When I first arrived in the Nebraska Legislature in 2017, Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha stood in front of me on the legislative floor. He turned around and gave me some good advice. He told me to learn the rules. I began to read the rules. Upon doing so, I quickly learned how confusing the Rule Book of the Nebraska Legislature was. So, immediately upon adjournment last year, I turned my attention to re-writing the Rule Book.

The project of re-writing the Rule Book of the Legislature focused primarily on two tasks. The first task was to rearrange the material in the Rule Book so that the rules for each stage of debate could be found in a single rule. The second task was to develop a separate rule for how the Legislature would go about debating and passing proposals for changes to the Rule Book. After working with a committee of eight staffers, what resulted was a much more user-friendly and more complete re-write of the Rule Book of nearly 100 pages. The most important rule change that the Legislature could pass this year is this complete re-write of the whole Rule Book.

I have served on the Rules Committee of the Nebraska Legislature ever since I first arrived back in 2017. I have never seen the rules become more convoluted than what they have been for the last couple of years. Last year we had 57 proposed rule changes presented to the Rules Committee. This year we toned it down to 34 proposed rule changes.

Last week the Legislature began the process of making rule changes. The Rules Committee held a very efficient public hearing on these 34 newly proposed rule changes, then the Rules Committee met in an executive session for five hours to deliberate over the proposed rule changes. The members of the Rules Committee engaged in a full, fair, and robust debate over the rules. We did not always agree, but the spirit in the room was always very congenial, cordial and to the point. I very much appreciated that the members of the Rules Committee could disagree without being disagreeable.

This year the Legislature will allow time up until the twelfth legislative day for deliberating over the rules. Back in 2017 the Legislature spent nearly 40 days debating rule changes, and that was inappropriate. This is why I wrote a separate rule for how to debate the rules. Nevertheless, the Rules Committee combined several rule changes and redacted others in order to present a package of rule changes that will make the legislative process more efficient.

The Legislature cannot duplicate what occurred in 2023. When I am out visiting with constituents, two subjects invariably come up. The first is usually taxes. The second is rule changes. It surprised me to learn how many people across our state watch the Legislature. The people of Nebraska sent their state senators to Lincoln to do the business of the state. That did not happen last year. While some may argue that the Legislature passed a lot of bills last year, that is not my concern. My goal is not to just pass legislation; my goal is to pass the kind of legislation that makes sense. Passing 31 bills through a Christmas tree bill with a single vote is not the right way to make laws.

The Legislature needs to learn how to work more efficiently. Introducing 850 bills in a single year and holding hearings on each bill is not the most efficient way of doing business. So, the day may be coming when state senators will be limited in the number of bills they introduce and not every bill necessarily deserves a public hearing. The bottom line, though, is that unless the Legislature can figure out how to become more efficient, we will continue to get what we have been getting.

Some people wonder why I am so interested in changing the rules during my final year in the Nebraska Legislature. The reason is the same as when I planted a tree at the age of 70. I may never get the chance to enjoy the shade from that tree, but my grandchildren will. Therefore, my intention is to leave the State Legislature in a better place than how I found it when I first arrived. That means that the rules should be changed such that state senators can disagree without becoming disagreeable, and that the majority can continue to rule while respecting the will of the minority.

The 2024 Legislative session has begun. Because the Unicameral Legislature operates in a two-year cycle, this will be the second session of the 108th Legislature. The session began on January 3 and will end on April 18. Since this is only a 60-day session, there will be less time for State Senators to get the business of the State done this year. Today I will share my priorities and goals for making this year’s legislative session a productive one.

I am the chair of the Legislature’s Rules Committee. Because of the chaos of last year’s session, some necessary rule changes need to be made at the beginning of this year’s session. I intend to leave the Legislature better off than the way I found it seven years ago. Because the Legislature’s Rule Book is not very user-friendly, first-year Senators often have a difficult time learning the rules. Therefore, one of the rule changes I have proposed constitutes a complete re-write and re-organization of the Rule Book; otherwise, I have proposed 11 other rules changes which are needed. Altogether State Senators have proposed a total of 34 rule changes.

While rule changes will have to represent my most immediate priority in the Legislature, my highest concern will continue to be for tax relief. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax bill that I introduced last year will carryover for 2024 and will continue to offer the best solution for our State’s broken tax system.

The time has come for Nebraska’s politicians to admit that we need the EPIC Option Consumption Tax. Last week Gov. Jim Pillen contradicted himself when he criticized the EPIC Option Consumption Tax, claiming that it would somehow hurt low-income families. Soon thereafter he announced his desire to raise the state sales tax by two percent, matching the EPIC Option Consumption Tax Rate of 7.5 percent. So, Gov. Pillen’s tax plan would retain the state income tax, the property tax, and the inheritance tax, whereas my plan would eliminate those taxes. Furthermore, Gov. Pillen’s plan would continue to tax used goods, which are important to low-income families, whereas the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would not. So, the EPIC Option Consumption Tax is far more friendly to low-income families than the Governor’s tax plan.

This year I will introduce several new bills. The first one is a detasseling bill. Nebraska is now the only state remaining which utilizes local teenagers for doing rogueing and detasseling work. Those jobs are being threatened by companies that only hire migrant workers. Because these jobs are important for introducing the youth of our state to agriculture, my bill will create transparency for holding seed companies accountable, who are already required by law to hire local workers first.

Another bill that I will introduce is a new school choice bill. This bill is an update to the My Student, My Choice Act that I introduced last year. This bill offers real school choice. The bill would fully fund public school students while providing about $8,000 for each student enrolled in a private school.

I may also introduce a bill to end C02 sequestration in our state. I was the only Senator who voted against LB 650 in 2021. Since that bill passed two years ago, State Senators have been learning about the dangers of pumping carbon dioxide through pipelines and storing it underground. It appears that CO2 travels most efficiently through pipelines with pressure set at 2,600 pounds per square inch (psi), but the pipelines which are designed for natural gas pump it with pressures that never exceed 1,200 psi. Pumping C02 through these pipelines could be very dangerous. Therefore, the Legislature needs to repeal the Nebraska Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide Act.

Finally, I plan to Introduce a bill to make the Nebraska State Historical Society a state agency. This is necessary due to the conflicts of interests that some of the board members have who oversee the organization as well as their need to be able to account for the state monies they receive.

State Senators have until January 17 to introduce new bills. Many of the concerns I have for our state are being addressed by other State Senators, so there is no need to duplicate their efforts. Issues such as election integrity, preventing the sale of Nebraska’s lands to foreign enemies, and enabling capital punishment are all issues that will get addressed this year. Overall, it is my sincere hope, plan, and desire to make this year’s session a very productive one.

The Biden administration continues to enforce failing policies concerning oil and gas which are now beginning to affect the State of Nebraska. The Biden administration’s war against global warming and its war against the use of oil and gas are both misguided and wrong. So, today I would like to explain why this is the case and how it is affecting our state.

President Biden likes to brag how oil production in the U.S. is the same today as it was under Trump. Well, that is not exactly true. At its height under Trump, the U.S. produced 13 million barrels of oil per day which is the same amount that was produced in July 2023, according to the latest U.S. data available. So, Biden is producing as much oil as Trump. However, according to a new study by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the Biden administration’s anti-energy policies of investing only with ESG companies, escalating business taxes, and new regulations on the oil and gas industry have resulted in an estimated loss of some 2 million barrels of oil per day compared to what it would have been under Trump. This loss in oil production results in an annual reduction in GDP of about $100 billion per year.

The situation gets worse. The anti-oil and gas drilling policies of the Biden administration are actually increasing pollution, not decreasing it. Under Trump, the U.S. had become energy independent. To the contrary, in 2022 under the Biden administration the U.S. imported 8.3 million barrels of oil per day from other countries. One million of those barrels came from the Persian Gulf. According to the Energy Information Administration, an oil tanker’s one-way trip from Saudi Arabia via the Suez Canal can take anywhere between 31-51 days and burn up to 2.5 million gallons of fuel. Burning that much dirty fuel is a major cause of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

The situation gets even worse. Making matters exponentially worse is the fact that Houthi militants in Yemen have now choked off the entrance to the Suez Canal. As a result, container ships and oil tankers are now being rerouted around the Horn of Africa and around the African continent through Cape Agulhas, making the trip to America significantly longer. Considering that a single container ship can emit four times more sulfer oxide than 50 million cars and in 2022 alone 214 cruise ships emitted four times more sulfur oxide than one billion cars, I believe we can safely conclude that the Biden administration’s anti-oil and gas policy has failed to achieve its desired goal of reducing pollution and greenhouse gases.

This kind of twisted thinking about global warming has now come to Nebraska. A research team from the University of Nebraska just received a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study methane gasses produced by cows. That’s right: cattle belching! The goal of the study is to discover new ways to reduce intestinal methane emissions from ruminant animals in an attempt to curb global warming, and it’s all part of the Biden administration’s 2021 pledge to reduce methane gas emissions.

This kind of study is both misguided as well as a waste of taxpayer monies. Cattle belching plays an insignificant role when it comes to methane gas emissions. When the global warming activists tell you that cattle belching is responsible for 14-18 percent of all methane gas emissions, what they are hiding is the fact that transportation costs are included in their calculations. Exhaust fumes from trucks and machinery, which account for 28 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are rolled into those numbers. So, cattle belching is not the real culprit.

When Frank Mitloehner, a professor of animal science at the University of California Davis, was asked about bovine belching, he admitted that cows were not the real culprit. Mitloehner said, “For those who say cows contribute the most greenhouse gas emissions, that’s simply not true.” Mitloehner went on to explain that the use of fossil fuels for transportation is a much bigger problem.

So, the bottom line is that researchers at UNL will soon be using your hard-earned tax dollars to study a problem that doesn’t really exist. It seems to me that UNL researchers need to figure out what the real issues are and what they should be working on. I can’t wait to see their recommendation on how we are supposed to prevent methane gas coming from cows. Happy New Year!

One of the words we often hear around Christmas time is the word ‘noel,’ which simply refers to the birth of Christ. One of the songs we sing at Christmas time is called The First Noel. That song tells the story of Christ’s birth and the events that followed it. The birth of Christ is the real reason why we celebrate Christmas.

The lyrics of the First Noel can teach us many things about giving this time of year. For example, the first ones to hear the good news of Christ’s birth were poor shepherds. Please understand that I am not the one calling these shepherds ‘poor’ nor am I making a blanket statement about all people who tend sheep for a living. I was the Sheep Superintendent for 25 years! Instead, the words “poor shepherds” are part of the lyrics of the song. Nevertheless, shepherding in biblical times was hardly a rich man’s job.

That these shepherds were poor is significant because it shows God’s care and concern for all human beings. Christmas is for everyone. Christmas is not about getting rich or flashing one’s wealth or spending a lot of money on gifts; instead, it is a time for recognizing the birth of Christ and including everyone we know in that celebration, especially those who may be less fortunate.

The song goes on to tell the story of the magi who came from the East to worship the Christ child. These men came with great wealth, but the kind of gifts they gave to the baby Jesus may seem a bit odd at first until you understand their true meaning. These three gifts were personalized for who Jesus really was. They gave him gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold is a gift fit for a king; frankincense was something only a priest could use, and myrrh was a burial ointment. So, the magi worshiped the baby Jesus by honoring him as a king, as a priest, and as the Savior of the world who would have to die as an atoning sacrifice for sins.

Like the magi, Christmas is about giving, and personalized gifts are always much more meaningful than extravagance and expense alone. Finding that perfect gift for someone you love can be a challenge, but once you find it, it communicates an intimate kind of love which money alone cannot buy. Giving a personalized gift values the person receiving it for who they really are. God has created each one of us so uniquely that even identical twins, who share the same DNA, have their own identity, their own personality, and their own tastes for what they like and dislike.

Finally, I would like to remind you that every good gift ultimately comes from above. God took the initiative at the first Christmas to send us the man who would become the Savior of the world. So, as we enjoy the spoils of Christmas this year, let us not forget the One who has blessed us, and may we always remember why Christ had to be born. I truly wish for you and your family to have a merry Christmas this year!

“Wow!” “Amazing!” “Unbelievable!” These are the kinds of expressions that come to my mind whenever I hear about the current efforts to defeat the petition drive to put the EPIC Option Consumption Tax on the ballot for 2024. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax is the fix for our broken tax system, and those who oppose putting it on the ballot are undermining the right of the citizens to make that choice for themselves.

Two years ago, I was visited by a couple of nationally acclaimed economists. The names of those two economists were Art Laffer and Steven Moore. They came to my office in Lincoln in order to get a complete understanding of my idea for a consumption tax. After analyzing the proposal, both men said they were one hundred percent behind what I was trying to do.

Art Laffer especially warned me that there would be overwhelming opposition to my consumption tax proposal. He told me that the opposition would come primarily from those who currently collect and spend Nebraska’s tax dollars as well as those who prefer a tax system where government entities can pick winners and losers. He also said that all of the unions would oppose the idea. Laffer was right!

The list of those organizations who now openly oppose the EPIC Option Consumption Tax perfectly matches what Laffer predicted two years ago. Laffer knew that these organizations would oppose the idea of a consumption tax because they are the same kinds of organizations who opposed him during the 1970’s when he put Proposition 13 on the ballot in California. Proposition 13 capped California’s property tax at one percent, but it did not eliminate their property tax altogether. Because the EPIC Option Consumption Tax eliminates four taxes, he predicted that the opposition would be overwhelming, and he was right.

The list of organizations opposing the EPIC Option Consumption Tax creates the most peculiar pairing of alliances I have ever seen in Nebraska politics. Last week a reporter told me that I had done something never seen before. So, I asked him what that was? He responded by saying that I have brought together the liberal, progressive think tank known as the Open Sky Institute in partnership with the conservative think tank known as the Platte Institute, and the rural farm organizations, such as the Farm Bureau, are now working in tandem with the urban organizations, such as the League of Municipalities, and the Nebraska Realtors Association is now aligning on the same side with those government subdivisions who have the authority to raise property tax levies.

No matter the organization, what all of these organizations who oppose the EPIC Option Consumption Tax have in common is that they are misinformed about it. What has become clearly evident to me is that these organizations have never read the bill, they have never paid for or done their own dynamic study of it, and they have never contacted me or anyone else on our team to get their questions answered.

Truth does not matter to these organizations. Instead of investigating the truth, they continue to spread information from a bogus study done by the Open Sky Institute three years ago on a completely different bill which said that a consumption tax in Nebraska would require a rate of 15 to 22 percent, or perhaps they perform their own fallacious calculations on the back of a napkin. The truth of the matter is that the only objective, dynamic study ever done on the EPIC Option Consumption Tax is the one released in February of this year by the Beacon Hill Institute, and that study said that the rate could be as low as 7.23 percent and still supply the State of Nebraska will all of its revenue needs.

So, let me close with some good news. The petition drive to put the EPIC Option Consumption Tax on the ballot for 2024 is gaining more and more momentum every day. Not only is this apparent by the organizations who oppose it, but it is also evident by the progress our team is making. We have hired a professional circulating group called Trailblazing Canvassers to help us collect the required number of signatures. In addition, we have more than 160 volunteers who are collecting signatures statewide.

The main group that our opponents have overlooked is You – the taxpayer. Many of you have signed the petition and have donated money to the petition drive. The Independent Cattlemen of Nebraska and those behind the Convention of the States movement have been essential to this effort. I have not forgotten Nebraska’s taxpayers and I will continue to pursue tax relief until we make Nebraska the most tax friendly state in America.

The COVID-19 pandemic is over. It has been over for quite some time, and now we are beginning to see what kind of damage some of our bad government decisions have done to our economy, to our society, and to our workforce. The government shutdowns that occurred during the days of the pandemic have done more to harm the United States of America than any other emergency situation since 9/11 some 22 years ago. Historians will likely remember the COVID-19 pandemic as the most important and significant catastrophic economic event of the first half of the 21st Century.

Gov. Jim Pillen has now been placed in the very awkward position of having to deal with the aftermath of these poor government policies of which he never played a part. Gov. Pillen now has to put the pieces of a puzzle back together that he never took apart. So, on November 11 Gov. Pillen began the process by making the hard decision to issue an executive order calling all state employees back to the office by January 2. So, no more working from home.

Without skipping a heart beat the state employee’s union rode in like the cavalry to save the day for all of the state employees and made an immediate demand for negotiations. Soon after Gov. Pillen made his executive order, a press release went out by the Nebraska Association of Public Employees (NAPE), appealing to their contract with the State. NAPE demanded that any “changes in working terms and conditions are mandatory subjects for bargaining and cannot be imposed without first negotiating with the union.” Unions always know what’s best, right?

Many Nebraska state employees don’t realize how good they have it. In January of this year NAPE negotiated the highest pay increase for state employees in 35 years. In addition to their good rate of pay, state employees all get 13 paid holidays every year plus vacation time. They also get superior medical, dental and retirement benefits. They travel in state vehicles, never pay for their own gas when traveling for the state, and get to stay in high end motels on the state’s dime.

Certain problems naturally arise whenever state employees are allowed to work from home. When state offices are not being manned, others suddenly find that they cannot readily get the information, the documents, or the services they need to effectively do their job. One elected official I know needed information for an important decision that needed to be made but couldn’t get it in time because the state employee was working from home.

Certain temptations also creep up when state employees are allowed to work from home. One such temptation is to moonlight on the job. Nobody who draws a paycheck from the state should be working a second job during regular business hours. Another person I know purchased merchandise through an online marketplace, but when he went to pick it up, he discovered that the person selling the item was a state employee working from home.

Many of the arguments I’ve heard in support of working from home don’t make much sense to me. One such argument has to do with the lack of available office space. Try telling that to the residents of Sidney, where the old Cabela’s office complex continues to sit empty year after year. There is no good reason why state agencies, such as the Game & Parks Commission, should have to continue working in Lincoln, which is far away from where their problems lie. Nebraska has plenty of office space.

Some argue that they would have to make certain adjustments in order to return to the office, such as paying for daycare or buying a car so they can commute to work. These are commonplace problems that most people in the workforce have to deal with. There is nothing new or unique about these kinds of problems. In the long run the State may find that it can get more done with fewer people.

Have you heard about the new contract extension for the University of Nebraska’s Athletic Director? If you haven’t, you might get a little overwhelmed by the numbers. I was surprised by the tremendous increase in salary plus the guarantee of future bonuses.

Trev Alberts is a former UNL football player who now serves as the Athletic Director at UNL. According to his new contract extension, his annual base salary will go up from $800,000 to $1.7 million, and it will increase again to $2.1 million in 2026, according to a news release from the University of Nebraska system.

Alberts will be paid a $500,000 retention bonus if he stays through September 2025, with an annual $300,000 retention bonus every following year thereafter, if he stays. Then, he will receive an additional $3 million bonus if he completes his entire eight-year contract. The agreement is aimed at keeping Alberts at UNL through 2031. If Alberts completes the contract, he will receive a total of $5.3 million In retention bonusses, $3 million for staying until 2031, and $16 million if his salary doesn’t increase above the $2.1 million in 2026. So, he is guaranteed to receive a minimum of $24.3 million.

This contract extension was agreed to at a time when UNL is making some very serious budget cuts. The University of Nebraska system is currently facing a $58 million shortfall by the year 2025. So, last week UNL announced that the school will be eliminating 50 staff positions, closing all of the open faculty positions, and reducing funding for graduate and student workers due to that school’s $12 million budget shortfall.

Similar cuts have been scheduled to take place at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. UNK will downsize their faculty by 24.5 positions, and eliminate nine degree programs, including theater, recreation management, and geography, in order to make up for that school’s $4.3 million deficit. Similar cuts may soon be coming for UNO and the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

Funding for the athletic department runs separately from funding for the academic programs at the University of Nebraska system. I do not need to be reminded of that fact. However, it is my understanding that the athletic department has been transferring up to $10 million annually to the university’s general fund. Contract extensions like this one could cut into that money or eliminate it altogether.

Contract extensions like the one given to Trev Alberts could become a problem going forward. I find it interesting that this contract was negotiated and put into place by President Ted Carter, who will be leaving soon for the Ohio State University. While he negotiated this exorbitant contract extension, he will not be sticking around to pay for it.

I remember a time many years ago when head football coach, Tom Osborne, was offered a pay raise. Coach Osborne refused the raise. He declined it because he said the expectation of that kind of a contract would send a wrong message about what the University of Nebraska system stands for and what it values. So, the question now needs to be asked: What message does this kind of a contract extension send to the students and families who may have to pay higher tuition or who may have to travel out of state to attend another college or university that offers a degree program for their major.

I serve on the Appropriations Committee of the State Legislature and I will keep these kinds of questions and concerns in mind when the University of Nebraska comes before our committee asking for more money.

It may seem to you like America has lost its way. The pilgrims must have had similar thoughts (but in a much more literal way) when they had to lower the sails on the Mayflower and go adrift at sea for a while. Despite all of their hardships, though, the pilgrims eventually reached Cape Cod and returned thanks to God for bringing them to a whole new world.

Hardship and tribulation can easily cause us to adopt a negative attitude towards life. So, during times of hardship I am often reminded of the old church hymn, “Count Your Many Blessings.” The first stanza of that hymn says, “When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed, When you are discouraged thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings, Name them one by one.“

What many people don’t know about this hymn is that it was composed by a clergyman named Johnson Oatman Jr. in 1897. Rev. Oatman was a struggling preacher from New Jersey who never secured a full-time position in the ministry and he often questioned God’s calling upon his life. However, at the late age of 36 he discovered his talent for hymn writing and he composed more than 500 hymns thereafter. Of course, his most famous hymn was “Count Your Many Blessings.”

According to Rev. Oatman, the practice of counting our many blessings leads us to be surprised by “what the Lord hath done.” Indeed, we often fail to acknowledge many of our true blessings. Sometimes, though, we never even get to see them, and such was the case for Rev. Oatman. Rev. Oatman did not live long enough to see the full impact of his hymn writing ability. Today the legacy of Rev. Oatman lives on through the many hymns that he wrote. These hymns continue to minister and bless thousands of Christians worldwide. Rev. Oatman died in 1922 in Norman, Oklahoma, but “Count Your Many Blessings” continues to be a favorite hymn sung in churches all across America, especially at Thanksgiving time.

William Bradford was the leader of the pilgrims, who would later become the Governor of the Plymouth Colony. On November 9, 1620 the crew of the Mayflower sighted land at Cape Cod and finally came to shore. The joy of that moment overwhelmed the pilgrims, causing William Bradford to record it for their posterity. Bradford wrote: “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof.”

I share these things with you today in order to encourage you to count your many blessings this year at Thanksgiving time. While we make it a point to return thanks every year at Thanksgiving time, thanksgiving is really something that should be done each and every day. Thankful people tend to have a much better outlook on life. They are happier and more content. Therefore, I would like to wish for you and your family to have a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving this year.

Rising home values continue to create problems for people living in our state. While Nebraska’s statewide valuation rate increase of 12.9 percent for the last 12 months is significantly less than the national average of 20.7 percent, the current situation is still not good for people living in Nebraska. So, today I would like to highlight some of the problems affecting those looking to purchase a home in Nebraska.

Homeowners have been defaulting on their mortgage loans at an alarming rate in Nebraska. Bank and real estate data from 2022 show that foreclosures went up 132 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. This year distressed homes have increased 178.1 percent from the previous year. The primary reasons for this are rising home values coupled with low income. According to a new report by CBS News most Nebraskans now need an annual income of $83,185 in order to afford a home. Consequently, more and more Nebraskans are finding it difficult to pay their monthly mortgage payments.

Premiums for home insurance policies have gone up sharply. According to Policygenius, the national average of home insurance increased 21 percent from May 2022 to May 2023. As a result, some homeowners are choosing to raise their deductible in order to get a more favorable rate. This puts banks in a bind and makes mortgage lending riskier and more difficult to obtain for homebuyers.

Young families that are just starting out are now finding out how difficult it is to become first-time homebuyers. One reason is that interest rates have skyrocketed. Mortgage interest rates reached their lowest level in January 2021. Back then a 30-year mortgage interest rate could be locked-in at 2.65 percent. Today that rate is 7.37 percent. What this means is that someone buying a $200,000 home with a good job and a FICO score of 740 or more plus a 25 percent down payment could secure a rate of 7.37 percent. Most first-time homebuyers will get stuck with a higher rate. But, even at a rate of 7.37 percent, a family purchasing a $200,000 home would find themselves paying $1,381 per month in mortgage payments and that is more than what many families can afford to pay in Nebraska.

Nebraskans increasingly find themselves stuck in their own homes. Nebraska continues to have low home values compared to the rest of the United States. The median home value in Nebraska is currently $237,840, but in Western Nebraska homes are much cheaper. The median listing price for homes in Scottsbluff is currently 190,000. When you consider that the national home sales average is $431,000, it means that those wishing to make a lateral move to another state where taxes are lower means that they will find themselves having to settle for a significantly smaller sized home, and who wants to do that?

Nebraska’s cost of living index also affects home sales in our state. Nebraska’s cost of living index is the seventh lowest in the nation, which is currently set at 90.10. However, three of Nebraska’s border states have even lower cost of living index rates. Iowa’s is 89.70, Missouri’s is 88.40, and Kansas’s is 87.70. Colorado is the only border state with a significantly higher cost of living rate at 105.50. So, anyone looking to move to the Midwest would be wise to consider moving to Iowa, Kansas or Missouri before Nebraska.

Rising home values usually means higher property taxes. Even when local units of government lower their tax levies, property taxes often still go up. Here’s why. Unless the tax levy becomes less than the increase in your property valuation, a homeowner will get a property tax increase rather than a property tax decrease. Rising property taxes are making it more difficult for families to stay in their homes.

The current state of Nebraska’s housing market means that government officials have a lot of work to do in order to improve housing conditions in our state. The best thing that lawmakers can do is pass the EPIC Option Consumption Tax. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax would eliminate property taxes altogether, allow homeowners to actually own their own homes instead of renting them from the government, and it would make Nebraska the most attractive state in America to move to and live in.

The word “veteran” is a fancy way of saying, “Once a soldier, always a soldier.” Such is the case with a select group of veterans today whose previous deployment and military service overseas put them in contact with important connections in Israel, Palestine and Egypt. Even as we honor our veterans this year on November 11, there are some who continue to serve our country by putting their lives on the line. So, today I would like to highlight these veterans and tell you about the work they are doing to save the lives of Americans in the Middle East.

Today there are two active crews of veterans which are working to get Americans out of Israel and the Gaza Strip. These veterans work for two separate organizations, the “Special Operations Association of America” and another organization called “Save our Allies”. Together these two veteran organizations have sent roughly two dozen people, all former military personnel, into Egypt, Israel and Palestine and charged them with the task of aiding relief efforts and evacuating American citizens out of the war-torn areas.

Each veteran volunteer was specially chosen for the assignment based upon his or her previous military experience working with Egyptians, Israelis and Palestinians. The primary task of these experienced veterans is to shepherd American citizens trapped in the war zones by helping them get on planes to Cyprus which have been chartered by the U.S. State Department; however, their work goes much deeper and gets a lot more complicated than this.

Some of these veterans are on the ground inside the Gaza Strip. At least five of these veterans are women who have moved throughout the Gaza Strip at least five times since the initial attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7. One of the things that complicates their mission is that they seldom ever have cell-phone service in the Gaza Strip and on those rare occasions when they do have cell-phone service, it can take several hours just to send a simple text message. So, they are very much left on their own to find these American citizens and escort them to safety.

Some of these veterans also help in relief efforts to the Palestinians. One of their assignments is to report the whereabouts of aid workers to the U.S. State Department and to the Israeli military in order to avoid strikes in their area. They also help provide food and medical supplies to the Palestinian people.

These veteran organizations are able to stealthily act and fill a gap and perform duties that the American military cannot accommodate. Currently, the policy of the Biden Administration has been not to put American boots on the ground inside the Gaza Strip. Because these veterans are no longer considered active military personnel, they can provide services that the American military cannot provide.

I share this information with you today to help you appreciate the mindset that our veterans share about serving our country. Their level of dedication, devotion and service to our country is unmatched around the world. Again, a veteran is really just a fancy way of saying, “Once a soldier, always a soldier.” Remember to thank a veteran for your freedom.