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.

I have a deep appreciation for our men in blue. Those who wear the uniform put their lives on the line every day in order to uphold law and order, peace and tranquility, and safety and security for all of the citizens of our great state. However, a lot has happened recently regarding our law enforcement officers, so today I would like to highlight three ways we can support our law enforcement officers.

The first way we can support our law enforcement officers is to thank them for their service. Police officers risk their lives and their health every time they go to work. For example, on October 17th a man from Chicago boarded a city bus in Lincoln without paying the bus fare. When police responded to the incident, they asked the man to get off the bus. The man refused and a scuffle broke out in the back of the bus. The man pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers in the neck. Then the man reached for the officer’s gun, prompting the officer to shoot the man, sending both of them to the hospital. I share this story with you in order to magnify the risk that police officers take every day. No police officer should ever have to face getting stabbed in the neck and hospitalized over a $1.25 bus fare. So, remember to thank them for their service to the community.

The second way I believe we can support our men in blue is to pray for them. Besides praying for their safety, we should also pray for their integrity. Because local police officers, county sheriffs and the state patrol represent the front lines for upholding our laws, they are often put in situations that invite them to compromise their integrity. Such was the case with the Wahoo Police Chief, Bruce M. Ferrell, who abruptly resigned from his position on November 11, 2021 after his own body camera captured him having sex with another woman while on duty. Here in Western Nebraska, the Scottsbluff police captain, Brian Wasson, remains under investigation for a personnel matter. Nevertheless, both men will likely be faced with the harsh reality of losing their law enforcement certifications.

The third way we can support our officers is to help them do their job in appropriate ways. Law enforcement officers often depend upon the public to be their eyes and ears in the field. So, whenever someone sees suspicious activity, it should be reported. Such was the case recently in North Platte after four juveniles escaped from the Greater Nebraska Youth Center. The youths were safely apprehended and returned to the youth detention facility because a local resident tipped off local police concerning their location. Police especially need the public’s help when it comes to fighting crimes such as human trafficking and child abductions.

I hope that these stories move you to have a greater appreciation for the work that our law enforcement officers do each and every day. Because we live in an era where many have been calling for the defunding of our police departments, demonstrating against police brutality, and calling for lighter sentencing for lawbreakers, we need to remember that no society can exist for very long without the enforcement of civility in our streets.

I have long tried to warn the public about the politicization of COVID-19, especially in regards to preventative measures. Now a new study by the Correlation Research in the Public Interest links COVID-19 vaccinations to some 17 million deaths worldwide. The new study examined 17 equatorial and Southern Hemisphere countries including Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Malaysia, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru, The Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Suriname, Thailand, and Uruguay. Altogether the study examined 9.1 percent of the world’s population and 10.3 percent of the world’s population receiving the COVID-19 shots.

The study concluded that there was no measurable benefit associated with getting a COVID-19 vaccination. According to the study, “In the 17 countries, there is no evidence in all-cause mortality (ACM) by time data of any beneficial effect of COVID-19 vaccines,” and again, “There is no association in time between COVID-19 vaccination and any proportionate reduction in ACM. The opposite occurs.” In other words, the study concluded that there were no benefits from getting a COVID-19 shot.

By way of clarification, it should be pointed out that most COVID-19 vaccinations are not traditional vaccines. COVID-19 shots that are based on mRNA technology, such as the ones produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are DNA therapies, but not traditional vaccines. mRNA shots contain genetic material which instructs the muscles in the body to make certain proteins which resemble those on the surface of the SARS-CO-V2 viruses. Those proteins then cause the body to make antibodies to fight the SARS-CO-V2 virus. By way of comparison, traditional vaccines never use genetic material; instead, they release either live or dead virus cells into the body, depending upon the disease, and trick the body into making the correct antibodies to fight the disease.

mRNA technologies have advanced to such a level that mRNA shots can now be developed much more quickly and can be mass produced much faster than traditional vaccines. So, when the COVID-19 virus reached American soil there was suddenly a high demand for vaccinations, regardless of the kind or the effectiveness of the vaccine. Now we know that the vaccines made with mRNA technology have especially proven themselves to be worthless and do more harm than good.

The Correlation Research in the Public Interest is a non-profit organization located in Ottawa, Canada. Their study was released on September 17th and is titled, “COVID-19 Vaccine-Associated Mortality in the Southern Hemisphere.” The study can be found and downloaded on the organization’s website: www.correlation-canada.org. Their research measured the various side effects associated with the vaccines, including such things as sudden heart failure among young people. The study concluded that the vaccines caused a “mass iatrogenic event” that killed some 17 million people worldwide or one death per every 470 living persons in less than three years. The word ‘iatrogenic’ refers to any kind of medical procedure which causes a harmful complication or an ill effect on a person. In other words, the study found that the vaccines actually did more harm than good.

I share this information with you today in order to help you understand how the medical and pharmaceutical industries in America have become politicized. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have received millions of dollars from the federal government for fast-tracking and administering harmful shots that many Americans wrongfully believed were effective vaccines. Meanwhile the medical industry ignored the use of already known, verified and fully-tested therapeutic drugs to treat the symptoms of the coronavirus disease, such as ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and budesonide inhalers, all of which could have saved countless numbers of American lives. In the early days of the coronavirus disease, I wrote about these therapeutic drugs and I recommended their use.

One of the questions I get asked a lot about these days concerns how the Legislature plans on changing the rules for next session. The Unicameral Legislature is a self-governing body, and I am the current chair of the Legislature’s Rules Committee. That means that any proposed rule changes for next year have to go through me first. So, it is natural that people would want to ask me about rule changes for next year.

What sparks this question by so many people today relates to what happened in the Unicameral Legislature earlier this year. Two bills came up in the Legislature which provoked the ire of Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, causing her to filibuster every piece of legislation. The first bill was LB 626, otherwise known as the heartbeat bill. This bill in its original form would have prohibited abortions after the sixth week of gestation, except that the bill failed by only one vote. The other bill was LB 574, otherwise known as the “Let Them Grow Act”. This bill prohibits physicians from administering gender altering procedures on youths under the age of 19. After LB 626 failed, a twelve-week version of the bill was amended into LB 574 and both bills narrowly passed in the Legislature despite Sen. Cavanaugh’s endless filibustering.

Sen. Cavanaugh’s endless filibustering of all legislation is what has prompted interest in changing the rules for next year. Currently, the Legislature’s rules allow for a single state senator to slow down the legislative process such that very little can get done. To counteract this tactic, other state senators began amending their bills into other bills, creating omnibus bills or what are more commonly referred to as Christmas tree bills. With a Christmas tree bill, 30 bills can be passed all at once. Christmas tree bills are not a good way of passing legislation because state senators often end up voting for bad bills in order to get their own bills passed into law. It is much better when bills are voted on separately and considered on the basis of their own merits.

Many state senators ended the legislative session this year feeling very frustrated about the rules. It should never be the case in a democratic Legislature that the will of the minority, or even the will of a single state senator, should prevail over the will of the majority. Democracy implies that the will of the majority should prevail. Unfortunately, small, incremental rule changes over the years have allowed for this kind of single-senator dominance and have led up to the current crisis over the rules.

In order to fix this current crisis over the rules, some major rule changes will be needed for the next session. Major rule changes will be needed because Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh has already threatened to shut down the Legislature again next session due to a carry-over bill that is already pending in the State Legislature. Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha has already promised to make LB 575 her priority bill for next year. LB 575 is also known as the Sports and Spaces Act. This bill would prevent biological boys from participating in girls’ sports in K-12 schools, and it would prevent biological boys from using girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. So, unless some important changes are made in the rules, Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh is expected to slow the Unicameral Legislature down to a snail’s pace again next session.

During the interim period I have been exploring possible rule changes. Nothing has been finalized. Any proposed rule changes for next session must also be voted on and approved by the other members of the Rules Committee. Once the Rules Committee passes a set of proposed rule changes, the other members of the Legislature will then have the opportunity to debate those rule changes and vote on them from the floor of the Norris Chamber before they ever go into effect. When the time becomes appropriate, I will share how the Rules Committee intends to change the rules for next year.

Some folks have expressed concern about fighting culture wars in the State Legislature while neglecting the other business of the State. For many Nebraskans, issues such as property tax relief are more important than fighting the culture wars. The answer is not to withdraw controversial bills related to our state’s culture wars. Those debates are worth having; instead, the rules of the Legislature need to be changed in order to allow for robust debate over controversial topics without neglecting the other interests of the State, and that will be my goal going forward as the chairman of the Legislature’s Rules Committee.

Monday, October 9th is Columbus Day. It is also Indigenous Peoples Day here in Nebraska. Christopher Columbus was a man of incredible integrity, but revisionists have targeted him in their attempts to rewrite the history of Western civilization with false narratives. Too many people today erroneously believe that Christopher Columbus was a bad person. So, today I would like to expose the revisionism and help restore the good name of Christopher Columbus.

On October 9, 2017 Vincent Schilling published a revisionist article in Indian Country entitled, “Eight Myths and Atrocities about Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day.” Not only was Schilling wrong in each of his eight attempts to correct the historical record about Columbus, but he was downright deceitful in how he went about it. For example, Schilling cited as one of his eight myths the idea that Columbus discovered America. According to Schilling, Columbus never discovered America. However, what Schilling meant by “America” was the upper 48 states of the USA, not Central or South America. The fact of the matter is that Christopher Columbus explored much of what today is considered Central and South America during his third and fourth voyages. Nobody teaches that Columbus ever explored the “upper 48” of the USA, so to suggest that this is somehow a myth in need of correction is deceitful.

Schilling claimed in his article that Columbus enslaved some of the native peoples of the land for gold. Schilling suggests that after Columbus failed to find gold, he intended to deport hundreds of natives to Spain in order to sell them as slaves. Schilling’s claim is unsubstantiated and ignores evidence to the contrary.

The fact of the matter is that Columbus considered slavery abhorrent to his mission. For instance, on January 10, 1493 one of his own men named Pinzon took four native men and two women by force. In response, Columbus ordered their release back to dry land and said, “This…is a service of your Highnesses. For all the men and women are subjects of your Highnesses, as well as on this island and others. Here where your Highnesses already have a settlement, the people ought to be treated with honor and favor…,” The Voyages of Columbus and John Cabot; 1906; p. 219.

Schilling went so far in his article as to accuse Columbus and his men of using native peoples as dog food and dashing the heads of native babies, but neither Columbus nor any of his men ever did any such thing. Instead, Shilling confused Columbus with the Spanish settlers who came after him because of a report about these atrocities which was made by Bartolome de Las Casas about the Spanish conquistadors.

What the Critical Race Theory revisionists don’t want you to know is why Columbus ever set sail in the first place. In 1492 Columbus described the purpose of his westward journey to the Orient in his journal. Columbus wrote that the purpose of his journey to the Orient was “…for their conversion to our Holy Faith.” Columbus set sail because he wanted to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the East.

I share these things with you today in order to show you that there are deliberate attempts to rewrite the history of Western civilization. While atrocities have certainly occurred in Western civilization, it is wrong to destroy the character of a good man like Christopher Columbus. Today, it has become popular to tear down the statues of good men like Columbus without knowing the true history of what these men did.

One of the complaints that I often here about the EPIC Option Consumption Tax has to do with the loss of local control. For example, the League of Municipalities held an informational meeting last week, where they complained about how the EPIC Option Consumption Tax eliminates local control. This was a false assumption. The EPIC Option Consumption Tax does not eliminate local control.

The pink postcards we all received recently in the mail were the result of a bill that passed in the Legislature called, “The Truth in Taxation Act.” In short, it means that it is true that your taxes will go up! The pink postcards are supposed to inform the people about a public hearing, but for many Nebraskans, the pink postcards arrived after the date of the public hearing. That was the case for me with one of my own properties. The hearing was scheduled for September 19 and I received the pink postcard on September 27.

Pink postcards need to be mailed out earlier. When pink postcards are mailed out in September, it is too late for local units of government to hear from the people. Budgets have already been passed, and hearings are treated as a mere formality. Instead, the people need to become part of the budgeting process and that can only happen when local units of government hear from the people before they pass their budgets. Therefore, the pink postcards need to be mailed out ahead of time and hearings need to take place while the budget is being crafted.

Property taxes seldom ever go down. There have been a few rare occasions when a local unit of government actually requested fewer tax dollars than they did the prior year, but that is a very rare exception to the rule.

Lobbyist organizations and farm groups like to dupe the public into believing they are getting property tax relief when they are not. For example, Southeast Community College (SCC) tried to raise their mill levy this year to the maximum amount allowable by law. They did this on top of the 15 percent increase in valuations on everyone’s property. My property taxes to SCC increased 29.5 percent! After a public hearing was held where more than 200 taxpayers complained, the SCC board decided not to raise the mill levy. Afterwards, several lobbyist organizations and a farm group praised SCC for keeping their mill levy the same. But what these groups failed to realize is that keeping the mill levy the same merely amounts to a decrease in the amount of everyone’s tax increase. In other words, the 15 percent increase everyone received on the valuation of their property means that everyone’s property taxes will go up despite the fact that SCC kept the mill levy the same.

Every pink postcard that was sent out was mailed by a local unit of government with local taxing authority. Not one state agency mailed a pink postcard. Why do people continue to believe that local control is the solution to their tax problems? Insanity is continuing to do what you’ve always done and expect different results. So, now I must ask, how is that local control working out for you?

Whenever you hear the phrase property tax relief that is almost always code for a decrease in the amount of your tax increase. I recently met with a County Commissioner in eastern Nebraska, who was boasting about how his county did not raise their mill levy. I asked if the county’s valuations had gone up? His answer was that they went up four percent. I then suggested that he raised taxes by four percent. He responded, “No we kept the mill levy the same.” So, I explained to him that people don’t pay their taxes in levies; they pay them in dollars. Because everyone’s overall property tax burden will go up, he effectively raised taxes on everyone in the county by keeping the mill levy the same.

One of the biggest problems facing states today is empire building. Empire building is the mentality of
growing governmental entities without regard for the best interests of the community or the interests of
private taxpaying citizens. Many managers of governmental entities and directors of state agencies view
their mission in terms of expanding the reach of their organization, and that is not good when it hurts
the community or affects the standard of living of their constituency. So, today I would like to expose
the latest example of this kind of empire building that is affecting folks living in Western Nebraska.

The Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District (CNPPID) is a political subdivision of the State
of Nebraska which was created for the purpose of developing the state’s irrigation and electrical power
needs for those living in south-central Nebraska. However, they are also committed to building and
expanding their own empire. This is clearly evident through their own vision statement which reads in
part, “…by becoming a national and worldwide leader in the area of integrated water resource
management.” Missing from their mission and vision statements is any kind of commitment to fiscal
responsibility or frugality for the taxpayers.

Recently CNPPID purchased approximately 1,050 acres of land on the south side of Lake McConaughy in
Keith County for the purpose of shoreline erosion control. Purchasing this land by a political sub-division
of the State means that the property will soon be taken off of the tax rolls. Whenever properties are
taken off the tax rolls, it means that private landowners will have to make up the difference in lost tax
revenue. In other words, those living near Lake McConaughy will soon see their property taxes go up
even more. This is a problem because over the past seven years, I have received more phone calls
concerning out of control property taxes from folks living at or near Lake McConaughy than anywhere
else in Western Nebraska.

When asked why they purchased the land, CNPPID said it was for erosion control. CNPPID did not need
to purchase this land. CNPPID had already been given the rights to perform erosion control measures
along the shores of Lake McConaughy. They have had these rights ever since the reservoir was built,
and they have neglected erosion control ever since. So, citing erosion control is a bogus reason for
purchasing this land.

CNPPID purchased too much land. The land that CNPPID purchased may extend as far as one mile from
the shoreline of Lake McConnaughy. If erosion control was, indeed, the real reason for purchasing this
land, then CNPPID could have accomplished their stated goal of erosion control by negotiating with the
developer to purchase enough land along the shoreline for their erosion control measures. Had they
done this, some 900 acres could have remained for development.

When I spoke with CNPPID they suggested that they might sell the unused land. When was the last time
CNPPID ever sold land to a private owner? When I asked who would make the decision to sell the land,
the response I received was that the decision would have to be made by the board of directors. So I
suggested that the board of directors sell the unused land.

It is my understanding that CNPPID hired a third-party agent to bid on the land on their behalf. Had
CNPPID not outbid a private owner, the land could have been developed for private use, enhancing the
economy of Keith County. Instead, CNPPID bought the land for $5 million and will take the land off the
tax rolls. Part of the solution to solving these kinds of problems is the EPIC Option Consumption Tax,
which would eliminate property taxes altogether. If you have not already done so, please visit our
website at www.epicoption.org.

A pirate does three things with his treasure: He seeks more of it, he buries it for safe-keeping, and he fights off scallywags who are trying to steal it from him. Interestingly, these three jobs of a pirate describe events that happened last week. So, today I am going to tell you where America’s new treasure can be found, who is safe-guarding Nebraska’s treasure, and who is trying to steal your treasure and how you can prevent it.

On January 24, 1848 James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter’s Mill along the American River near Coloma, California. What followed was the California Gold Rush of 1849. While gold is still considered a precious metal and is still highly valued, the new gold of the 21st Century is lithium. Lithium is used to make batteries and as governments around the world continue to press for more green energy, the value of lithium continues to rise.

The old adage of “Go West, young man” has suddenly become true in America once again. Australia, Chile, and China have historically been the world’s top three leading producers of lithium, but all that is about to change because of the American West. Geologists have discovered an ancient super-volcano along the Nevada-Oregon border which they now believe contains the world’s largest single deposit of lithium. Researchers from Lithium Americas Corporation, GNS Science, and Oregon State University published their findings on August 31 in the Journal for Science Advances. That report found that the McDermitt Caldera, measuring 28 miles long and 22 miles wide, contains some 20 to 40 million metric tons of lithium worth an estimated $1.5 trillion. When mining begins in 2026, the USA will suddenly become the world’s leading producer of lithium.

Although states don’t bury their treasure, the person safe-guarding it matters. Nebraska now has a new State Treasurer. Gov. Jim Pillen announced last Thursday that he has appointed the State Senator representing Legislative District 41, Tom Briese of Albion, as Nebraska’s new State Treasurer. Sen. Briese is an excellent pick for this job. During his tenure in the Nebraska State Legislature, Sen. Briese proved himself to be a champion for property tax relief and tax policy reform. Appointing a strong fiscal conservative to this position was a good move by Governor Pillen; however, Sen. Briese’s boots will be hard to fill in the Legislature.

Sen. Briese has been the Chair of the Legislature’s Executive Board and has also held a seat on the Revenue Committee. The Executive Board supervises the Legislature and members of the Executive Board form the Reference Committee, which decides which committee bills get assigned to. Consequently, presiding over the Executive Board is viewed as a very prestigious and coveted position by many in the Legislature. The current vice chair, Sen. Raymond Aguilar of Grand Island, will take over operations of the Executive Board during the interim, but a replacement for Sen. Briese and a new chair will have to be voted on during the opening days of the legislative session next year. Sen. Briese will also have to be replaced on the Revenue Committee. Finally, Gov. Pillen will have to appoint a new State Senator to represent the people of Legislative District 41.

Finally, the scallywags of the 21st Century are today’s online scammers. Online scammers try to trick innocent and unsuspecting people into giving them money. Last week Nebraska’s Attorney General, Mike Hilgers, filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Nfluence and Kenneth Jason McCants of Memphis for scamming the public through fraudulent online ticket sales. More than 50 people paid $1,000 each for the promise of two luxury suite tickets, access to a Husker and social media validation by a former player as a fundraiser for charity, except that the monies raised never went to charity.

To guard against this kind of online theft, Nebraska’s Attorney General is asking the public to do three things when buying tickets online. First, Hilgers is advising Nebraskans to only buy tickets from reputable and verifiable online retailers and to avoid unsolicited offers to buy or sell tickets. Second, Hilgers is advising against the use of social media or third-party apps for paying for tickets; instead, Hilgers is advising members of the public to use a credit card when making these kinds of purchases. Third, Hilgers says to follow your instincts. If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you do fall prey to an online scammer, please report it to the Attorney General.