A double standard occurs whenever a set of moral principles applies to one group of people, but not to another. Today it is easy to find examples of how conservative Republicans are held to higher standards than liberal Democrats. So, today I thought I would document for you some recent examples of these kinds of double standards all of which occurred in the news last week.

In March a California jury convicted Nebraska Congressman, Jeff Fortenberry, of lying to federal agents and concealing the source of $30,000 in foreign campaign contributions. It is illegal for a U.S. politician to accept foreign money to his or her political campaign. As a result, Fortenberry resigned from office and is now pleading for leniency from the court because he has no more money.

Here’s the double standard. In 2017 a Florida jury found Florida Congresswoman, Corinne Brown, guilty of 22 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax fraud. Brown and her associates had used a charity called “One Door for Education” to funnel $800,000 to themselves between 2012 to 2016. She stole money that was intended to be used for children’s scholarships. Nevertheless, last Thursday Corinne Brown announced her candidacy for Florida’s 10th Congressional District.

Here’s another example. Ever since the leaked decision surfaced, indicating that the U.S. Supreme Court intends to reverse Roe v. Wade, protesters have marched in front of the home of justice Brett Cavanaugh. So, last week twelve Republican U.S. Senators sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland, a Democrat, demanding to know why the U.S. Department of Justice has been refusing to enforce Title 18, Section 1507 of the U.S. Code, which criminalizes the “parading or picketing in front of the homes of judges with the intent to influence pending litigation.”

Here’s the double standard. When U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, who is a Democrat, was asked on May 10th if he was comfortable with protesters demonstrating in front of the homes of the U.S. Supreme Court justices, he responded by saying, “If protests are peaceful, yes.” But, on February 1, 2017 New York Police erected a barrier and stood behind it in order to protect Schumer’s Brooklyn apartment. Protesters had gathered in front of Schumer’s home in order to pressure him to oppose then President Donald Trump’s cabinet picks. So, why does Chuck Schumer get police protection around his home but justice Brett Cavanaugh, whose life has already been threatened, gets denied such protection? That’s a double standard.

Here’s a third and final example from last week’s news. Last Thursday the January 6 Committee held another hearing designed to convince the public that former President Donald Trump orchestrated a conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results. One of the president’s legal advisors, John Eastman, had advised Trump to use the “inartful” wording of the 12th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to convince Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election. Pence disagreed and refused to comply.

Here’s the double standard. The same argument that John Eastman had used to advise Donald Trump was the same argument that Congressman, Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, had used to try to block election results in 2000, 2004, and 2016. Congressman Jamie Raskin is also a member of the January 6 Committee! So, why was it ok for Congressman Raskin to use the 12th Amendment argument to try to block Donald Trump from becoming president in 2016, but it was not ok for Donald Trump to use that same argument to try to block the election results in 2020? That’s called a double standard and it’s not right.

June 14th is flag day. Flag Day is a day to honor the American flag. It is a time to proudly fly the Stars and Stripes, to recall our American heritage, to honor our values of liberty and justice for all, and to celebrate the republic of the United States for which it stands.

Many American soldiers have risked their lives and even died to protect that star spangled piece of cloth that we recognize as the American flag. For example, during the days of the American Civil War color sergeants were chosen to carry the American flag into battle. Because these men did not carry a rifle, they depended upon their color guard, which consisted of a small contingent of troops, to protect them on the battlefield. The 24th Michigan Regiment lost nine color bearers on the first day of fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg. To lose a flag to the Confederate army was considered to be an enormous defeat and a disgrace to the Union.

Whenever an American soldier or a U.S. veteran dies, the surviving family members may request an American flag. Honor guards at a military funeral service treat the American flag with great dignity and enormous respect. Whenever they fold an American flag, color guards make 13 crisp folds in the flag, and each one of those folds holds a significant meaning.

According to the National Flag Foundation the 13 folds of the American flag hold the following meanings:

The first fold of the American flag represents life.

The second fold represents eternal life.

The third fold is made in honor of the veteran or service member who has departed this life, but who gave a portion of his life or her life in service to the country.

The fourth fold represents our human nature which must trust in God for divine guidance.

The fifth fold is made in honor of our country, may she always be right.

The sixth fold is made for the devotion of the heart, for we place our hand over our hearts whenever we pledge our allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

The seventh fold is a tribute to the armed forces, who have protected the flag against all our enemies.

The eighth fold is a tribute to the one who entered the valley of the shadow of death, that we might see the light of day, and to honor our mother for whom it flies on Mother’s Day.

The ninth fold is a tribute to womanhood, for through their faith, love, loyalty and devotion the character of men and women who have built our country have been molded.

The tenth fold is a tribute to fathers, who have given their sons and daughters in defense of our country.

The eleventh fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and Kind Solomon and glorifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The twelfth fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Finally, the thirteenth and last fold recalls our national motto, “In God We Trust.”

So, please fly your flag proudly on June 14th. As you do so, try to remember all of these things that the American flag stands for. The American flag represents our country and is worthy of our honor and respect.

How about that new 2023 license plate design? Some like it; most don’t. After Nebraska’s First Lady, Susanne Shore, revealed the new license plate design at a press conference with Gov. Ricketts last Tuesday, the responses that followed on social media were mostly negative. I share that opinion.

The new design does not represent folks in Nebraska. Instead of choosing a design which reflects the geography, culture, history, or natural beauty of the whole state, Gov. Pete Ricketts decided to go with an obscure Roman charioteer taken from the floor of the rotunda in the State Capitol Building. The Roman charioteer is called “the Genius of Creative Energy,” and is supposed to represent the spirit of Nebraska. But we should ask: Does a Roman charioteer represent the spirit of Nebraskans? It appears that the new design was chosen to celebrate the commercial enterprises and innovative business ideas coming out of Nebraska.

Looking beyond the obscure theme of the new license plate, there are plenty of cosmetic reasons for disliking the new design as well. For example, the image of the Roman charioteer is very difficult to see or make out. The blue colors are so opaque that the image doesn’t stand out. In order to see the image of the charioteer, a person has to view it up close. This is important because the new design won’t draw the attention of other motorists, especially those from other states.

Nebraska’s new license plate will likely be ranked as one of the worst license plates in the country. People from other states will likely mistake our license plate as having a plain white background. So, unlike the license plates from other states which beautifully and colorfully represent their states, such as New Mexico’s teal and gold Zia symbol and Hawaii’s rainbow, Nebraska’s license plate will largely go unnoticed and rank as one of the worst license plate designs in the country.

So, why are we getting stuck with this design? The reason is that the people of Nebraska never had a say in the matter. No vote or poll was ever taken to see how Nebraskans really felt about this particular design. Perhaps, this was due to the debacle of 2009 when Colleghumor.com hijacked the online polling process to pick the winning design. Nevertheless, the task of creating new designs was assigned to First Lady Susanne Shore, and the final decision was made by Gov. Pete Ricketts.

Nebraskans will need to get used to this new license plate design because we will be stuck with it for the next ten years. According to Nebraska State Law, Nebraska has to come up with a new license plate design once every six years, that is, until now. Earlier this year State Senator Suzanne Geist of Lincoln introduced LB 1259, which changed the duration of these state issued designs from six years to ten years. Although her bill technically did not pass in the State Legislature, the portion containing the ten-year rule was amended into LB 750, which the Governor signed into law on April 18. So, going forward, Nebraska will get a new license plate design once every ten years.

The good news is that motorists who do not care for the State’s new license plate design will still have plenty of options to choose from. The Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles is required by law to make available 61 specialty license plates. So, if you don’t like the new design, which will be made available in January 2023, then you can always order a specialty or vanity license plate. This will surely bring in more specialty plate revenue for the state.

Last week American school children once again became the innocent victims of yet another senseless shooting rampage. Whenever these atrocities occur, I believe society should respect the victims and their families by giving them a few days to grieve their losses, to memorialize their children, and to bury their loved ones. However, it will take many Americans a long time to heal from the Uvalde Massacre.

Now that the dust is finally beginning to settle, we can begin to ask why these shootings keep happening. These kinds of mass shootings have been increasing ever since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold first attacked their fellow classmates at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado back on April 20, 1999. In 2013 the USA averaged two mass shootings per month, but this year we are already up to 27!

Evil does not exist within a gun. A gun is simply a tool which can be used for good or for evil. Guns do not cause people to kill any more than forks cause people to eat or books cause people to read. To help illustrate this point more clearly consider that in 2016 more people were murdered in Nebraska with knives (9 people) than were killed with rifles (0 people) or shotguns (0 people), according to the FBI’s own crime statistics. This is an important statistic to note because Salvador Ramos is reported to have purchased two AR-15 rifles before the shooting.

Because God has gifted every human being with a soul, we should ask why people are committing these violent acts. It is time for American society to honestly grapple with the question about why so many people, especially young people, are committing these shootings in the first place. What has changed about our society that some young men now feel prompted to go out on a killing spree?

The self-evident answer to this question lies within the fact that American society has failed to instill the true value of life within each member of each new generation that has come along over the course of the last 30 years. When children are taught to properly value, respect, and appreciate life, they do not entertain the thought of killing their peers.

Instead of promoting the value of life, American society has been in the business of devaluing it. This occurs when we celebrate the release of horror movies which graphically show the dismembering of human flesh, when video games virtually depict the realty of shooting other people (sometimes even friends), and when television shows glamorize those who [almost] got away with it. Engaging in too much of these kinds of activities numbs the soul to reality and teaches children that life is meaningless.

Evil exists within the mind of the one who pulls the trigger. Therefore, we are in a battle for the hearts, souls and minds of the next generation. Instead of teaching our children how to win an extra life in their favorite video game, shouldn’t we be teaching them to live by the Golden Rule? It was Jesus who said, “Do unto to others what you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12), and “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” (Luke 6:27). Children with innocent hearts who embrace these kinds of values and who make it their mission in life to love their neighbor, never give any kind of serious consideration to the temptation to go out and murder their classmates.

As our national anthem says, the United States of America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. As Americans we never tire of sharing those stories of fearless bravery which have provided us with freedom and protected our liberties for almost 250 years, especially against foreign oppressors. As we enter into the Memorial Day weekend, one of those stories I have read of valiant bravery has finally come to a peaceful end. It is the story of Marine Corps sergeant, John Lee Canley.

John Lee Canley was born on December 20, 1937 in Caledonia, Arkansas. He was only 15 years old when he got the urge to become a soldier. Because he was too young, he used his older brother’s papers to enlist in the United States Marine Corps. The plan worked. After boot camp Canley served in South Korea and Japan before getting shipped off to the war in Vietnam.

On January 30, 1968 the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive. The Tet Offensive consisted of surprise attacks on more than 100 cities and towns countrywide on the day of the Vietnamese lunar new year. The strategy was to spread out U.S. air and sea defenses, essentially rendering them useless and ineffective. It was a brilliant plan, save for the valor and effectiveness of U.S. ground forces.

The very next day John Lee Canley along with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 1st Marines was loaded onto a truck and sent to reinforce soldiers under siege in Hue City. On the way, the convoy came under a barrage of enemy sniper fire. In one town the troops were forced to dismount and clear the houses on both sides of the main street through heavy house-to-house combat. During the street fighting company commander, Captain Gordon Batcheller, was wounded and could no longer lead his troops in battle.

Together with sergeant Alfredo Cantu Gonzales, sergeant John Lee Canley, assumed command of Alpha company. The fighting intensified again in the afternoon. Despite being wounded Canley crossed fire-swept terrain several times to carry his own wounded Marines to safety. Finally, at 3:15 p.m. they reached their destination, the compound at the Military Assistance Command Vietnam in Hue City.

One month later, on February 6, 1968, during the Battle of Hue City Canley’s unit came under intense fire at a hospital compound. Canley’s men would later testify about how they saw sergeant Canley scale a wall in full view of the enemy twice in order to carry wounded Marines to safety.

The Battle of Hue City continued for almost another month until Allied forces finally drove out the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese People’s Army of Vietnam on March 2, 1968. In the end the Allies lost 668 men in the battle while another 3,707 were wounded.

John Lee Canley was initially awarded the Navy Cross for his acts of valor at the Battle of Hue City; however, at a White House ceremony on October 17, 2018 President Donald Trump upgraded the award by issuing him the Marine’s Medal of Honor. Canley did not get very many opportunities to display that award around his neck because cancer took him earlier this month. On May 11, 2022 Sergeant Major John Lee Canley (retired) died at his daughter’s home in Bend, Oregon.

I share the story of Sergeant John Lee Canley with you today in hopes that you might gain better appreciation for the tremendous cost that our men and women in uniform have paid to secure our freedoms. Many of these stories never get told, yet many of those who have gone to battle for us have displayed unspeakable courage and unfathomable fearlessness in the face of the enemy. So, let us honor them this year by telling their stories and remembering the sacrifices they have made for the cause of liberty. Remember that all gave some, but some gave all.

The Nebraska primary election is now over. This year’s primary election will likely go down in history as one of Nebraska’s nastiest primary elections ever, especially in regards to the gubernatorial race. Now that the election is over, Republican party leaders are especially facing the very difficult task of trying to unify the party before the general election comes later this fall. This will be a very difficult task considering the kinds of campaign tactics that were employed, some of the statements that were made, and the nature of the allegations that were lodged against Jim Pillen’s opponents.

In order for true and genuine reunification to occur some of the campaign tactics that were employed in this year’s race will need to be honestly addressed and dealt with. For instance, Gov. Ricketts funneled $1.13 million through an organization called Conservative Nebraska in order to fund attack adds against gubernatorial candidates Brett Lindstrom and Charles W. Herbster. How can the sitting governor, who funded attack adds against fellow Republicans, now issue a call for party unity?

Besides placing campaign signs directly over Herbster’s signs, Jim Pillen, Pete Ricketts, and campaign manager, Jessica Flanagan, closely followed the Biden campaign playbook. That playbook begins by accusing your opponent of not paying his taxes, then making a campaign add suggesting that your opponent cannot make good gubernatorial decisions unless he has children. Then, shortly before the election you recruit someone to make accusations of sexual impropriety, then you follow that up with an add suggesting that your opponent must be a pedophile because he judged beauty contests.

That’s only the beginning. Next, you hide your candidate in the basement and keep him away from public debates, so that the voting public won’t know about his past voting record as a UN Regent, or where he stands on important issues, or what kinds of policy decisions he would make, or what his priorities would be as governor. After watching him perform at his first debate, I understand why the decision was made to pull him from all future debates.

Finally, you encourage Herbster’s former running mate, Theresa Thibodeau, to place her name on the ballot in order to take votes away from Herbster. Then, one week before the election you send six mailers a day to every registered Republican in the state reiterating all of the accusations you’ve made against the opponent. Then on election day you have your candidate come out of the basement, vote, and attend his victory party! That is the Biden strategy, and it worked like a charm!

In 1966 California gubernatorial candidate, Ronald Reagan, codified what has become known as the Eleventh Commandment. The Eleventh commandment says: “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.” Team Pillen forgot about this rule; instead, statements were made by party leaders that run completely counter to the kind of party unity they now seek.

Had Herbster won the primary election, I believe Ricketts would have circulated a petition to put the name of an independent candidate of his own choosing on the general election ballot, and I have a very good idea about who that person would have been. The swamp runs very deep in Lincoln, and Ricketts knows that Herbster would have drained it.

In 2016 Gov. Ricketts endorsed my opponent in the legislative race for the 47th district seat. For that, I am glad. I attended Herbster’s watch party last Tuesday evening. When he addressed his audience and announced that had called Jim Pillen to congratulate him on his victory, he encouraged his supporters to continue working to make Nebrasksa great again. Instead of making excuses about his opponent going negative, he took the high ground and conceded his loss with grace, dignity and style. Those are the kind of characteristics I want in our next governor.

I am proud of the way Charles W. Herbster ended his campaign. He attended that unification meeting the day after the election, even though he was not invited to speak. Even then, he refused to go negative, and for that I am doubly proud to have endorsed him for governor.

The big news last week was the leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court, suggesting the high court’s intention to overturn the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade which legalized abortion nationwide. Although the leaked opinion piece does not represent the high court’s final decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it does suggest that at least five of the justices will side with the State of Mississippi in that case.

Overturning Roe v. Wade would not make all abortions illegal. The leaked draft opinion does not mean that all abortions will soon become illegal all across the nation. This is important to note because some of the rhetoric coming out of the pro-choice movement erroneously suggests that it would. For example, the National Women’s Law Center responded to the leaked draft opinion by saying, “Any justice who signs onto this opinion is fueling the harm and violence that will happen to people who become pregnant in this country,” as if the court’s decision would affect abortions nationwide. If the leaked draft opinion accurately represents the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, then these decisions would be returned to the individual states. As the conclusion of the draft opinion says, “The Constitution does not prohibit the citizens of each State from regulating or prohibiting abortion.”

Pro-Life legislators here in Nebraska anticipated such a ruling coming down from the nation’s highest court this year. For this reason, Sen. Joni Albrecht of Thurston introduced LB 933, a bill that would have prohibited the practice of abortion in the State of Nebraska, except in those rare cases where the life of the mother is endangered and the abortion becomes necessary to preserve her life. This bill came with a trigger clause which would have made the bill effective immediately upon the release of the high court’s decision in June.

Nebraska still needs legislation to prohibit the practice of abortion. Although LB 933 was successfully pulled out of the Judiciary Committee earlier this year, the bill failed to advance on the floor of the Legislature by only two votes. Consequently, Nebraska will not be ready to prohibit the practice of abortion upon the release of the high court’s decision in June.

In order to deal with the abortion problem this year, a special session of the Legislature will be needed. There is a strong likelihood that Gov. Ricketts will call for a special session of the Legislature to deal with the problem of abortion once the U.S. Supreme Court releases its final decision in the case of Dobb v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Gov. Ricketts has stated repeatedly that Nebraska is a pro-life state, and it is. Therefore, calling for a special session of the Legislature to prohibit the practice of abortion in our state would be a good way for him to end his career as Nebraska’s 40th governor.

But, will Nebraska ever end the practice of abortion? Even if the governor calls for a special session of the Legislature to deal with the problem of abortion, the State Legislature would still need to flip two more votes in order to override a legislative filibuster. LB 933 was the test case which shows that the Legislature needs at least 33 votes to end the practice of abortion.

Passions run very deep on the subject of abortion. Prohibiting the practice of abortion is a hill that many State Senators are willing to die on and that same level of commitment can be found on both sides of the political aisle. For example, on the same day that Sen. Joni Albrecht introduced LB 933 in the State Legislature (January 10), Sen. Meghan Hunt of Omaha made a motion to indefinitely postpone the bill, a motion that was designed to kill the bill. Normally, these kinds of motions are made after a bill advances out of committee, but Sen. Hunt did not waste any time in trying to kill the bill. For this reason, it will be necessary for pro-life senators to generate enough votes to override a legislative filibuster.

As for me, I will always vote to protect the lives of the unborn. Unborn babies represent the most vulnerable victims of societal abuse and their lives are precious. Unborn babies should never be viewed as an intrusion or as an inconvenience; instead, human life is a gift from God which should never be subjected to the pleasure, the convenience, or the choice of a parent.

Why did the chicken cross the road? Probably to get to somewhere where it’s still safe from the bird flu. The avian (bird) flu has come to Nebraska. The bird flu has been especially bad in the eastern part of the state. Millions of birds are currently being euthanized in Eastern Nebraska.

Nebraska has already experienced seven outbreaks of the bird flu this year. Most recently, the Nebraska Department of Agriculture discovered an outbreak in a flock of 2.1 million chickens in Knox County. Whenever an outbreak like this is discovered the policy of the USDA is to euthanize all of the birds and establish a six-mile control zone around the problem area. Consequently, an outbreak anywhere in Nebraska could significantly affect the prices of our eggs and poultry at the grocery store.

A lot of birds are being destroyed. So far this year almost five million birds have been euthanized in Nebraska alone. 30 million birds have been destroyed across the country, putting the USA on a trajectory to break the record of 50 million birds that were euthanized during the outbreak of 2015.

Poultry and eggs are vital to our economy. In 2017 the United Egg Producers, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Producers Association, the National Chicken Council, and the National Turkey Federation combined their resources and efforts to produce a study which showed that the egg and poultry industries contribute 1.6 million jobs to the U.S. economy along with $96 billion in wages, $34 billion in government revenue (taxes), and $441.15 billion in economic activity each year. So, these are industries we cannot afford to lose.

Once this current outbreak of the bird flu finally comes to an end, these industries will need some time to recover. When the avian flu came to America back in 2015, it took the poultry industry about 18 months to fully recover. The egg industry recovered faster. The egg industry recovered within a year. Nevertheless, with the current rate of inflation being at 8.5 percent, Americans will likely start looking for less expensive sources of protein which are usually found in the egg and poultry industries. If supplies dwindle and prices increase, many Americans will have to look elsewhere for their protein needs.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that many of America’s food processing plants have been mysteriously destroyed recently. For example, last year, on September 13, the JBS beef production plant in Grand Island, which processes five percent of the nation’s beef, was set ablaze and burned for 15 hours. More than a dozen food processing plants have been destroyed within the past year and within the last month alone five major food processing plants have been destroyed by fires and plane crashes. All of this will likely put an enormous strain on our supply chain and push prices even higher at the grocery store.

As Americans we are never driven by fear. While all of this news may seem grim for our nation’s future, it is still a good time to crack some eggs for breakfast and fry up some chicken for dinner. We will overcome this threat in the same way we did back in 2015.

On anther note, let me remind you to vote. Nebraska’s primary election will be held on May 10, and it is very important that every registered voter cast his or her vote this year. Never forget that the voters comprise Nebraska’s second legislative house. Remember what Thomas Jefferson said, “We do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

Last week the 107th Legislature came to an end. This year was the shorter 60-day session. For the past four years I have served on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee; however, this year proved to be the most difficult year so far. What made this year so difficult was that the Appropriations Committee had to appropriate $1.04 billion of federal funds from the American Recue Plan Act (ARPA).

In previous years the number of bills assigned to the Appropriations Committee never surpassed 50, but this year we had more than 120 bills to consider due to ARPA. These ARPA bills made requests totaling more than $4.3 billion. The members of the Appropriations Committee spent over 125 hours listening to testimonies from the introducers of these bills.

I used two criteria for determining which bills should be considered for ARPA funding. The first criteria asked if the request was a one-time expenditure? Almost every introducer would open his or her comments by saying this is a one-time appropriation. However, very few of these requests actually fit that criteria.

The second criteria I used asked if the bill created an ongoing obligation for the State. If the bill was necessary considered it; otherwise, I did not want to create any future obligations for the State. Almost all of the ARPA bills that came to us obligated the State down the road in some way, and I was not interested in bloating future State budgets.

There were several examples of ARPA bills that were not one-time expenditures. One such bill asked for significant wage increases for employees of one particular state agency for the next three years. The bill’s introducer insisted that this would be a one-time appropriation. So, I asked him if he really expected the Legislature to take back their raises after the three year period ran out? Obviously, this bill would have obligated the State to honor their wage increase down the road after the ARPA money ran out.

Another category of erroneous one-time expenditures came in the form of new buildings. New buildings are never one-time appropriations. A case in point is how we designated $60 million for the building of a new medical training facility which was supposedly a one-time expenditure. Two weeks later we had an emergency Appropriations Committee meeting to approve $3 million for start-up money, and another $12 million for equipment, and another $15 million for ongoing operations. Add to this the costs associated with building maintenance, and anyone should be able to see how the creation of new buildings never comprises a one-time appropriation.

So, herein lies the rub. If just one half of this year’s $1.04 billion of ARPA funds ends up obligating the State down the road, it will result in raising the State’s annual budget by $500 million per year. That is a 10% increase in the State annual budget. I may never have to deal with the shortfall that these decisions will create in future years because I may be termed out of office before we begin to feel the effects. But, when the federal money stops coming in and the State’s revenues decline as they always do after events like we just experienced with these ARPA funds, the burden will fall on the taxpayers to meet the budget shortfall.

The vote to approve this year’s State budget was a very difficult decision for me. I seldom ever vote for budget bills because they generally spend too much money. But this year’s budget had several significant implications for Western Nebraska that I felt compelled to vote for. Included in this year’s budget is 23.1 million for the tunnel repairs on the Gering/Fort Laramie irrigation canal. There is also $50 million for improvements at Lake McConaughy. Also included was another $50 million for surface irrigation repairs in the western part of the State. For these reasons it was very important that this year’s budget pass.

Ever since I became a State Senator six years ago my number one priority has been to give Nebraskans meaningful and significant tax relief, especially property tax relief. The second session of the 107th Legislature is scheduled to end sine die on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Therefore, today I would like to assess the status of tax relief efforts in Nebraska this year.

The Nebraska State Legislature missed its best opportunity for meaningful and significant tax relief by failing to advance LR264CA, my constitutional resolution for the consumption tax. The consumption tax would have eliminated both individual and corporate income taxes, state sales tax, real estate taxes, and inheritance taxes by replacing all of these taxes with an 8.97 percent consumption tax. The beauty of the consumption tax is that it would have put the tax payer in control of how much taxes he or she pays to the State. Instead, state lawmakers decided to keep control of your taxes centralized in Lincoln.

What the Unicameral Legislature decided to pass this year was the Revenue Committee’s own tax relief plan, LB 873, which was crafted mainly by the Revenue Committee’s chair, Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn. This bill protects the 25 percent income tax credit taxpayers already receive on property taxes paid to schools, creates a new rebate on property taxes paid to community colleges, phases out taxes on Social Security income, phases in a reduction of the highest individual income tax rate from 6.84 percent to 5.84 percent by 2027, and phases in a reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 7.5 percent to 5.84 percent by 2027. Because LB 873 provides tax relief for Nebraskans, I voted in favor of this bill, but that does not mean that it was a good bill.

LB 873 leaves the State in charge of your taxes. As you can see, LB 873 preserves what is commonly referred to as Nebraska’s three-legged stool. The three-legged stool is designed to protect the State’s coffers by placing three layers of taxation over Nebraska’s citizens, namely property taxes, income taxes, and state sales taxes. The three-legged stool creates a complicated tax system whereby Nebraskans are left in the dark in regards to how much money they actually pay to the State in taxes every year. As the tax reform expert, Dan Pilla, says, the first rule of taxation is simplicity whereby citizens have the “right to know what the tax laws require, and compliance should be easy and inexpensive.”

LB 873 does not go far enough. Although LB 873 offers Nebraskans various kinds of tax relief, it fails to address the root causes of escalating taxes in our state. For example, offering a 25 percent income tax credit on property taxes paid to schools does nothing to limit the ability of county assessors from raising the value of your property or home in the future.

LB 873 ignores the fact that Nebraskans need immediate tax relief. According to the Farm Bureau, Nebraska ranks second only to Wisconsin in the number of farm bankruptcies. Many farmers and ranchers cannot afford to wait until 2027 in order to reap the benefits of LB 873. Because LB 873 phases in individual and corporate income tax relief slowly over time, taxes will increase faster than the relief offered by the bill.

The bottom line is that LB 873 ignores the fact that Nebraska has a broken tax system which needs to be replaced with one that works for the taxpayer as well as one which works for the State.