During the days of the pandemic religious leaders were told to do many things to inhibit the spreading of the coronavirus, including closing the doors of their churches. Most obliged the orders of their state and local governments, while a few did not. One of those ministers who refused was John MacArthur, the senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, CA. MacArthur believed that his constitutional rights had been violated, so he sued and his case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled in his favor and ordered the State of California and the County of Los Angeles to pay him $400,000.

Constitutions still matter. As Bill Barr, the former U.S. Attorney General said, “The Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis.” He was right. So, when smallpox came to the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts back in 1902, the Board of Health mandated the vaccination of all of its citizens. When a citizen named Jacobson refused to get a free vaccination from the city, he sued and his case went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled in that case that governments could only “reasonably restrict” the rights of its citizens. That case is known as Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (1905), and it set the precedent for the next 120 years.

That court precedent remained loosely in place leading up to the days of the coronavirus pandemic. According to SCOTUS, governments could only reasonably restrict churches, and governments could not single out churches, treating them differently than secular businesses or other institutions. In other words, if the churches had to close their doors, then so did all of the other businesses in town, and an order to shut the doors could not be made for an indefinite period of time.

The big problem with the SCOTUS ruling in Jacobson v. Massachusetts was that it was a court precedent, but not a law. That is why the Nebraska State Legislature needed to act this year. LB 277 clarifies and codifies what governments can and cannot do in regards to religious freedom during times of a crisis.

If the wheels of justice move slowly, then the wheels of the Legislature sometimes move even slower. In this case, it took the Nebraska State Legislature 119 years to finally pass a law to protect religious freedom during a time of crisis. That law is now known as the First Freedom Act.

LB 277 traveled a slow and winding road through the State Legislature. LB 277 was the original bill for the First Freedom Act, and it was introduced last year by Sen. Tom Brewer and was adopted by Sen. Brian Hardin as his personal priority bill. After the bill advanced out of the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, several dilatory amendments were filed on the bill preventing it from going forward. The bill was laid over until this year, and then was finally amended into LB 43, where it found a new home, and passed in the Legislature late last week.

The First Freedom Act now clarifies how the State of Nebraska cannot restrict the private exercise of religion. The state government and its political subdivisions will now be prohibited from restricting a person’s right to the exercise of religion unless it can be demonstrated that the burden is essential to a compelling government interest and that the action required of the private citizen constitutes the least restrictive means of furthering that government interest.

The First Freedom Act also clarifies how the State of Nebraska cannot restrict churches. The State government and its political subdivisions will be prohibited by law from restricting churches from holding worship services during a state of emergency to a greater extent than it restricts other secular businesses or institutions.

Finally, the bill stipulates that a person or a church that believes that the state has imposed an unnecessary burden upon them in violation of the First Freedom Act, may bring civil action against the State of Nebraska or any of its political subdivisions.

Protecting religious freedom is one of the most important functions of government. Religious freedom forms the very foundation of our republic. Our founding fathers believed this wholeheartedly. So, when Samuel Adams signed the Declaration of Independence on August 1, 1776, he delivered a speech at the State House in Philadelphia and said, “Be this the seat of unbounded religious freedom.”

One of Rush Limbaugh’s undeniable truths of life was that “words mean things.” Such is the case with words such as “destroyed property’ and ‘calamity’. According to Nebraska State Statute 77-1307, “Calamity means a disastrous event, including, but not limited to a fire, an earthquake, a flood, a tornado or other natural event which significantly affects the assessed value of real property.” This definition should not require a disastrous event to have a natural cause, but not everyone sees it this way. This definition is important because of how the word ‘calamity’ relates to a former piece of legislation of mine, which allows owners of damaged property to have their real property reassessed for property tax purposes.

Property owners should not be taxed on property that has been damaged. In 2019 I introduced a bill to allow owners of destroyed property to have their real estate reassessed for property tax purposes provided that the disastrous event occurs before July 1. In order to qualify for the re-evaluation, damage to the property has to exceed 20 percent of the property’s previously assessed value and the cause of the damage cannot be attributed to the owner of the property. The bill was amended into the Revenue Committee’s bill, LB 512, and became law shortly before the floods of 2019. As a result, many with flooded properties had their valuations reduced for tax purposes in 2019.

Arson should count as a kind of calamity. In the Spring of 2020 protestors associated with the Black Lives Matter movement marched throughout the City of Lincoln. On May 30 or 31 of that year they set fire to a building owned by the Inland Insurance Company. Damage done to the building was significant and should have qualified the owner of the property to have the building reassessed for property tax purposes. Indeed, the Inland Insurance Company filed a report of destroyed real property with the county assessor and the county clerk of Lancaster County.

Politicians can sometimes make words mean whatever they want them to mean. The Lancaster County Board of Equalization considered the damaged property report by the Inland Insurance Company but left the value of the building unchanged. So, Inland filed an appeal with the Tax Equalization and Review Commission, otherwise known as TERC. The TERC board held a hearing and then concluded that the building did not qualify as “destroyed real property” because the fire that caused the damage was not a calamity. The operative word here is the word caused. The TERC board had limited their definition of a calamity to only disasters caused by natural events.

Nebraska’s justice system still works. TERC was created in order to lessen the burden of the Nebraska Supreme Court, but the Nebraska Supreme Court still gets the final word on controversial matters. Inland filed an appeal with the Nebraska Supreme Court, which heard their case. The Nebraska Supreme Court overturned the ruling of TERC on March 8, 2024. This was a major victory for my original bill! The Nebraska Supreme Court decided that a natural event could be understood as the type as well as the cause of a natural event. Because the definition of a calamity in Nebraska State Statute 77-1307 lists “fire” separately from “other natural events” it should be viewed as another kind of natural event.

No new legislation is needed. Last year I had introduced a new bill to correct what had happened to the Inland Insurance Company. That bill is LB 29 and it currently sits on General File in the Legislature. That bill would change “destroyed property” to “damaged property” in order to better include situations such as arson, which are not always viewed as naturally caused events. However, the ruling of the Nebraska Supreme Court means that my original bill will now include instances of arson.

In 2021 the Fufeng Group, a Chinese food manufacturer, bought 300 acres of farmland near Grand Forks, North Dakota in order to build a milling plant. They paid 2.6 million dollars for the land. That land is only twelve miles from the Grand Forks Air Base, which is home to some of America’s most sensitive military secrets. Last year both the BBC and NPR reported that the Chinese had already purchased 380,000 acres of farmland in the United States.

After the purchase of land was made near the Grand Forks Air Base, a memo circulated throughout the air base classifying the purchase as a national security threat to the United States and alleging that the purchase fits a pattern of Chinese subnational espionage campaigns seeking to use commercial economic development projects to get close to Department of Defense installations.

Nebraska is one of the states where China wants to purchase more farmland. Without going into too much detail, we have already seen nefarious Chinese characters disguised as Americans arrive in Western Nebraska with suitcases full of cash ready to purchase farmland on the spot, especially near our missile silos. One such character even tried to masquerade as the leader of a new Christian sect.

I share these things today in order to alert the public about this growing threat to our national security and to inform the good people of Western Nebraska that the Legislature is addressing the issue this year. Sen. Brian Hardin of Gering is leading the way. LB 1120 is Sen. Hardin’s personal priority bill and last week the bill was debated on the floor of the Legislature and it advanced to the next round of debate on Select File with strong support in the Legislature.

Once it becomes law, Sen. Hardin’s bill will require those seeking to purchase land within a ten-mile radius of a military installation to file an affidavit with the register of deeds in the county stating under penalty of perjury that the purchaser is not affiliated with any foreign government or a nongovernment person determined to be a foreign adversary. The sale of the land will get held until the affidavit has been filed.

Sen. Hardin attached an amendment to the bill making it the sole responsibility of the purchaser to determine whether or not the affidavit is required. The reason for the amendment is to protect innocent landowners in Nebraska, who should not be tasked with the burden of having to determine if the affidavit is required. That burden of responsibility will reside solely with the purchaser.

Sen. Hardin also amended the bill in order to require that a copy of the affidavit be sent to the Nebraska Attorney General. Dislodging nefarious Chinese agents from real estate can get expensive, especially for sparsely populated counties in rural Nebraska. These matters should be adjudicated by the State Attorney General, and Sen. Hardin’s amendment will make that point clear.

The time to act on matters of national security is before it ever becomes a problem. We know that our enemies want to infiltrate our country. We have seen spy balloons crossing our nation, foreign agents entering the country through our porous southern border, cybersecurity threats, and now purchasing our farmland. Once LB 1120 passes into law, Nebraska’s counties will have an important tool for deterring these kinds of threats to our national security, and for these reasons I co-sponsored the bill along with 18 other State Senators, who all see the need for this bill.

On Wednesday, February 28 a public hearing was held on LR281CA before the Executive Board of the State Legislature. This was the final public hearing of my legislative career. LR281CA is my resolution for a constitutional amendment to convert the State Legislature over to a biennial calendar. In other words, the State Legislature would meet every other year during odd numbered years beginning in the year 2027 and no legislative session would ever exceed 90 legislative days. Changing over to a biennial calendar would be a big change, so why am I doing this?

First, biennial legislative sessions were how the State Legislature used to operate. From 1875 until 1971 the Nebraska State Legislature only convened during odd numbered years. So, biennial legislative sessions were the norm for 96 consecutive years of Nebraska’s history. That system was quite efficient and effective.

The shorter 60-day session was never intended to be a regular session of the Legislature. According to what former Nebraska State Senator, Herbert J. Duis of Gothenburg, said during a public hearing on LB 151 on February 22, 1979, the original intention of the shorter 60-day session was supposed to “be confined to budgetary procedures.” However, that original purpose quickly deteriorated as Senators began introducing non-budgetary bills during the short session.

Because the Legislature has drifted away from the original purpose of the current annual legislative system, the time has come to take the decision back to the people. LR281CA would put a measure on the ballot for the voters to decide on November 5 of this year. The voters represent Nebraska’s first legislative house. The State Legislature is the second house. Article 3, Section 2 of the Nebraska State Constitution says, “The first power reserved by the people is the initiative whereby laws may be enacted and constitutional amendments adopted by the people independently of the Legislature.”

Another reason for switching back to a biennial calendar is that it would save the State a lot of money. According to the Legislature’s Fiscal Office, even if the legislative staff remained employed on a full-time basis, the State of Nebraska would stand to save approximately $500,000 by switching over to a biennial system. So, the burden of proof falls upon those who believe the State should spend this much money for legislative purposes.

Switching back to a biennial system would significantly reduce the number of bills which get introduced in the State Legislature. Currently, more than 600 bills get introduced in the State Legislature every year. Making matters worse is the fact that each one of those bills is required to have a public hearing. State Senators cannot adequately read, study and understand so many bills in a single session of the Legislature. Therefore, something needs to be done to limit the number of bills that Senators introduce and switching to a biennial system is one way to accomplish that goal.

Annual sessions of the Legislature grow the state government by encouraging the redundancy of bills. Under the current annual system, State Senators are inclined to introduce the same stale bills over and over again until they finally pass and become law. As Sen. Duis said again in that 1979 hearing, “…we have the problem of increasing government to the people because we have a lot of the same bills over and over again.” Sen. Duis also said about reducing the size of government that “The less of it we have, the better off we are…” So, LR281CA represents an opportunity for Nebraskans to reduce the size of their state government for the betterment of the State.

LR281CA has a hard uphill road to climb. Unfortunately, LR281CA likely won’t pass in the Legislature this year. Because the public hearing was scheduled so late in the session and the bill lacks a priority status, the chances of this constitutional amendment ever getting onto the ballot for the election on November 5 aren’t very good. Nevertheless, I believe this is a conversation that the people of Nebraska need to have. Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, and Texas all use biennial sessions, and Nebraska needs to be next.

Last week the State of Wyoming advanced a bill by Rep. Steve Harshman to eliminate most property taxes in Wyoming along with a two percent hike in the State’s sales tax. Shifting the tax burden away from property taxes and onto sales taxes or consumption taxes is an idea which is now gaining a lot of steam all across the country. Besides Nebraska, states which have seen these kinds of bills in recent years include Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Texas. In 2020 Rep. Jason Monks of the Idaho State House of Representatives introduced a similar bill and remarked that the property tax is “an evil tax.” So, today I would like to explain why the property tax is so vile.

The property tax is the most regressive kind of tax. The property tax is a tax on a family’s overall cost of living. Landlords include property taxes in the rent they charge to their tenants, so property taxes effect renters as well as property owners alike. Whether a family pays a mortgage or a rent, housing costs always take the biggest chunk out of a family’s monthly budget. Once the mortgage or the rent gets paid, many families find themselves counting down the days until their next payday. This means that property taxes have a much greater adverse effect on poor families than they do on wealthy families and that makes it inherently regressive. Because of their ever-growing nature, property taxes affect poor families more adversely than any other kind of tax.

Property taxes leave local residents in a perpetual state of uncertainty. Whenever land gets taken off the tax rolls, other landowners have to make up the difference. So, when the Central Public Power and Irrigation District purchased 1,050 acres of land on the south shore or Lake McConaughy, it left a revenue hole that others had to fill. That land will now go off the tax rolls and local residents will have to make up the difference in higher property taxes.

The property tax is a Marxist tax that never ends. Like the song that never ends, property taxes go on and on, my friends. Because of the never-ending nature of the property tax, landowners never actually own their property; instead, they merely rent it from the government. If you believe you own your real estate, try going three years without paying your property taxes. Then you will find out who really owns your property. Ownership of private property is a fundamental right which comes from God. The eighth commandment of Exodus 20:15, “Thou shalt not steal,” implies that God believes in private ownership of property. Private property is foundational to our American form of Government. Thomas Jefferson said, “The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen in his person and property and in their management.” The abolition of private property, on the other hand, is a central tenet of Marxism. The first principle of the Communist Manifesto states: “The abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.”

The property tax is logically absurd. The property tax is logically absurd because it is worse than a tax on unrealized gains. An unrealized gain (or loss) occurs when the value of an asset has increased (or decreased), but has not yet been sold. So, a tax on an unrealized gain is a tax on the potential earnings of an asset, such as a stock or a bond. Sen. Steve Halloran of Hastings called taxing unrealized gains “a stupid idea” when he rhetorically testified on his own bill, LB 1279, last week. LB 1279 is a bill that would tax unrealized gains. LB 1279 was never intended to be a serious bill. Sen. Halloran introduced it in order to make a political statement. In his own words, Sen. Halloran commented about his bill that, “Sometimes you have to illustrate the absurd by being absurd.” Nevertheless, what makes the property tax even worse than a tax on unrealized gains is the fact that the property tax not only taxes the potential earnings of a property but taxes the value of the property itself. To draw an equivalent analogy, it would be like adding the unrealized gain of a bond plus the original principle of the bond to a person’s income for income tax purposes, and that’s exactly what property taxes do!

Rep. Monks of Idaho was absolutely correct when he said that taxing property is evil. Nebraskans deserve a tax system which respects their largest monthly expense, a tax system which does not tax them into oblivion, at tax system which does not adhere to Marxist principles, and a tax system which is not logically absurd. In short, Nebraskans deserve a tax system that is not evil. I introduced the EPIC Option Consumption Tax last year to correct these problems and to restore a sense of sanity and common sense back to Nebraska’s broken tax system.

One of the bills that I co-signed this year is LB 1064, a bill to eliminate tenure at the University of Nebraska, the Nebraska State College system, and Nebraska’s community colleges. This is a movement which is picking up steam around the country. Several other states have introduced similar legislation including, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

While LB 1064 does not strip current faculty members of their tenured status, the bill would prevent future hires from obtaining tenure and it directs the governing boards over our state’s colleges and universities to write and adopt new employment policies which would ultimately promote education and the free expression of ideas. The new employment policies would establish acceptable grounds for the termination of faculty, minimum standards of good practice, standards for discipline, and procedures for dismissal.

It is no secret how some of our nation’s most prestigious universities, such as Harvard University, have had to remove their presidents due the mishandling of antisemitic protests on their campuses and other reasons. Besides allowing unruly antisemitic protests, Harvard University President, Claudine Gay, was accused of 50 counts of plagiarism by the Washington Free Beacon and the New York Post. Most recently, Shirley Greene, an administrator for the Harvard Extension School, has been accused of committing 42 instances of plagiarism in her 2008 dissertation. Why do we allow substandard academic scholars to lead our colleges and universities?

College education in American has been deteriorating. Jonathan Turley, an attorney who teaches at George Washington University Law School, recently posted on X that “The mob has become the measure for righteous rage for many in higher education. Vandalism and attacking art have now become part of what is portrayed as a healthy and productive dialogue.” Unfortunately, this is exactly what higher education in America has so often devolved into, and this kind of behavior has reached Nebraska.

The University of Nebraska has had its own share of problems in recent years with bad behavior. On August 25, 2017 English graduate teaching assistant, Courtney Lawton, harassed Kaitlyn Mullen as she recruited for Turning Point USA near the Student Union at UNL. Then, UNL Sociology Professor, Patricia Wonch Hill, was arrested in Virginia for throwing fake blood on the home of Chris Cox, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. Then, she was cited for painting googly eyes on a campaign sign for Rep. Jeff Fortenberry. Finally, the University of Nebraska system was successfully sued last year after the University’s Fee Allocation Committee denied a $1,500 request by Ratio Christi, a Christian organization, to bring back the former UNL philosophy professor, Robert Audi, as a speaker for their group.

Many American colleges and universities have been shutting down dissenting opinions by conservative students. The American Bar Association has recognized this problem, so this month they issued new rules for their associated law schools. The new rules for the law schools will include policies which “protect academic freedom” and “encourage and support the free expression of ideas.”

Besides the looney behavior of activist professors, it is no secret how classes often get taught by student teaching assistants and research assistants. Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City, the primary sponsor of the bill, stated in his opening remarks during the public hearing on February 13 saying, “…I hear stories of professors who have tenure, brag about how little work they put in or how few hours they show up to teach classes.” No other job in the real world would ever pay an employee to not show up for work or to do no work at all.

Nebraska’s colleges and universities need to be held accountable. The University of Nebraska, for example, is a land grant university. This means that the University of Nebraska System is owned and operated by the citizens of Nebraska. All too often, professors and administrators who are embroiled in university strife believe they are free to do whatever they want. Removing tenure is the first step towards changing the culture of our colleges and universities so that education and the free expression of ideas can once again be restored as the norm at our colleges and universities.

This year three important agricultural bills were introduced in the Nebraska Legislature that the public needs to know about. These are three good agricultural bills which I have either introduced myself or co-signed along with the bill’s author. Each of these bills affects the agriculture industry in our state in a different way.

The first bill is LB 1396, and was introduced by Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil. The bill would change the requirements for food manufacturers when labeling food products for sale for human consumption when that food product contains insect, worm, or any other bug ingredients. The bill would require the manufacturer to clearly label the food product in at least twelve-point font on the front label whenever the food product contains more than five percent of insect, worm, or bug ingredients. This is a good bill for the simple reason that people need to know what they are putting into their own bodies.

The second bill is LB 1301, and was introduced by Sen. Barry DeKay of Niobrara. This bill is known as the Foreign-owned Real Estate National Security Act. The bill would prohibit nonresident aliens who have engaged in a pattern of behavior adverse to the national security of the United States from acquiring or holding title to agricultural lands in the State of Nebraska. The bill would require the Department of Agriculture to investigate potential violations and report them to the Nebraska State Attorney General.

The third bill that I would like to mention is one of my own. LB 844 is a bill designed to protect Nebraska’s small businesses which hire local laborers for doing the work of roguing and detasseling for the purposes of growing seed corn. Over the years, we have seen all local detasseling companies go out-of-business in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. Nebraska is now the last state where teenagers have the opportunity to perform roguing and detasseling work as a summer job.

The problem has been the overuse of H2A migrant workers for doing the work. Federal law already requires seed corn companies to consider first the bids of those Nebraska companies who hire local workers, especially teenagers, but the federal government has lacked the manpower and the resources to enforce the law. Since 2019 nine Nebraska businesses who hire teenagers for doing roguing and detasseling work have already fallen by the wayside.

LB 844 is a bill for transparency. The bill requires the Director of Agriculture to create a directory of Nebraska companies who hire local workers and post the directory to the Department’s website. An amendment that I put on the bill further requires the Director of Agriculture to send the directory each year to every seed corn company operating within the State by way of registered mail. This will ensure that the seed corn companies know who these Nebraska companies are and how to reach them.

At the end of the growing season each seed corn company would then be required to report to the Director of Agriculture which companies they hired and how many acres they contracted with those companies. The Director of Agriculture would then make a report and post it to the Department’s website by the end of September of each year. By disclosing which companies were hired and how many acres they were contracted for, Nebraskans would be able to hold these seed corn companies accountable for contracting with Nebraska companies first before outsourcing these jobs to companies that hire mostly H2A migrant workers.

Although roguing and detasseling work is done mostly in the central and eastern parts of the State, it is important for teaching our youth the meaning of hard work and the value of a dollar. Roguing and detasseling is an important tool for introducing urban teenagers to Nebraska’s agricultural industry. Those who do the work often learn character values that help them succeed later in life. Nebraska needs these jobs, and that is why 136 people from across the state submitted online testimonies in favor of the bill compared to only one lobbyist who opposed it.

February 1, 2024 was a good day for promoting the EPIC Option Consumption Tax. What happened on that day affected the consumption tax movement in a very odd way when the Revenue Committee held public hearings on ten of the Governor’s tax bills. I would like to thank Gov. Pillen for convincing several State Senators to introduce tax bills on his behalf which were all designed to shift the tax burden of Nebraskans onto sales taxes without reducing their overall tax burden. The Governor’s new tax plan has caused many people to start paying attention.

The Governor’s tax bills shift more of the overall tax burden onto the state sales tax without solving the problem of higher taxes. The Governor’s plan adds a full percentage point to the state sales tax, resulting in a higher rate of 6.5 percent. Then, the Governor’s tax plan removes sales tax exemptions for farmers, accountants, lawyers, veterinarians, amusement game distributors, and owners of self-storage facilities, just to name a few. The elimination of these sales tax exemptions would bring in millions of new dollars for the State of Nebraska.

Gov. Pillen has the noble goal of reducing property taxes by 40 percent. However, I don’t believe his plan will work. Nebraskans should not except such a statement from me alone. Instead, listen to the people. Hundreds of Nebraskans turned out to voice their opposition to the Governor’s tax plan last Thursday. For example, one of the Governor’s tax bills received 115 online opponents while only three people testified online in favor of the bill, and when Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, chair of the Revenue Committee, called for proponents to come forward to testify in person for another one of the Governor’s tax bills, no one even bothered to show up. The bottom line is that Nebraskans do not like the Governor’s new tax plan.

Nebraskans are opposed to the Governor’s new tax plan because it is an overall tax increase disguised as property tax relief. For example, Sen. Dungan, who is a member of the Revenue Committee, questioned a member of Gov. Pillen’s 35-member tax committee at the hearing only to discover that the 40 percent threshold for property tax relief was nothing more than an arbitrary number contrived by the committee members in order to better sell the Governor’s new tax plan.

The people are no longer falling for these kinds of government tricks. For example, Unicameral Watch is a popular Facebook group which prides itself on monitoring the activities of the state government for purposes of transparency and accountability. Here is their assessment of what transpired in the Revenue Committee that day: “What happened today is a 1 billion dollar tax increase on Nebraska taxpayers…” They further described the Governor’s tax plan as “MASSIVE tax increases” that would “pulverize the poor and Middle Class, young farmers, small business owners and other Nebraskans.” Well, they are exactly right.

The Governor’s tax plan would result in massive border bleed. Border bleed occurs when people purchase products and services cheaper across the state lines. Unlike the EPIC Option Consumption Tax, which would remove hidden taxes from a product, making them cheaper in Nebraska than in other states, Gov. Pillen’s tax plan would have the opposite effect. Why would anyone buy products in Nebraska with a 6.5 percent sales tax rate when they can hop across the border and pay 4 percent in Wyoming? Gov. Pillen’s tax plan would hurt retails sales in border cities such as Omaha and Scottsbluff.

Personally, I am planning now to take full advantage of the border bleed problem that the Governor’s new tax plan will create. Because the Governor intends to remove the sales tax exemption on farm repair parts, I intend to create a new start-up company with a catchy name like “Farm Dash” whereby the company would transport non-taxed farm repair products from Wyoming to farmers living in Nebraska. Farm Dash would pick up and deliver farm repair parts to folks living in Nebraska.

The Governor has betrayed the good citizens of Nebraska. Nebraskans are now in a heap of trouble as far as our tax system goes. Unicameral Watch hit the nail on the head in their article when they said, “Nebraskans better start noticing the signs of a state under severe distress.” They concluded their article by stating that Nebraskans now have “no choice but to pass EPIC…” I heartily agree.

History Nebraska is out of control. So, one of the bills I introduced this year, LB 1169, is a bill to make History Nebraska a code agency, bringing the Society under the control of the Governor. This bill has become necessary due to the way state revenues have been misused by the agency in the past and how History Nebraska has been organized …or should I say, disorganized.

Last year a Nebraska State Auditor’s report alleged that History Nebraska misused and misappropriated state funds. Trevor Jones, the former director of History Nebraska, was accused of embezzlement, theft, and official misconduct after he deposited a check for $270,000 into a bank account for the History Nebraska Foundation, a competing foundation that he helped create. Because the money had been appropriated as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the check should have been deposited with the State Treasurer.

If any of this sounds confusing – well, it should. The Nebraska State Historical Society is chaotically organized. The Nebraska State Historical Society members changed the name of the agency to History Nebraska in 2019. Although the Society became a state agency back in 1994, the Society’s organization has lacked accountability to the State. The Society is run by a board of trustees consisting of twelve members appointed by History Nebraska members and only three members appointed by the Governor. The members also appoint their own director. Making matters even more convoluted is the fact that each member can accept gifts on behalf of the agency and the History Nebraska Foundation operates independently from the State. So, when monies were deposited into an account for the History Nebraska Foundation, a red flag automatically went up at the State Auditor’s office.

I introduced LB 1169 to fix these many problems with History Nebraska. First, the bill makes History Nebraska a code agency, instead of merely being a state agency with loose ties to the State. This is accomplished by having the Governor appoint the director, at the approval of the Legislature. The director would run the agency’s operations and finances and serve at the pleasure of the Governor. The director would be forbidden to serve on the board of any other organization which makes contributions to History Nebraska. Consequently, the director would be held accountable to the Governor for all of the operations and actions taken by the Society.

The bill diminishes the role of the members of the board of trustees. The director would no longer take orders or directions from the board of trustees. Instead, the board of trustees would merely take on an advisory role with the director.

The bill puts strict limitations on how History Nebraska can accept gifts. The bill strips the members of the board of trustees of their authority to accept any gifts on behalf of the agency. Only the director would be allowed to accept gifts, provided that the gift is under $10,000. Gifts of money and real estate valued over $10,000 would require the approval of the Governor.

The bill creates financial transparency for the Society. All deposits would be made through the State Treasurer. Each year the director would hold an annual meeting and prepare an annual report. The director would prepare a financial report of all of the agency’s transactions for the year. The report would include the dissemination of any materials sold or disposed of by the Society.

Finally, the bill reestablishes the Nebraska State Historical Society Collections Trust Fund. However, the fund would be administered by the director and the proceeds from any materials sold by the agency would be deposited by the State Treasurer into the fund. Furthermore, revenues in the fund would be invested as per the Nebraska Capital Expansion Act and the Nebraska State Funds Investment Act.

I share these things with you today because Nebraskans need to know how their hard-earned money is being spent by the State of Nebraska. The State of Nebraska can no longer afford to spend money frivolously. Corrupt and reckless financial practices by state agencies must be reined in. LB 1169 seeks to accomplish that objective. A public hearing will be held on LB 1169 at the State Capitol on February 1; however; members of the public can write online comments about the bill through the Legislature’s website at: www.nebraskalegislature.gov.

Last Thursday Gov. Jim Pillen delivered his State of the State address to the Unicameral Legislature. The primary focus of the speech was devoted to tax relief, especially property tax relief. So, I listened closely to hear his plans for tax relief. Although he vows to reduce property taxes by 40 percent, he never offered any kind of substantive plan for doing so. Gov. Pillen’s plan continues several of the same stale practices which have never worked in the past, such as creating more property tax credits for businesses and transferring more revenues into the state’s property tax cash-credit fund. Gov. Pillen is even pinning his hopes for income tax relief on a 3.9 percent income tax rate…coming in the year 2027! The Governor’s tax plan amounts to nothing more than slight of hand tactics to fool the public into believing that meaningful and significant tax relief is on its way.

January 17 was the last day for State Senators to introduce new bills. Sadly, none of the new bills offer meaningful and significant tax relief for Nebraskans. The best legislative proposal was offered by Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn. His bill, LB 1241, would require political subdivisions to reduce their property tax levies by the same percentage of increase in property valuations. The result would be no increases in property taxes, but no reduction in property taxes, either.

Sen. Lou Anne Linehan also of Elkhorn is chair of the Legislature’s revenue committee. Sen. Linehan introduced LB 1315, a bill for an increase in the state sales tax rate. Sen. Linehan’s legislative plan is to raise the state sales tax from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent with 2.75 percent of the revenues being earmarked for Nebraska’s Good Life districts. Her hope is that by appropriating some $500 million to economic development efforts, we can eventually reduce property taxes.

Several new bills were introduced to raise more sales tax revenues for the State. Several State Senators introduced bills to eliminate various sales tax exemptions. Sen. Fred Meyer of St. Paul introduced LB 1311, which would remove the sales tax exemption for pet, storage, and moving services. Sen. Linehan introduced LB 1319 to eliminate the sales tax exemption for data centers. Sen. Von Gillern introduced LB 1308 to repeal the sales tax exemption for accounting services and ag services, and Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha introduced LB 1345 to remove the sales tax exemption for legal services. What each of these bills have in common is generating more sales tax revenue for the State.

What all of these new tax plans have in common is that none of them cut taxes. The fact of the matter is that the Governor, the chair of the Legislature’s revenue committee, and the other members of the Unicameral Legislature have no viable plans to reduce the overall tax burden of Nebraskans this year. All that has been offered up this year amounts to nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Much like the Wizard of Oz, those behind the curtain are unable to solve Nebraska’s tax problems. Nebraska’s tax system is broken, it cannot be repaired, and all of the new legislation proposed this year only further verifies this fact.

To further show how broken our tax system is, consider Sen. Linehan’s bill LB 1317. The entire text of LB 1317 states succinctly that: “1) Property taxes are too high; and 2) Legislative changes to lower property taxes are needed and desired.” That’s it! LB 1317 is known as a shell bill. Sen. Linehan introduced the bill in this way so that she can hopefully amend it mid-session with some kind of meaningful property tax relief plan. However, if she already knew how to reduce property taxes, she would not need a shell bill to amend later in the session.

I share these things today to show readers how broken our tax system really is and how the Governor and the Unicameral Legislature are unable to fix it. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax bill that I introduced last year with my personal priority designation, continues to be ignored and continues to be the only viable option for meaningful and significant tax relief. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax is the only option currently on the table with a workable model and endorsements by some of our nation’s leading economists, such as Art Laffer, Stephen Moore and Nebraska’s own Ernie Goss.

Without the EPIC Option Consumption Tax, Nebraska will continue to flounder as one of our nation’s worst tax states. According to the Tax Foundation Nebraska is the 38th worst tax state in America for its overall tax burden and is the 40th worst state for property taxes. We are worse than all of our surrounding states, but the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would propel us to the front of the line and make us the most tax friendly state in America. When I ran for office eight years ago, I vowed to offer Nebraskans meaningful and significant tax relief, especially property tax relief. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax remains the best legislative option for accomplishing that goal. Please visit our website at www.epicoption.org.