Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
7-12-2019

“America was never that great.” Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, August 16, 2018

Mr. Cuomo isn’t the only prominent person I’ve heard say things like this. I’m deeply troubled by it. I’m also very confident he and the other disgraceful socialists he represents are the tiny minority of our population. I never thought that I would live to see the day where being anti-American was in style; where displays of American patriotism were criticized.

We’re a free country and people have a constitutionally protected right to spew whatever anti-American crap they want. But I thought that having just celebrated our nation’s 243rd birthday, now would be a good time to recall just a few reasons why the United States of American is the best country on Earth.

1. We spent generations of American blood and treasure on every corner of the globe saving countless millions of people from tyranny. The USA has brought about the end of more murderous dictators and oppressive regimes than every other country combined.

2. We’re the world’s oldest continuous republic. No country does a better job of spreading freedom and democracy than we do. America has lifted the cruel yoke of bloodthirsty tyrants off the neck of countless millions of people around the world, and then re-built their countries for them – no charge.

3. There is always something more that can be done to continue improving race relations, but let’s be clear on one thing: We are the least racist country on Earth. We fought a war amongst ourselves where over 600,000 people died to end the scourge of slavery and secure the blessings of liberty and the American dream for ALL Americans regardless of race. No other country on Earth has bled more for its own people, or has done more for basic human rights than we have.

4. Our constitution is as close to a perfect form of government the hand of man has thus far managed to accomplish in recorded human history. Nothing else on Earth has guarded the freedom and individual rights of a people, or lay the foundation for such unparalleled human prosperity than our constitution.

5. American ingenuity and productivity leads the world. We’re also the world’s most charitable and generous country. We invented the internet, life-saving surgery, the cotton gin, the electric light, cures to countless diseases. No other country has left a flag on the moon. There isn’t room in this newspaper for the complete list of wonderful things America has given the human race and it gets longer every day.

Mr. Cuomo, and the others who think America is a bad place, need to love it, or leave it.

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
7-5-2019

Various property tax bills and ideas were debated in the legislature during the last session. Senator Groene and Linehan’s LB 289 drew the most attention. It would have begun the long, hard process of reforming how we pay for K–12 education in Nebraska, and it would have delivered some much-needed property tax relief. It would have been a good start. Unfortunately, the ideological composition of the body, combined with the enormous pressure brought to bear by a legion of well-funded lobbyists, was just too much to overcome. The bill died during floor debate.

The Platte Institute for Economic Research will host a Property Tax Reform Town Hall in North Platte this month. It will be held at the Prairie Arts Center, 416 North Jeffers Street, from 5:30 to 7:00pm on Thursday, July 25th. Senators Groene, Linehan, and Lowe are scheduled to speak. They will discuss LB 289 and other proposals to provide property tax reform. I applaud the Platte Institute for hosting this conversation. I think it is a smart idea to have these town hall meetings to inform the public before the next session. I plan to attend this meeting, and I encourage everyone to join us. Finding a legislative solution to Nebraska’s destructive property taxes is the right thing to do and is something every Nebraskan has a stake in.

While this meeting is going on, people from the property tax ballot initiative will be set up and collecting signatures nearby. They will be working on a “people’s solution” to this problem. In my tenure in the Legislature, I’ve seen first-hand the body’s repeated inability to get anything done on property taxes. Not enough of my colleagues seem to really understand the heartache out there among farmers and ranchers just trying to make it in Nebraska. This is why I believe both a legislative solution and a “people’s solution” to the property tax crisis must move forward together in tandem. I believe the two efforts are joined at the hip and all 49 senators should support both.

When elected officials are deadlocked, there has to be some way for the public to force them to do their jobs. Thank God the good citizens of Nebraska had the wisdom in 1912 to put the ballot initiative process in our constitution. We are one of only 21 states where the people have such power. Through the ballot initiative process, the voters can commit the state to a course of action, regardless of what the politicians think. Unless the Legislature is convinced the “people’s solution” to the property tax problem is imminent, I think senators will continue to suffer from a lack of motivation on this issue no matter how many town hall meetings we attend or mountains of bills we introduce. I hope people take a little time and sign the petition.

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
6-14-2019

In a recent weekly update, I explained some of the things I managed to get passed into law this past session. This week, I want to talk about some of the things I helped stop from becoming law. Things a senator opposes are just as important as the things they support. This shows the people whether the senator’s values and core beliefs align with the majority of the district. I have watched this legislature change people. They say one thing to get elected, and then end up doing another once they are here. It is as common as it is despicable, so I want people to know that I am the same person they elected.

I helped oppose a bill that would have taken Second Amendment rights away from Nebraskans based on hearsay accusations and without due process of law. I was strongly against two bills that would have made it a crime of child abuse to provide Christian counseling to a child relating to same-sex attraction. I helped stop a bill that would have redefined the terms of traditional marriage in Nebraska law.

I opposed a bill that would have raised the minimum wage for tipped workers. Many believe they are helping poor people by doing this. They ignore the fact that every single time government raises the minimum wage, the very same people they intend to help are the ones that are hurt. Every single time the minimum wage goes up, increases always follow in the unemployment rate for young and inexperienced workers just trying to enter the workforce.

I opposed the ImagiNE Nebraska Act. It was a $150M per year package of business tax incentives meant to replace the Nebraska Advantage Act which will expire next year. This bill is right about one thing: it is about “imagining.” It allows government to pick winners and losers and imagine that Nebraska isn’t a state with shockingly high taxation. I’m all for reducing EVERYONE’s taxes, but there was just no way I could vote for this, especially when it jumped the line and was placed ahead of property tax relief on the legislative agenda. I will not put anything before property tax relief, and neither should my colleagues.

We filibustered and stopped the medical marijuana bill this session. The experience of many other states has clearly demonstrated that the commercialization and retail sale of marijuana and related products has a long list of bad effects on society.

I expect that many of these bad proposals will be back next year. I will be ready to stand up for the values of the 43rd Legislative District the voters hired me to fight for.

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
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.