Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Peyton Wedding and Bond Issue

Transcript

Peyton Wedding and Bond Issue · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Jean Stothar. Peyton Hilock, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is also here. Good morning Peyton.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Good morning Geen.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: Well, we want to hear.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: From you and thank you for being with us today,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: but we want to get your feedback. We want to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: hear your comments, complains, concerns, questions, just about anything. Really,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: anything goes and we won't back away from anything, whether
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: it's city, state, national, the world. And we will have
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: plenty of good guests. We've got a good guest coming
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on tomorrow, and of course you're gonna hear plenty of
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: opinions from MOI. But it is your chance to speak
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: up and sound off. You can send your emails to
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: comment at kfab dot com, call us at four two
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: five five eight eleven ten, or you can leave us
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a recorded message on the talkback mic and we'll play
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: it on the air. But we are very happy that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: you are with us today, Peyton. This is Peyton's last
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: day for a week and a half for a week,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and he will be getting married this Saturday.
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Next time you come back, you're going to be a
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: married man.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I know how exciting you are.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: He really is excited, y'all.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I know he really is, and he told me the
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: funniest story the other day about his shoes. So he's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: got this beautiful pair of wedding shoes, brand new leather,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: really nice looking shoes. And I said, you know, Peyton,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: this is my advice. If they are leather, they're slick
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: on the bottom, go walk around in your driveway and
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: rough them up.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: So he goes.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Outside with his expensive wedding shoes to rough his shoes up.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Sees a new scooter that just appeared in his garage,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: and he couldn't help himself, and he gets on the scooter.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: You tell the rest of the story.
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: It's one of those electric scooters. You've seen plenty of
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: those around. It magically showed up poof right in my garage.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: And he has two younger brothers.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: I have two younger brothers, so it came from somewhere.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: I was like, well, let me give it a try.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I hop on the scooter and I'm feeling like a cool.
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: Guy, cool guy with wedding shoes, with my wedding shoes on,
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: and I am like, all right, let me hit this
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: curb right here, and I ba boom, bounce up the
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: curb and wipe out folds in half, and so I
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: was looking a little bit like a James Bond and
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: I was in the slow motion.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: You didn't have your tucks on.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: No, no, I was a.
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Slow motion somersalt and rolling in the grass. Shoes safe,
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: no harm.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: Shoe That's all that mattered.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: I walked the scooter back home the heck with.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: Your broken arm. The shoes were just fine.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: But I hope you didn't tell your fiance Carly this story,
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: although she might be listening, and I might have just
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: blown it here.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: But Saturday's a day, it is.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: It's so close, and.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: We're excited for you and for Carly, so we'll have
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: to hear all about it. You're gonna go on a
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: nice honeymoon in someplace that's warm and sunny, So good
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: for you, and I hope Saturday is just a remarkable
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: day for you.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Thank you. It's been a long time coming.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: What'd you do last night? What did you do last night?
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I played soccer last night.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're not getting ready for the wedding last
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: night or anything? No, tell us more about you were
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: just gonna I interrupted you.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Were We met when we were fourteen and fifteen years old.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Freshman year of high school.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Isn't that a great story?
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: We we survived high school. We did four years of
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: long distance. She went to UNO, I was in Kansas City,
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: And that's a true test of love, right, But gods
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: were stacked against us.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: They came back and we are finally gonna tie the
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: knot ty the knot. Yeah, and she's awesome too.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: You know that I've said this before, that that that
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: sounds a little bit like me and my husband Kevin,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: because of those that you that didn't know it. I
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: dated Kevin like forty five years ago. He was a
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: medical student. I was a nurse when Saint Louis his
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: original home. I moved there after I got out of
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: nursing school because I was working at Saint Louis Hugh.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: But we dated for about a year and then we
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: had forty five years that we didn't see each other.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy?
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Kevin was playing the long game.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: He I think he was stalking me in forty five years.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: But anyway, I got married to somebody else, and everybody
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: knows my husband died and he got a hold of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: me and the rest was history and we got back together.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: So that's a true test of love right there.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Yes, that is.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: But you know, I knew him, I mean I knew
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: him real well. I knew his family, I knew I
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: had met his mom and dad, and so it was
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: like it was like an old friend getting back together again.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So when those long distance things happened, there's a lot
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: of stories like that, but I think it just shows
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: that you are meant to be together with Carly. So
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: can't wait to hear out your thing about it now.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: Last night, I'll tell you something I did. I went
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to a fundraiser for a candidate for regent.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Her name is Jill Wolf.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And again, I will invite any candidate that wants to
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: be on this show, and we have invited other candidates
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: for regent on this show. But I think it's interesting
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: because we've talked so many times about how important this
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: election coming up is and how important it is for
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: voters to be informed, and a lot of times people
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: don't pay any attention whatsoever to you know, candidates that
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: are running for positions like the University of Nebraska border regions.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: They don't think it's that important, but it is, and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I really want everybody to pay attention. I mean, University
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of Nebraska. They are struggling that with money, with funding
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: raising tuitions. It's a huge part of the state of Nebraska,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the University of Nebraska. This position that Jill Wolf is
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: running for is for District two, and that's Jack Stark's
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: old position, and that covers pretty much well eastern Nebraska,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: but it's southwest Douglas County in northern Sarpi County that's
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: district too. But they're elected for six year terms. Those
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: are a long term said, who's ever elected is going
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: to serve so even border regions, it's very important for
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: people to be informed and know who's running and know
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: who is going to serve him them. Well, I'm going
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: to invite Jill to be on the show sometime soon
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: because I think just to explain what the border regents do,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and I've invited her opponent too, but what they do
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: and how important their position really is.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: And so I think that that's just something.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: That we've got to keep in mind and we need
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to be fully informed for all of these candidates that
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: are going to be on the ballot in less than
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: ninety days right now. Now, another thing I wanted to
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: bring up is the mayor held mayor you doing held
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: a press conference yesterday, but the mayor wasn't there, but
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: which is odd, but still public Works was there. And
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: again it's about this Blackstone wall collapse, and it's about this.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: It was the former Brothers Lounge. It was located at
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: thirty eight twelve Furnams Street in the Blackstone area and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: it collapsed in June twenty first, and there's a lawsuit
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: that the owners of the building had. It was vacant,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: but they had filed against the city because they claim
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: they alleged that the streetcar construction on that block caused
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: the collapse, which left a gaping hole in the sidewalk.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: And so the owners don't know the estimate of what
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the repairs would cost, but they want to bring it.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: The city needs to bring it to a resolution as
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: soon as they can, because if indeed that streetcar construction
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: did cause the circumstances to cause that wall to collapse.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: Then that needs to be addressed. I mean it truly does.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I hate hearing these things because when we have this
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: massive amount of construction going on because of the streetcar,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: it has caused plenty of problems with people, especially with businesses,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: which brings me to another subject I want to talk
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: about now, and that is I had Clark Ross on
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the show one time, and Clark is got together. He's
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: kind of the I would call the chair of the
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: street Packed street Car Impact Alliance SIA street Car Impact Alliance,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: and this is a group of over one hundred small
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: businesses in the downtown Midtown area that are along the
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: construction of the street car, that are being so negatively
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: affected by the construction and their business is down, their
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  Speaker 1: revenues are down.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: When I was still mayor, we.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Had a fund of about one point two million for
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: a hardship fund, but we knew that wasn't enough, and
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: we knew that was going to be gone really really quickly,
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: which it is. But we always said, we need more
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: money into that fund. And there is now from an
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: anonymous Omahad donor, it has been put into the Nebraska
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Enterprise Fund. It's a fund that the small businesses can
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: apply for forgivable loans, depending on they have to show
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that their revenues have been affected negatively because of the
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: construction of the streetcar. And it depends on the size
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: of the business too, because larger businesses can ask for
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: bigger loans. And I think they can ask for up
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: to sixty thousand dollars. So it's very interesting. I think
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: that these and I'm happy. I'm really happy that somebody,
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: at least one anonymous donor came through and said, I
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: don't want to see these businesses fail because of the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: construction of the streetcar. And the anonymous donor made it
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: very clear, we're not saying that we support the streetcar.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: We're just saying that we don't want people to be
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: negatively affected by it, because once that street car is
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: up and run, and the last thing these bigger businesses Downtown,
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Mutual of Omaha, First National Bank, Union Pacific, et cetera,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: the last thing they want is to have a lot
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: of closed down business small businesses and restaurants and bars
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and things downtown. They want Downtown to flourish. So thank you,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Thank you for the donor with the Nebraska Enterprise Fund
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that has put a lot more money into that account
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: so people can apply for those loans, and I think
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the applications I'll get a little more information for you
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: are open for quite a while. But I'm going to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: have Clark Ross back on the show next week and
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about this, and we're going to
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: talk about the Nebraska Enterprise Fund. What that means to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: the small business is how to apply how much these
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: loans are. I think that's all really really important. So
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: we've covered a lot already, but I've got something else
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about. Unless you've got any callers
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: in there, we.
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: Want to hear from you today. Anything you have on
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: your mind, let's hear from me. Four zero, two, five, five,
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: eight eleven ten comment at kfab dot com get in
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: the lines, or you can use the radio talk back
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Mike on the iHeartRadio App.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: I just want to acknowledge this to Gene.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Yesterday in the ten o'clock hour, we had our very
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: first cash contest winner on the kfab comment line.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: That was Mike.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: Mike from Omaha won of thousand dollars yesterday and that's
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: my second winner so far in this cycle. I had
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: one with the Chris Baker Show. But for this hour today,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: it's rich. So go to kfab dot com, iHeartRadio app.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: Put in the word rich for your chance to win
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: one thousand dollars, just like Mike.
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: Who thinks up those words.
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: Well, all I know is every once in a while
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: I'll see Scott shut the door and he's in a
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: dark room for about two hours doing all those liners.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Rich Lch go Rich, I can see I can see
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: Scott doing that.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: So that's great.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: So we have a thousand dollars winner. It was about
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: ten oh five right when we went.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: On the air.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Good deal, amazing, amazing. I'll pass the torch to Eugene.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: But again, we were ready to hear from you today.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: Good deal.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Another thing I wanted to bring up, and I want
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: to hear some of your feedback again. I'm going back
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: to the November elections and how is so important to
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: stay informed. And we're going to talk about the city
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: budget in a little bit too. But there is a
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: bond issue that will be on the ballot in November.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: The city is putting a one hundred and eighty five
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: million dollar bond issue on the ballot. One hundred and
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: fifty five million of that is to go to the
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: new Fire and Police Public Safety Headquarter, which is an
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: office administration building that is going to be put in
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Crossroads at Crossroads. If the bond issue passes one hundred
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: and fifty five million, and then there is going to
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: be an additional thirty million on a bond issue. It'll
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: be a separate vote and a separate bond issue to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: complete Tranquility Park.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Now, it's interesting, and this.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Is what I think everybody has to be informed about,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: is Tranquility Park. When I was still mayor and we
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: were planning for it, we had about fifty four million
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: and budgeted for Tranquility I talked about this before, but
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: the first estimates from our designer, it's Jeo, came in
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: at about twice that much.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: It was over one hundred and twenty million.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: So we had to talk about if we were going
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: to raise private money or if we were going to
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: make some of the fields smaller or I mean less
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: fields are what we were going to do so that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: we could stay on budget. We asked Jeo to get
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: back to the table and redesign some things. But originally
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: it was supposed to be fifteen soccer fields and ten
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: baseball fields, and then the male holes north of that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: we're going to based on how many soccer fields, we're
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: going to build some hotels. Originally it was two future
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: hotels with the fifteen soccer fields and the ten baseball fields.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: That was in twenty twenty three. The City of Omaha
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: was denied turnback tax by the state, which is going
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to be part of the capital stack of how to
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: play pay for all of that. And so right now,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: if you drive buy one hundred twentieth in Maple, there
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: is grading going on, and right now they have a
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: permit to grade up to sixteen soccer fields, no baseball
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: fields at this time. That's one hundred and twentieth to
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty fourth is where the park entrance
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: is too, and so on the bond issue on the
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: ballot you will see these two city bond issues. The
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: one thing that's a little confusing to me and I
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: have to find out is it was stated that most
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of the sixty eight million is where they are at
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: now with tranquility, they're up to sixty eight million dollars.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: They said most of the money is already secured, but
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: there's if there's a thirty million dollar bond issue, that
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: means thirty eight million would be secured, So a little
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: more than half is secured, not most of it is secured.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: So it's a sixty eight million dollar project with tranquility.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: Now they say that there is thirty eight million that
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: is secured thirty million on a bond issue that you
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: will vote for.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: But they are.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Again, they are down to sixteen soccer fields at best
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and no baseball fields on there. Now that Mary Ewing
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: said everybody's tired of teams going to other cities, that
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: was a quote to me. The reason that is so
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: important for this to happen is not that people are
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: tired of going to nd their other cities. It's so
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: many of our youth in Omaha love soccer, want to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: play soccer, but they can't really afford to go out
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: of state to travel for these tournaments. And what this
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: would allow us is to have these tournaments here in
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Omaha and have all of these Omaha teams to be
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: able to take part in these tournaments and not have
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: to travel because frankly, a lot of people they can't
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: afford to travel.
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: You're right, Gene.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: And a big distinction here too is now that they're
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: able to grade for sixteen soccer fields, that allows Tranquility
• 15:59
  Speaker 4: to be in a higher bracket in terms of tournaments
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: that there's there's more more opportunity now for teams to
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: come here. With that jump from fifteen fields to sixteen,
• 16:10
  Speaker 4: that allows more teams more competition, higher quality teams, and
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: more frequency of use right, and.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: More more teams and more players in Omaha to and
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: in the surrounding areas don't have to travel so far.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: I was a soccer mom with my son and Andrew,
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and I seem like every weekend I was either going
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to Kansas City or I was going over to Iowa.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And it was a lot to do that. You know,
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: you had to pay for your hotel and everything. And
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: so this is this is a great opportunity for Omaha
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: to be able to do that, to attract other teams here,
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: to have tournaments here, and then to have our players here.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: So but keep in mind that is on the ballot.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: But read the ballot language. That is important because I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: know the city has said already that there will not
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: be any tax increase to pay the bond debt. However,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: there is ballot language that says the city has already
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: had a voter approved three and a half penny property
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: tax increase that was approved by the voters in twenty twenty,
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and that was for the streets, the street bond issue,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the two hundred million dollars street bond issue that passed
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty also had a second ballot question that
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: said a three and a half penny property tax increase
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: to pay the bond debt. Well, we have yet had
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: to impose that three and a half penny property tax
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: increase because number one, nobody wants their property taxes to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: be increased. In number two, we were able to pay
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: that debt on the street bonds without having to do that. Now,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: putting that in the ballot language is something that I
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: think we need to ask more questions about. So they
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: are saying it's not going to cause your taxes to
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: go up, but putting that in the ballot language is saying, yes,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: we can raise your taxes because it's already been approved
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty for the roads. So keep that in
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: mind when you're looking at those ballot questions and ask
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: the questions. Now, there will be I'm going to talk
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: about the city budget in a little bit, maybe after
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: the break. However, there will be a public budget hearing.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: There is every year, and it will be on August eleventh.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: That will be in the Legislative Chamber down at City
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Hall and it will be at six thirty pm and
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: all of the City Council will be there at six
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: thirty pm. The budget as soon as the mayor announced
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: the budget did his budget speech. The city budget it
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: always has been, I'm assuming it is again this year,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: is put online two So you go to the City
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: of Omaha webpage. You go to do the finance department
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and the entire city budget, the proposed budget. It's called
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the recommended budget, Mayor Ewing's recommended budget. It should be
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: posted online. You could look at the entire thing. You
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: could look at every penny that they are estimating we
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: will get in revenue, and you could look how every
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: penny is being spent, every department, what it's being spent on,
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: and you can look at that and prep yourself if
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: you want to go and talk about the twenty seven budget,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: so you'll actually know what's in it. But again the
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: public is invited to that public budget hearing. It's part
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of the budget process and it will be August eleventh
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: at six thirty pm.
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: Now, Gene, we got a question here about some of
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: this money that was donated for these businesses that are
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: along the street car line.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: Intro this with an email and then I'm going to
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: get the phone line with Greg. Okay, So This was
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: an email from Kyle. Kyle says, is there anything in
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: place to stop companies from making a land grab of
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: the struggling small businesses where they're struggling to pay rent
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: and a big company tries to strong arm them into
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: selling out? All for capitalism, but is there something that
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: will stop massive companies from buying blocks and blocks along
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: the streetcar line?
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think that is something that we're looking
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: at a state level and a local level too, but
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: particular to this issue of struggling businesses along the streetcar line,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: there is nothing in place right now. The goal is
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: to help these smaller businesses get through this period of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: construction and so that they don't have to close down
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: and vacate these buildings. And with this Nebraska Enterprise Fund,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: this loan program that they have come up with and funded,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: I really think that that is going to solve that problem.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: And like I said, I'm going to have Clark Ross
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: on the show again. He's agreed to come on next
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: week just to talk about how he feels with his
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: Streetcar Impact Alliance group about what.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: This means to them.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: But basically, you know what we're going to talk about.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: Alls they're asking if the business could identify having a
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: ten percent a greater drop in sales based on the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: restaurant tax receipt, they can issue grants up to ten
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, and then there the forgivable loan program actually
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: goes up to their establishing one a low interest forgivable
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: loan program up to fifty thousand dollars for businesses. So
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: you know, this is going to be extremely beneficial for
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: these smaller businesses to get through this period and then
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: hopefully that will prevent anything from happening that they have
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: to vacate these buildings.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: Well, let's see what Greg has to say. Greg, you
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: are alive with Jean Stauthert here on eleven ten kfab.
• 21:40
  Speaker 5: Good morning, Hey, good morning, good morning, Good morning.
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: Hey.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: I gotta tell you, sixty thousand dollars isn't much money,
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: not in the real world where I live and work,
• 21:51
  Speaker 5: but I suppose it would help. And what and since
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: you brought up mutual roma, here's another thing. They should
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: have kicked in some money for the streetcar. Maybe they
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: maybe they didn't. I don't know, but I'll throw a
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: figure out of ten percent they should have paid for
• 22:06
  Speaker 5: well they you.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Know, they're the streetcar is not being built for Mutual
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: of Omaha. The street car was already planned, The route
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: was already planned when Mutual of Omaha agreed to build
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: their new tower where the old library site was, and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: that is on the streetcar line. They could not build
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: their tower downtown without having close access to the streetcar.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: So I mean that that is true because they have
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: over four thousand employees. That garage, that fourteen to four
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: story garage, fourteen story garage which is the first fourteen
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: stories of that tower is twenty two hundred car garage.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: They have over four thousand employees. Like I said, they
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: couldn't be there unless they had a way by using
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: public transportation to move their employees around. Of course, all
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: four thousand aren't going to be there. At one time,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: Mutual of Omaha did purchase a fifty million in private
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: placement bonds, however, so that that is something that they
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: did already do.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: But you can't.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: I never felt like the city could ask companies that
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: were on the streetcar route to try to pay for
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the streetcar route, except you got to keep in mind
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that all new construction, which Mutual of Omaha has new
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: construction is going to pay about twenty five percent of
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: their eligible tiff expenses back to the city. It goes
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: for the construction of the streetcar. So that's part of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: the funding mechanism that we have in place. Any new construction,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: including mutual of Omaha, of their tiff eligible expenses that
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: is determined by state law, about twenty five percent of
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that goes back to paying for the streetcar. And then
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: any existing businesses that are there because their value of
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: their property will go up because of the streetcar, any
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: additional value of their property, they're already paying property taxes,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: but any additional we call it the bump there that
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: goes a percentage goes to the cost of the streetcar.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: And that's basically how we're funding it. So those businesses
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: that are going to benefit from them are basically paying
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: for them, and the developer is paying for them.
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: Rob has an interesting question here on the phone lines.
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: Rob your Live with Jean's author on kfa B.
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: Well, as you know, I absolutely do support the streetcar.
• 24:40
  Speaker 6: My question is, though, and this is kind of hurting businesses.
• 24:45
  Speaker 6: It is really no different than when roads get closed
• 24:48
  Speaker 6: and businesses hurt. Would they be able to file a
• 24:52
  Speaker 6: loss of use claim against the city.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I don't know about that. That's a question for an attorney. Obviously,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: you can sue anybody for anything. If somebody bumped into
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: me with their grocery card at high V I could
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: sue them. And so you know, anybody could file a
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: lawsuit for anything. But you know that you are so
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: right to say any road construction we do there is
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: a disruption and an inconvenience, and that happens all the time.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: It's just with usual road construction. It's done pretty quickly.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: I mean every single morning when I come to the studio,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: I drive up six's eighty. If you get on on
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: L Street, drive up to Dodge and look at that
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: construction that Hawkins is doing to widen six't eighty. And
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I can't say enough good things about Hawkins construction. They
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: are always on time or ahead of time, they're always
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: within budget, and they are just whaling on that construction there.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's and it will be done by the
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: end of the year. So it's usually terrible inconvenience. But
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: short terms, now, when we first voted and had the
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: city Council voted to go forward with the street car,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: if you recall, it was to be done in twenty
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: twenty six. This year it was supposed to be done.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Now it's twenty twenty eight. And the main reason because
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: of that is because of all of the infrastructure work
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: that the city and mud is doing underground, and that
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: was not anticipated. So originally we're thinking, yes, there would
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: be a lot of inconvenience to these businesses, we would
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: try to have a hardship fund, we would try to
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: help them out during that slim period of time. But
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: now that short period of time has extended two more years.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: This is where the trouble is, and so you can't
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: expect these businesses to survive an additional two years under
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: construction when people are saying I'm not going downtown, no,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: thank you. And that's the one thing we want to
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: help them through this and hopefully they will all survive that.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: Changing topics a little bit here, Gene, I got a
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: phone call during the break from Dave and Dave had
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: a question about the vehicles for the Omaha Department, and
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: I just want to say this. I saw a OPD
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: pickup truck yesterday. It was a canine unit and it
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: was a very very very good looking truck. Very well maintained.
• 27:13
  Speaker 4: It looked almost pretty tough looking. It looked great. Yeah,
• 27:17
  Speaker 4: But Dave had a question about the Omaha Fire Department
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: tahose I believe their captain tahoes maybe they drive around and.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: He was like, it just was it was just rusted.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: It was kind of rusting out.
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: And is there a part of the budget for the
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: Omaha Fire Department that is allocated yearly for improvements to
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: their equipment and their vehicles.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, absolutely there is. First of all, OPD the Canine
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Union units. The dogs are in those vehicles, and so
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: we wanted to make sure.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: That they have new up to date.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: They have you know, quality air conditioning in there because
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: in the heat of the summer and those dogs are
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: in those those vans all the time, you don't want
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: something to happen that the truck doesn't work or the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: AC doesn't work. So we make sure that the canine
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: unit had really good vehicles. As far as the vehicles
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that the captains and the assistant chiefs and the chief drives,
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: those are put into the Omaha Fire Department budget every year.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: The same with cruisers for the police department. They are
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: put in the budget every year and when they determine
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: what their budget is, they determine how many that they
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: can buy, and they try to prioritize what they're going
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to replace based on the age and the mile. They
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: really put a lot of miles on those things. As
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: far though as and I wanted to mention this, the
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: fire engines, the ladder trucks, and the med units, and
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I remember this from being mayor. We have twenty five
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: fire engines, we have nine ladder trucks, so that's thirty
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: four big trucks, and we have nineteen med units. Those
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: used to be replaced in the Capital Improvement plant and
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: the capital Improvement plan they're paid by with bond, So
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: those fire trucks and medical units were paid for with
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: public safety bonds in the capital improvement program. If something's
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: in the capital improvement program, they're supposed to get at
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: least fifteen years out of them. And it just wasn't
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: working because they run those things to death. And so
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: we started a new program putting a lot more money,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: a lot. I think the total price is close to
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: fifty million, forty eight million over a period of time,
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: so that the fire engines, the ladder trucks, in the
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: med units can be replaced at least once. It was
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the original goal was seven to eight years. I think
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: they made it eight to nine years now, but they
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: that is about the limit on those. They can't stretch
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: them out to fifteen. And that was a very expensive
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: position to take and to start budgeting that. Like I said,
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's for over that say, seven or eight
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: year period, it's going to be about forty eight million dollars.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: But it'll be worth it in the end that we
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: have good, up to date equipment to and you know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: sometimes those things are damage. And what we had in
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: the past is we had multiple different suppliers, so we
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: had trucks that were made by different companies. And what
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: we decided to do is go to one company and
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: so they then with the one company that we would
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: buy all these trucks from, that they would have a
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: maintenance center built here in Omaha, so we could have
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: better maintenance on those vehicles too. So yeah, I mean,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: those things are planned, and those things are really really important.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: But I do recall several brand new cruisers, brand new
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: fire trucks getting in accidents, and I mean like immediately
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and you're like, oh no, but those things happen, and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: so you have to have a plan to replace them.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And that's a good point, Gene.
• 30:43
  Speaker 4: And I also think maybe from the perception of the vehicle,
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: it's not the greatest thing to see a little bit
• 30:49
  Speaker 4: of resting on the bottom. But at the same time,
• 30:51
  Speaker 4: if the vehicle and the tahoe in this case, still
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: has some life to give, you know, you don't just
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: want to replace for the sake of replacing.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: I know, it's one of those things that.
• 31:00
  Speaker 4: They have to decide and choose carefully, probably year to
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: year or in their three to five year plan.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: But well, if you look at the cruisers, I mean,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: you know, we used to to have the little black
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: and whites with a cherry on top, is what they
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: would say. And now we've gone all to SUVs because
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: of all of the technology now that we have to
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: have in each cruiser. But they beat those those cars
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: up like crazy.
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: Part of it though, I well, lots of miles, lots.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: And lots of miles are driving around in them, and
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: you know their duty belts that they wear, that they
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: have their guns and their tasers and all their their
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: flashlights and all that stuff. Hancuffs everything they bang those
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: things into the side of the car. If you look
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: at any cruisers drivers door, they're all banged up and
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: it's it's usually because of the equipment they have on
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: They just can't help it. So we want to make
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: sure that OPD has, you know, good vehicles and sodas
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: the fire department, but putting a lot of money into.
• 31:55
  Speaker 4: It too, I'm sure now, Gine, I got an email
• 31:58
  Speaker 4: here from Tim.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: Rock Em Sockem.
• 32:02
  Speaker 4: Mayor, Gene, you remind me of a child's battery powered
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: robot begging its head against the wall.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: Well, I, for some reason, I don't think that's a compliment,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: but thanks for sharing that. Good Lord rock Em Sockem.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I like, well, you know what, I'll take that over
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: me and Jean. So thank you for saying that. That's
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: what my show said. Oh my gosh, Gean, were you eight?
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: Were you a red rock Em Sockem or were you
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: a blue rock soccer?
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: Definitely I'm red.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: I'm a Republican, remember, so I had to get a
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: red one.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I couldn't be the blue dot one.
• 32:35
  Speaker 5: No.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: But anyway, you know another thing I wanted to say say,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: thank you. Have you all noticed anything this morning? Am
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: I clearing my throat and coughing.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: No you're not okay.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Well, my good friend Dave Wingert on Boomer Radio, I
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: guess I'm allowed to announce another radio station in town.
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: But he told me use that throat coat, Gene. He
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: brought me some, and he says that anybody on TV
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: knows it.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: Are on radio.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: You put a little bit in a glass of hot
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: water every morning, and Dave, it is working. So thank
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: you for reminding me.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: As a matter of fact, yesterday Chris was on the
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: air and he cleared his throat and he said, well,
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: Gene and I used the same microphone, so, oh, co
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: broat clearing must be contagious.
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have cooties on this microphone. I guess no.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: But you know what, Dave Winger, you are right. Throat
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: coat works, So I will be a user of that forever.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I did want to talk about, as we I mentioned
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: the On the eleventh of August, at six point thirty
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: in the evening, there is a public hearing on the
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: city budget, and I invite you all to go to
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: that and to read the city budget. Are the parts
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: that you are interested in? Again, the budget is online.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Keep in mind that the budget that was presented by
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Marry Youing. The twenty twenty seven budget is almost a
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: seven percent increase and the year before the general fund
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: is going from five hundred and sixty two million that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: was this year, the one that I did, and it
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: is going up to over six hundred million. They said,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: the revenues are increasing, property tax revenues are increasing, sales
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: tax revenues are increasing, and spending is increasing, and so
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: you know, we need to talk about this probably a
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: little bit longer.
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: But the city.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: The process is the city council. After the mayor presents
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the budget, it's the called the Mayor's recommended budget, gives
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: it to the city council. They have about five weeks
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: with it. They can amend it, and the amendments have
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: to be approved by a simple majority, so there's seven
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: city council members. It has to at least have four
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: votes to pass, so sometimes it's a four to three
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: vote that to do an amendment. But if they do
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: any amendments, they still have to keep that budget balanced,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: which it is now. So if the city council would propose,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: say a penny property tax levee decrease, if they would
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: propose that, or if they wanted to do that. One
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: penny in the twenty twenty seven budget will equal about
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: five point eight million dollars reduction in the budget. So
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: they would have to come up with five point eight
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: million dollars of cuts in the budget. Are spending reduction
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: in the budget to lower that levee another penny. Now,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: I've said this many times, so I'm going to say
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: it again. I was mayor for twelve years. I reduced
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the levee five times. Since when I was mayor, I
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: never raised the levee at all. And so if the
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: City council wants to do this, spoke too soon, Sorry,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Dave Winger, I need more throw coat. But if they
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: want to do this, they've got to figure out a
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: way to reduce spending so that they could reduce the levee.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: And so that is something that the city council has
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: in their hands now.
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: If they why this happened to me? Why did it happen.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: After I talked about it? I know it's gotta be karma.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: But they have to figure out which to reduce spending.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And I know that there's probably not one City council
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: member that says I am okay with almost a seven
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: percent increase in the city budget, so they're going to
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: be working on it.
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: They can amend it, then the.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Mayor can veto their amendments, and then it goes back
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: to the council and they can override the mayor's veto,
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: but it takes five votes a super majority to override
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a mayor's veto. So that is the process that goes
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: back and forth right now. But the next most important
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: part of it is that the city Council needs to
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: hear from you all, and that's why they have on
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: August eleventh, six point thirty in the Legislative Chamber a
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: public hearing on the budget. And if you have things
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: to say, whether you like it, you don't like it,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: whether you have recom mandations, that's the time to go
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: to the City Council then and let them know your feeling.
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: Remember when they do the budget, when Mary Ewing did
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the budget and when I did the budget, you are
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: basing it on estimated revenues. You really don't know in
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven what your sales tax, your property tax,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: your restaurant tax, all those other licenses and permits and
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: income and sewer use fees and motor vehicle taxes and
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: bond sales and all of those things that you have
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: to know. When you're doing the city budget. You just
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: do a lot of estimates, and you do it based
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: on the year before, and you based on what you're
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: see happening in the economy now. So it is it
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: is not an easy process at all. But keep in
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: mind too, that about seventy i'd say seventy four to
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: seventy five percent the entire general fund budget is personnel,
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: and so if you're going to cut a lot out
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: of the budget, then you might have to start looking
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: at personnel.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Do you really want to do that?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: It's police department, a fire department, and the civilians, and
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: almost everyone in the city of Omaha almost is in
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: a bargaining unit. Meaning you can't just say here's your salary,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: here's your benefits, here's your pension. You have to negotiate
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: it with them. And so even police management, and there's
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: like six of them, is a bargaining unit. The chief
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: and the assistant chiefs they're a bargaining unit, you know,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the fire and the assistant chiefs, they're a bargaining unit.
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: The civilians are a bargaining unit. So keep that all
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: in mind, and look, take a look at that budget,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: and a lot of people will say, get rid of
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: that restaurant tax. For example, we hate it. But you
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: know what, the restaurant tax makes more revenue every single year.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: People don't They just have accepted it. It's a two
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: and a half percent addition on prepared food and beverages
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: and it's bringing in the restaurant tax about forty eight
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: million dollars a year, and so to take that out
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: of the budget, that would leave an enormous hole in
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: the city budget and there would have to be an
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: enormous amount of cuts in every department.
• 39:09
  Speaker 4: Wrapping up the kfab comment line here on a Thursday,
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: this is my last day with you. Gen Scott Vorhees
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: will be filling in for me tomorrow and all of
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: next week. Tomorrow you have Don Bacon joining us on
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: the kfab comment line, congress Congressman Don Bacon, and I
• 39:25
  Speaker 4: want to encourage you guys. If you have any questions
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: or concerns, feel free to reach out comment at kfab
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: dot com throughout the day today and while he is
• 39:33
  Speaker 4: on the show tomorrow, because I know for sure that
• 39:36
  Speaker 4: you have plenty of things to ask him.
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: Yes we do.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: And that is it for us today. But thank you
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: so much for spending this hour with us. We'd love
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: for you to join us again tomorrow with Congressman Don Bacon,
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: so much to talk about. I am Gene Stothard and
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: this is eleven ten kfab