the bill is made into law, the landowner would be able to ask the judge to decide whether or not a certain project was really for a public use. Now, using eminent domain to build feeder lines will be a little less certain for the wind energy developers. Our hope is to keep them at the negotiating table trying to cooperate with landowners instead of just counting on the courts to force their hand. It is not a silver bullet, but this bill unlocks a door to the courthouse that was shut to landowners before.

Making concessions is something no one enjoys doing. In politics, they say “you can have all of nothing or part of something.” Without this compromise, another defeat would have been a certainty. After three legislative sessions and over two years of fighting, we won a victory for private property rights today. LB 155 advanced this week on a 40–1 vote. To my knowledge, this is the first time the legislature has ever pushed-back on wind energy, and it will not be the last.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
4-12-2019

Last weekend, I hosted a concealed carry class at my daughter’s property in Cass County. A half-dozen senators and staff were some of those who participated in the classroom instruction and the live-fire training on the pistol range.

Our federal and state constitutions recognize the 2nd Amendment as an essential right, and very few people around the world have the opportunity to enjoy it. This right is therefore a part of our identity as Americans and Nebraskans. It is an important piece of being a self-reliant people. The training this past weekend again reminded me that we shouldn’t look to government to solve every problem we have. The right to keep and bear arms reminds us that we play a role in protecting our own liberty. Our inherent right to self-defense says we don’t have to wait for the government to do it for us. When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Self-reliance is a character quality that has to do with a lot more than just guns. It is self-reliance that causes us to work hard for the food we put on the family table, and everything else we hope to earn in life. A self-reliant person’s first thought is not whether or not the government can give him something. A self-reliant person does not also think his neighbors owe him a hand-out. Instead, he works to cooperate with his neighbors to everyone’s benefit.

This is what my priority bill, LB 155, is all about. If a land-owner is going to develop an industrial wind energy facility on their property, the business plan shouldn’t include using the power of government to take from his neighbor to make the plan work. The current law makes it very difficult for that neighbor to defend his property rights. LB 155 provides them a fighting chance in court.

I am proud to represent a district where my constituents embody the virtue of self-reliance every day. I want the law to be on the side of the hard workers. I want the law to be on the side of the person making decisions for the family farm or ranch. I don’t think the law should encourage people to take from their neighbors as it does now.

When we first debated LB 155 in the legislature this year, the first vote fell short by two votes. I pledged that I was going to bring back LB 155. With Sen. Rob Clements’ help, that promise will be kept. Next week LB 155 will be on the agenda for debate again.

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.

Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
3-29-2019

This week we debated two important property tax proposals. Senator Erdman’s priority bill, LB 483, would change how we assess the value of agricultural real estate. This is not a broad-based property tax cut bill. It merely changes the current appraisal method. Instead of using comparable sale records on properties that are often very different, appraisal of ag land would be based on the farm or ranch income a parcel of ground could generate.

Other states around Nebraska use this method with great success. It is a smart, easy, fair way to establish the value of agricultural land. The bill never came up for a vote because it was filibustered by urban senators, some of whom do not even have agricultural ground in their districts.

Later in the week, Senator Erdman offered another proposal as an amendment to Senator Linehan’s LB 512. His amendment would change the law that establishes when the value of a property is set for the tax year. Right now, that value is established at the beginning of each year. If a flood comes along in the middle of March—like we saw this year—and it destroys the property, the owner still owes the full property tax as assessed on January 1. Senator Erdman’s proposal would allow this value to be adjusted up until the 1st of October each year, and the full amount would be owed after that.

Once again, this property tax measure was filibustered by urban senators. One Lincoln senator voiced her concerns that the Legislature should think first about the need of county governments, instead of thinking of the taxpayer first. I think that is flat-out wrong: government should exist to serve the people, not the other way around. Driving disaster-stricken property owners into the ground with unjust high taxes on property that has been destroyed will not help county governments stay afloat over the long run.

Twice in one week a rural senator fought to get property tax changes—and perhaps a little disaster relief—for rural (and urban) areas. Both efforts were delayed by urban senators, many of whom were not affected by the disaster last month or either of Senator Erdman’s measures. The outcome of these early property tax discussions certainly does not bode well for the debate we will soon have on the larger issue of property tax relief. Whether my colleagues from the more populated parts of Nebraska realize it or not, property tax relief is critical to the survival of our ag economy. My constituents already understand this. If agriculture continues to suffer, so will our state economy that relies on the ag sector so heavily. I hope in days to come that we see more property tax relief proposals on the legislative agenda. Nebraskans have been waiting more than a generation already.

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.