Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Non-Partisan Lindstrom on Why He's Running for Gov

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Non-Partisan Lindstrom on Why He's Running for Gov · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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Speaker 1: And a very good morning to all of you. Welcome
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Speaker 1: to the kfab Comment Line. I am your host Gene Stothard,
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Speaker 1: and my producer today is the one and only Scott Vorhes.
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Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, Jean Stothard. Well, Peyton's having more
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Speaker 1: fun than maybe we are because he's on his honeymoon.
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Speaker 1: But thank you all for being with us today. We
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Speaker 1: want to hear from you. We want to get your feedback,
0:22
Speaker 1: We want to hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints, really,
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Speaker 1: anything goes and we won't back away with from anything city, state, national,
0:31
Speaker 1: the world, the street car, the potholes, whatever you want
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Speaker 1: to talk about. And of course we will have plenty
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Speaker 1: of guests. We have a great guest today and you're
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Speaker 1: going to hear plenty of opinions from us too. But
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Speaker 1: it is your chance to speak up and sound off.
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Speaker 1: You can send your emails to comment at kfab dot com,
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Speaker 1: call us at four two five five eight eleven ten,
0:51
Speaker 1: or you can leave us a recorded message on the
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Speaker 1: talkback mic and won't play it on the air, but
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Speaker 1: we are very happy that you are with us. And
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Speaker 1: today we have Brett Linstrom with us in the studio.
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Speaker 2: Good morning, good morning, thanks for having me.
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Speaker 1: You bet, and if while we were chit chatting here
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Speaker 1: today about his run for governor, if you have any
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Speaker 1: questions for Brett Lenstrom, please call in or or use
1:13
Speaker 1: the email, and I bet you could talk Brett into
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Speaker 1: answer them.
1:17
Speaker 2: Sure, we're ready on an open book. We'll just go away.
1:20
Speaker 1: We'll do our own little town hall here, So feel
1:22
Speaker 1: free to call in if you have any questions. But
1:25
Speaker 1: welcome Brett again. And you know, first, I wanted to
1:28
Speaker 1: go over a little bit about who Brett Leinsterm is
1:30
Speaker 1: because I think it's important. You are a financial advisor.
1:34
Speaker 1: You were in the state legislature. I think you started
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Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen, was elected in twenty feo elected in
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Speaker 1: twenty four twenty fifteen, okay, and you serve eight years,
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Speaker 1: eight years, two terms in the legislature. You were running
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Speaker 1: for the congressional district to race. You did drop out
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Speaker 1: of that race. You did run for governor in twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty two, came in third. It's okay. Coming in third
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Speaker 1: is fine, coming in second is fine, But it's who
2:03
Speaker 1: comes in first that really matters.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 1: I always say that to people when they talk about
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Speaker 1: even my races and they'll say, well you came in second,
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Speaker 1: Well who cares who comes in second. It's the winner
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Speaker 1: that you remember. But anyway, you know, Brett, I just
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Speaker 1: wanted to kind of review. You had been a Republican
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Speaker 1: since two thousand. You abandoned that republican label and switched
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Speaker 1: your party registration from republican to nonpartisan. Just tell us
2:28
Speaker 1: a little bit to start out with, why did you
2:31
Speaker 1: switch parties? And I have a quote from you, and
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Speaker 1: you said you no longer wanted to deal with the
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Speaker 1: divisiveness or divisiveness however you want to say it of
2:40
Speaker 1: modern politics.
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Speaker 2: But now you're jumping in the governor's race.
2:43
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit about why you did switch parties
2:47
Speaker 1: before we get into you running for governor.
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Speaker 2: A couple of things, don't pack. They're one.
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Speaker 3: I've been around politics for about fifteen years, observed your
2:59
Speaker 3: mayoral race was one of the first. Actually went to
3:02
Speaker 3: a debate at the Oma Press Club back in the
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Speaker 3: day and was.
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Speaker 2: Witnessed to that. And so you know where it sits.
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Speaker 1: That that should have scared you away from politics?
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Speaker 2: Right, people ask me, are you glad for punishment? Really? Yeah?
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Speaker 2: So you know, it's just been an interesting journey. To
3:20
Speaker 2: say the least.
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Speaker 3: But uh, it's just my observation that what we're living
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Speaker 3: through right now is about as polarized as I can remember,
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Speaker 3: and I don't think it's healthy for the process, and
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Speaker 3: certainly not good for the people, because not a.
3:37
Speaker 2: Lot of great outcomes happen with that.
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Speaker 3: I think a lot of politics has been weaponized, and
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Speaker 3: the vast majority of people in Nebraska or even the
3:46
Speaker 3: country are in the crossfire of that. And I just
3:50
Speaker 3: decided that I was not going to participate in that,
3:54
Speaker 3: in that process anymore. So I switched it nonpartisan. What
3:58
Speaker 3: I found out was that there's a lot of people
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Speaker 3: that agreed with me. I was already feeling that way,
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Speaker 3: and you know, where the party was at. I'm a
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Speaker 3: big believer in the institutions and the platforms and separation
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Speaker 3: of powers and the fundamentals, and things seemed to change
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Speaker 3: around that, and I didn't feel comfortable about, you know,
4:20
Speaker 3: what was worth winning in that process.
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Speaker 2: So I suspended.
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Speaker 3: Well, the day that I did suspend and made the news,
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Speaker 3: and people had reached out, and it was about fifty
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Speaker 3: or sixty texts from people that you would know and
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Speaker 3: all across the political spectrum that were very encouraging. And
4:37
Speaker 3: then I took time to think about more of the
4:40
Speaker 3: philosophical approach of what is politics, what does it mean,
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Speaker 3: and what are the outcomes for people? And I started
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Speaker 3: to work on the Nebraska doctrine, and I started to
4:50
Speaker 3: have hundreds of coffees and breakfasts and lunch with a
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Speaker 3: lot of different walks of life and people.
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Speaker 2: And I think the.
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Speaker 3: Feedback that I received and where I walked away from
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Speaker 3: all those where people are tired. They're just tired of
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Speaker 3: the divisiveness. And I think there's a real opportunity for
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Speaker 3: Nebraska to set ourselves apart. And the way I viewed
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Speaker 3: it and what I believe is that running as a
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Speaker 3: non partisan allows me to carry out the policy, and
5:23
Speaker 3: so there was a philosophical doctrine with that, but it
5:27
Speaker 3: was also a policy framework. And whether whatever happens in
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Speaker 3: the legislature with the races in November rolling into January,
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Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what the makeup of the legislature is,
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Speaker 3: and working on with them and within the agencies and
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Speaker 3: putting the right people in place, people that care, we
5:48
Speaker 3: can do a lot of great things. And I think
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Speaker 3: in the face of all this political chaos, we turn
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Speaker 3: it on its head, and we are the earliest adopter
5:55
Speaker 3: of what this is. And I was a history major,
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Speaker 3: so I tend to try to look at if history
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Speaker 3: either repeats or rhymes, And you'd have to go back
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Speaker 3: to the late forties fifties to kind of understand what this,
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Speaker 3: how we come out of this from from the divisiveness,
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Speaker 3: and what can be possible in the future. And I
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Speaker 3: think there's a little bit of a generational shift that
6:18
Speaker 3: happens with that. But I you know, talking with say
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Speaker 3: younger individuals, the Gen z s, the Gen Alphas, they
6:25
Speaker 3: don't know anything other than political chaos. I remember some
6:29
Speaker 3: of the good times, you know, as a kid of
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Speaker 3: the eighties and even in the nineties, people they had
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Speaker 3: healthy friction, could discuss things. But and how unfortunate that
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Speaker 3: is it is, and I think that's that's where people
6:41
Speaker 3: get caught in the crossfire. And I just haven't seen
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Speaker 3: great outcomes for people. And it takes sitting down and
6:47
Speaker 3: understanding kind of you know, the human element to it.
6:52
Speaker 3: You know, not going to agree with everyone. People and families.
6:54
Speaker 3: We're talking about Thanksgiving here, you know, you can go
6:56
Speaker 3: to Thanksgiving, politics comes up in your family and can
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Speaker 3: be very.
7:00
Speaker 1: Christmas dinner can be very division anymore. Well, Brett, Brett
7:03
Speaker 1: Linstrom is with us today. You know a couple other
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Speaker 1: things you said is you said you didn't fit into
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Speaker 1: this political environment and you didn't want to defend things
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Speaker 1: you didn't believe in. And you know I can so
7:13
Speaker 1: agree with you on that because I always said that.
7:15
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not going to change who I am
7:17
Speaker 1: to get a vote. You know who I am is
7:19
Speaker 1: important to me to stay that way and stay true
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Speaker 1: to myself. But you know you did. You wrote this.
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Speaker 1: It's a doctrine. It's it's a many page I don't
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Speaker 1: know how many pages this is here. I have it
7:30
Speaker 1: in front of me. I tell you the truth. I
7:32
Speaker 1: read it last night and I read it again. It's
7:35
Speaker 1: it's it's very good. It's very detailed. It's very wordy.
7:40
Speaker 1: But I think the average person, if they're going to
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Speaker 1: vote for you, they're going to say, Brettlinstrom, what are
7:46
Speaker 1: you going to do to make my life better? They're
7:48
Speaker 1: not going to take the time. This is such a
7:50
Speaker 1: good policy paper you wrote here, But the average voter
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Speaker 1: is going to say, what are you going to do
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Speaker 1: to make my life better? So let's let's kind of
7:58
Speaker 1: dig into that because I want to know what you
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Speaker 1: think your pathway to victory is. So, you know, the
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Speaker 1: number one issue Brett in the state of Nebraska and
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Speaker 1: in Omaha is property taxes. People are saying that my
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Speaker 1: property taxes are too high. There's even a I heard
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Speaker 1: a kind of a goofy commercial the other day, which
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Speaker 1: I think a lot of political commercials are goofy that
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Speaker 1: just said, call Governor Pellen and tell them to issue
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Speaker 1: an executive order to lower property taxes. And it's like,
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Speaker 1: what what does that? What does that mean? You know,
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Speaker 1: what what does an executive order to lower property taxes mean?
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Speaker 1: Because I think a lot of people realize property taxes
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Speaker 1: are local. It's it's your local government that sets the
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Speaker 1: property tax levy. It's your city, it's your school districts,
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Speaker 1: it's Douglas County, it's the NRD, it's Metro Transit, they
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Speaker 1: set the levees. So if you were elected governor, you
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Speaker 1: know what is your number one priority? Is it lowering
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Speaker 1: property taxes? And how would you do that? I mean,
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Speaker 1: what is your plan? I know you wrote a lot
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Speaker 1: about it in the in your doctrine, but tell the
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Speaker 1: people what is your plan that you would be able
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Speaker 1: to work with these taxing governmental agencies throughout Nebraska, and
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Speaker 1: what is your plan to lower property taxes?
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Speaker 3: Well, within the doctrine, there's two main things that I
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Speaker 3: tried to simplify and Nebraska Nebraska Doctrine dot com actually
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Speaker 3: is a little bit less than that. Well, I didn't
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Speaker 3: want to overwhelm people, but you're right that it is
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Speaker 3: a local issue. However, working with the legislature to address
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Speaker 3: those mechanisms in a phase in there's no silver bullet
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Speaker 3: to this. We have, like you said, the local taxing authorities,
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Speaker 3: the TIOSA formula, and how we fund education is the
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Speaker 3: biggest piece of that property tax puzzle. But there's a
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Speaker 3: couple of things that haven't been addressed. Maybe ever I
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Speaker 3: have to go not certainly the time when I was there,
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Speaker 3: we talked about it, but it became a political issue.
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Speaker 2: And that's the valuations. Valuations.
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Speaker 3: A lot of those things have to be done within
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Speaker 3: the statutes at the capitol.
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Speaker 1: And that's that's your assessors. Like in this area, the
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Speaker 1: Douglas County Assessor is the one that does the valuations
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Speaker 1: of the product.
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Speaker 3: They do it on the city, so market value and
10:15
Speaker 3: that's where commercial, residential and agriculture. And so every so
10:20
Speaker 3: often when the economy is good and people have more
10:23
Speaker 3: discretionary income, excuse me, houses flip a little bit more
10:30
Speaker 3: and you see those fifteen increases in market value. Well,
10:35
Speaker 3: you know, as somebody that's living close by, they may
10:38
Speaker 3: not sell their house, but they're going to pay the
10:40
Speaker 3: price for that giant increase.
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Speaker 1: And it's because of the comps. Like you said, the
10:45
Speaker 1: houses start to flip, they look at other when they're
10:49
Speaker 1: evaluating an area for valuation, they look at what other
10:53
Speaker 1: houses have sold for comparable to yours in that area.
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Speaker 3: And so in the in the constitution, that's what's called
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Speaker 3: the uniformity claw, and we have to treat commercial, egg
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Speaker 3: and residential the same. That doesn't mean that we can't
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Speaker 3: create a rolling average underneath all of those classifications, and
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Speaker 3: that's what one of the part of the plan is
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Speaker 3: having a seven year rolling average so we won't get
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Speaker 3: these spikes anymore.
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Speaker 1: So they would revalue property once every seven years.
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Speaker 2: You would do the rolling No, no, they would do
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Speaker 2: it every year. Every year you wouldn't.
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Speaker 1: Have but you would take a seven year average.
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Speaker 3: Working in the rears and move forward with those rolling averages,
11:33
Speaker 3: and so it stabilizes that. And part of that doctrine
11:37
Speaker 3: is stability. Stability both in the way that we leaders
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Speaker 3: conduct themselves in the political environment, but also stability in
11:44
Speaker 3: the policies and how we move forward.
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Speaker 2: And this is a ten.
11:48
Speaker 3: To twelve year strategic plan that has a sequence that
11:51
Speaker 3: has to be played out. And the first step and
11:54
Speaker 3: what's happened here is Governor Pillen took a significant amount
11:57
Speaker 3: of money, close to eight hundred million dollars and put
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Speaker 3: it in this Education Future Fund. Well, if you don't
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Speaker 3: deal with evaluation, that doesn't fix property tax. So we
12:06
Speaker 3: now have a budget crisis in the state where we're
12:10
Speaker 3: at currently at over two hundred million.
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Speaker 2: In the out years, it's eight hundred million.
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Speaker 3: It's most likely going to be a billion dollars in
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Speaker 3: October when the forecasting board comes back in reports.
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Speaker 2: UH.
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Speaker 3: One of the one of the things that we did
12:23
Speaker 3: was we put guardrails on all the tax cuts that
12:26
Speaker 3: we did and social Security. That was my bill to
12:28
Speaker 3: eliminate the tax on Social Security income. We did the
12:31
Speaker 3: income tax cuts both corporate and individual. We we that'll
12:37
Speaker 3: all go into effect here next year. And but the
12:41
Speaker 3: cash reserve has not. They haven't put enough money in there.
12:45
Speaker 3: And actually it's we're in trouble when it comes to that.
12:48
Speaker 3: So the first dollar budd we were.
12:50
Speaker 1: In trouble last year too.
12:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, the inflows have not not been higher than our
12:55
Speaker 3: than our outflows, our expenditures have been much higher.
12:58
Speaker 4: Uh.
12:59
Speaker 3: And I you know, govern Or pill And working with
13:01
Speaker 3: the Proparations Committee has got to send that situation. So
13:05
Speaker 3: now they've had to go into cash funds, They've had to.
13:08
Speaker 2: Make significant cuts.
13:10
Speaker 3: And I'm not saying you can't find optimization or efficiencies,
13:14
Speaker 3: but you have to have that cash reserve back up
13:17
Speaker 3: to fourteen and a half percent of your budget because
13:20
Speaker 3: you don't know what the federal government's going to do.
13:22
Speaker 3: A couple of years ago they put two hundred million
13:24
Speaker 3: dollars of medicaid on us, and so what happens if
13:29
Speaker 3: we get into a global conflict, what happens if we
13:32
Speaker 3: have a recession? We have to prepare for that, and
13:35
Speaker 3: if we have the cash reserve. The next thing that
13:37
Speaker 3: I would work with the legislature to create is an
13:39
Speaker 3: infrastructure stability fund because if you do this rolling average
13:45
Speaker 3: and one of the other parts of this is agriculture
13:48
Speaker 3: within the agriculture valuation. Over time, I'd like to move
13:53
Speaker 3: it towards an income base, so you have hay and
13:56
Speaker 3: pasture and row crop and not every parcel and ag
13:59
Speaker 3: produces this.
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Speaker 2: Amount of income.
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Speaker 3: Well, anytime you do that, it's going to lower the
14:05
Speaker 3: ability to tax for those local entities, counties and schools.
14:10
Speaker 3: So you have to have an off ramp, a dollar
14:13
Speaker 3: for dollar where we can pay for roads and bridges
14:15
Speaker 3: and public safety. Okay, and that's the long term plan.
14:18
Speaker 3: So the faster we grow, the faster we can implement this.
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Speaker 1: Okay. Let me let me just ask you a question here,
14:24
Speaker 1: so just to explain, So when you set a rolling
14:26
Speaker 1: seven year average with your property taxes, your valuations, what
14:31
Speaker 1: you're saying is if you would do an average, then
14:34
Speaker 1: people would not see this this year, it's twenty percent
14:38
Speaker 1: to your property. Your valuations going up to your property taxes,
14:41
Speaker 1: they are going to jump sky high, but it would
14:43
Speaker 1: be a lower increase spread out over a period of years,
14:48
Speaker 1: so they would be it would be more able for
14:50
Speaker 1: people to plan with their budget if their valuations going up.
14:53
Speaker 2: Both families and local governments.
14:55
Speaker 1: And you know, valuation is a double edged sword because
14:58
Speaker 1: I and I always would tell people this because you know,
15:01
Speaker 1: you don't want your valuation going up because you don't
15:04
Speaker 1: pay more taxes, but you sure don't want it dropping
15:07
Speaker 1: down because that means you are in an area that
15:10
Speaker 1: the property values are decreasing, and that's not good. You
15:14
Speaker 1: want your valuation to be going up if you're going
15:17
Speaker 1: to sell your house, that's for sure.
15:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why a lot of these taxing authorities,
15:21
Speaker 3: the local are reluctant to have a change because one
15:24
Speaker 3: they don't trust. If they were to go more reliant
15:27
Speaker 3: on the states through sales and income tax dollars, you
15:30
Speaker 3: get some downturn the economy. If you don't take care
15:35
Speaker 3: of the budget, then odds are you going to right
15:38
Speaker 3: have to cut.
15:39
Speaker 1: So Brett in Omaha, in Douglas County. In Omaha, when
15:44
Speaker 1: you look at your property tax bill, sixty two percent
15:47
Speaker 1: goes to the public schools. People don't realize that. They
15:50
Speaker 1: all think it's the city of Omaha. Only if your
15:53
Speaker 1: total property tax bill in Omaha only twenty two percent
15:57
Speaker 1: goes to the City of Omaha, about twelve and a
15:59
Speaker 1: half to Douglas County, then those other taxing entities like
16:02
Speaker 1: I mentioned, the NRD, Metro Transit, Metro Community College. They
16:06
Speaker 1: all play in to make it one hundred percent, so
16:09
Speaker 1: you're the biggest portion goes to the schools and that
16:13
Speaker 1: really doesn't have much Well, it does have something to
16:16
Speaker 1: do with valuations because they're taxing the different properties within
16:20
Speaker 1: their district. But you brought up Teosa. That is basically
16:24
Speaker 1: the state aid formula. I mean, is this where you
16:26
Speaker 1: really got to dig in if you're really going to
16:29
Speaker 1: lower property taxes to what's happening with the school because
16:32
Speaker 1: they take up the biggest percentage of your property tax bill.
16:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, and in Omaha it's around seventy percent. That's so
16:39
Speaker 3: the Chioso formula simplified, it's seventy percent what of your
16:44
Speaker 3: property tax that you pay goes to K through twelve education.
16:47
Speaker 3: And there's two hundred and forty four school districts in
16:50
Speaker 3: the state of Nebraska. Depend on the year, you're about
16:53
Speaker 3: ninety of those two hundred and forty four get equalization aid.
16:57
Speaker 3: Most of them are in Omaha and Lincoln, and then
16:59
Speaker 3: it Corridora, Grand Island and larger areas.
17:03
Speaker 1: So here's a big question right there. I'll stop you
17:05
Speaker 1: right in the middle of that. Do we need to
17:06
Speaker 1: decrease the number of school districts in the state of Nebraska.
17:10
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen, you know, unfortunate because you
17:13
Speaker 1: know it's inefficient when there's that many. When you think
17:17
Speaker 1: of these little, tiny, small school districts, obviously you know
17:20
Speaker 1: you need you need a superintendent, you need somebody for
17:23
Speaker 1: a special ed, you need somebody for elementary, you need
17:25
Speaker 1: somebody for a secondary. You need all these different folks
17:29
Speaker 1: to run this school district. And if they were combined,
17:32
Speaker 1: it would run a lot more efficiently. But it doesn't
17:34
Speaker 1: look like that's going to happen, does it.
17:36
Speaker 3: Well, And you're talking about Nebraska that's spread out, so
17:39
Speaker 3: you can't ask a kid or even teachers, just a
17:42
Speaker 3: kid to get on a bus for forty minutes, No,
17:45
Speaker 3: you go to a different school. So that's not something
17:48
Speaker 3: that is a part of this. However, I mean, there
17:50
Speaker 3: are some cost saving measures that you can do, especially
17:54
Speaker 3: with say payroll or some of the administrative things technology
17:59
Speaker 3: that can be centralized. It wouldn't be a mandate, but
18:03
Speaker 3: there are some cost saving measures to centralize some of
18:06
Speaker 3: those things, and if they do that, they would have
18:08
Speaker 3: some extra money to be used maybe even pay teachers.
18:12
Speaker 3: So there are some steps there. But within the TIOSA
18:16
Speaker 3: formula there's two different the state aka the needs minus resources,
18:21
Speaker 3: so needs being headcount English as a second language, poverty,
18:24
Speaker 3: there's a lot of things. Resources are your ability to
18:27
Speaker 3: tax property tax, and if you can't do that then
18:30
Speaker 3: the state will backfill that with the sales and income
18:33
Speaker 3: tax dollars that we and that's the equalization portion. The
18:37
Speaker 3: two levers within TIOSA the local effort rate, which is
18:41
Speaker 3: the property tax and statute set at a dollar, and
18:44
Speaker 3: foundation aid. Foundation aid is the dollar amount that we
18:48
Speaker 3: spend on every student at the state level, which is
18:50
Speaker 3: fifteen hundred dollars. There are three hundred and thirty thousand students,
18:55
Speaker 3: so that if you just increase at a dollar I'm sorry,
18:57
Speaker 3: one hundred dollars, thirty three million dollars. So it's not
19:00
Speaker 3: the main lever, but it is a lever. The thing
19:03
Speaker 3: that you can do is set the local effort rate
19:06
Speaker 3: and in this plan I talked about setting at fifty
19:08
Speaker 3: cents with you. If you do that, that's a fifty
19:12
Speaker 3: percent reduction of the property tax with the schools, and
19:19
Speaker 3: if that makes up seventy percent of your property tax
19:22
Speaker 3: over this time and again it's based on growth above
19:26
Speaker 3: baseline budgeting that would go into these different buckets.
19:29
Speaker 2: You can get to a thirty percent property tax production.
19:31
Speaker 3: Plus we stabilize it with the rolling average, so now
19:34
Speaker 3: it becomes more stable, it becomes more predictable. My conversations
19:39
Speaker 3: and sitting through eight years in the legislature is knowing
19:43
Speaker 3: where those land mines are. And I've heard hundreds of
19:46
Speaker 3: hours of testimony on why we can't do certain things.
19:49
Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to jump into one more landmine here,
19:52
Speaker 1: but can can we do this after the break? Do
19:55
Speaker 1: we need a break right now? Mister producer, he's looking
19:57
Speaker 1: at me making a face.
19:58
Speaker 4: Are you going to talk for eight minutes? Are you
20:00
Speaker 4: going to talk for two minutes?
20:02
Speaker 1: Well, we might talk for two minutes and then go
20:03
Speaker 1: on if you're ready to come back. But let me
20:05
Speaker 1: ask you this. When you talk about you know where
20:07
Speaker 1: the hot buttons are. Would you support removing or reducing
20:12
Speaker 1: some of the sales tax exemptions we have in the
20:14
Speaker 1: state of Nebraska. That's a hot button because we know
20:18
Speaker 1: how many sales tax exemptions we have a lot of
20:21
Speaker 1: them affects agriculture. I know Governor Heinemann when he was governor,
20:26
Speaker 1: he really was making headway with this, and then it
20:29
Speaker 1: seemed like it almost expanded too much and too many
20:32
Speaker 1: people's box was getting gored, and you backed off from it.
20:37
Speaker 1: It wasn't even brought up last year in the legislature.
20:39
Speaker 1: But there are so many sales tax exemptions in the
20:43
Speaker 1: state of Nebraska. I know it was estimated years ago
20:46
Speaker 1: that if you got even reduced some of those, you
20:49
Speaker 1: could greatly reduce the need for property taxes. What's your
20:52
Speaker 1: thought on all these sales tax exemptions, because I think
20:55
Speaker 1: that's important. You can start and then Scott will break
20:59
Speaker 1: us off, and then you can them back if you want.
21:00
Speaker 3: To, Well we can, let's open that up. So there's
21:03
Speaker 3: over one hundred and fifty different exemptions.
21:05
Speaker 2: There are. There's reasons that we have those.
21:09
Speaker 3: I mean politically speaking, when Pillan called governor, Pillen called
21:12
Speaker 3: a special session, the problem with that is he led
21:15
Speaker 3: with that, and part of this plan or what's in
21:19
Speaker 3: the plan, is we don't we're not going to touch
21:21
Speaker 3: the exemptions and we're not going to increase taxes because
21:24
Speaker 3: with the exemptions, Republicans would viewed as a tax increase.
21:27
Speaker 3: Democrats viewed as a regressive taxation. You're talking about haircuts'
21:34
Speaker 3: there's a lot of different things in their car repair.
21:37
Speaker 3: But at the business level, there's legal services, there's CPA
21:42
Speaker 3: services or tax financial services. Those those industries could operate anywhere.
21:46
Speaker 3: They would leave the stay. So it's not as simple
21:49
Speaker 3: as we go in there and do that because if
21:52
Speaker 3: you don't tackle the other things up front, which I
21:55
Speaker 3: talked about, that's not going to be a part of
21:57
Speaker 3: the equation because politically speaking, one, it's not feasible too.
22:02
Speaker 3: It's not necessary for what this plan is designed to do.
22:06
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to go in there and increase taxes.
22:10
Speaker 3: That I view it as on the exemption side, is
22:13
Speaker 3: increasing taxes on these people because now you have sales
22:15
Speaker 3: tax on these but you can do it based on
22:18
Speaker 3: growth above baseline budget.
22:20
Speaker 1: Food and food products are one thing that I would
22:23
Speaker 1: never support a sales tax on that talk about regressive.
22:26
Speaker 1: But I know it came out last year about well,
22:29
Speaker 1: let's talk about taxing things that you don't need, and
22:34
Speaker 1: they were saying things like, you know, candy and soda,
22:38
Speaker 1: and that ruffled people's feathers because they were saying, who
22:41
Speaker 1: are you government to tell me what I need and
22:43
Speaker 1: what I don't need.
22:45
Speaker 3: And these are tax I mean they are tax at
22:47
Speaker 3: the back end, right, So the sales tax does end
22:52
Speaker 3: up going in some cases. You know you when you start,
22:58
Speaker 3: but you know you don't want to tax tax business
23:01
Speaker 3: inputs either.
23:02
Speaker 1: We can get into that after the Brettlinstrom is with
23:04
Speaker 1: us today. What about Okay, the state's portion of the
23:07
Speaker 1: sales tax is five and a half? Would you ever
23:11
Speaker 1: support raising that five and a half? Okay, that's that's
23:14
Speaker 1: a definite nu. Okay, that's a good time to break
23:17
Speaker 1: for a commercial, and we will be back with Brettlinstrom.
23:21
Speaker 1: This is the KFAB comment line with Gene Stouthard, and
23:24
Speaker 1: we are back with Brett Linstrom, who is running for
23:28
Speaker 1: governor now as an independent or nonpartisan I guess you
23:32
Speaker 1: would say. And we are talking about our favorite subject,
23:35
Speaker 1: property taxes throughout the state and what he would do
23:38
Speaker 1: if he was the governor. Let me bring up one
23:40
Speaker 1: other subject and then we've got some calls. Maybe you
23:43
Speaker 1: can answer for some callers. But the other thing is
23:46
Speaker 1: there is was a movement advocates that were proposing the
23:51
Speaker 1: epic Consumption tax, and that that they were proposing it
23:54
Speaker 1: is replacing property tax, income tax Inherton tax with this
23:58
Speaker 1: consumption tax, which is effectively a sales tax on services
24:03
Speaker 1: and new purchases. And they were saying it would be
24:06
Speaker 1: seven point five percent, and everybody thought, well, darn it,
24:09
Speaker 1: that doesn't sound too bad at all. But then it
24:12
Speaker 1: seems like that the more and more you read about it,
24:15
Speaker 1: it was based on some flawed calculation that really does
24:18
Speaker 1: not reflect the tax base, and it seemed like what
24:22
Speaker 1: everything I read about it, the correct analysis suggests that
24:26
Speaker 1: they would require a statewide consumption tax rate of about
24:30
Speaker 1: twenty one percent or even more so. Imagine if you
24:34
Speaker 1: went out and bought a house and you had a
24:36
Speaker 1: twenty one and a half percent sales tax or a
24:38
Speaker 1: new car. Talk about what you think about, Are you
24:42
Speaker 1: a supporter of an epic type of a consumption tax
24:46
Speaker 1: or what do you think about that is a way
24:48
Speaker 1: to lower property taxes?
24:50
Speaker 2: Fundamentally, I think sales tax is a better way in
24:55
Speaker 2: the sense that you can say yes or noes to
24:57
Speaker 2: something versus penalizing for owning things.
25:02
Speaker 3: But within the epic, yeah, I have had conversations with
25:06
Speaker 3: the proponents of that, and then when they talked about
25:09
Speaker 3: seven and a half percent, again knowing the math, and
25:12
Speaker 3: if you eliminate income and property, seven and a half
25:16
Speaker 3: just doesn't equate to meeting the budgetary needs of the state.
25:20
Speaker 3: And then that's where that number came in at the
25:22
Speaker 3: twenty one percent. The issue if you could keep people
25:26
Speaker 3: contained in Nebraska, you know, it might work, but seventy
25:29
Speaker 3: percent of the population lives within several miles of are
25:35
Speaker 3: border states. And if you increase that high enough, people
25:39
Speaker 3: will go purchase products.
25:40
Speaker 1: And the people that live in the central part of
25:42
Speaker 1: the state would take the burden. Yes, that's exactly what
25:45
Speaker 1: would happen.
25:45
Speaker 2: And just it it sounds good.
25:50
Speaker 3: You know, anytime you say you're going to eliminate things,
25:53
Speaker 3: people will jump on board with that. I just am
25:55
Speaker 3: not confident that the mechanisms and the percentages wouldn't get
26:00
Speaker 3: us into trouble. Plus, if you have an economic downturn
26:03
Speaker 3: and people stop paying for go and spending money, which
26:07
Speaker 3: they do, they tend not to spend money. Economic downturns
26:11
Speaker 3: what happens to all the other services the government provides. So, uh,
26:17
Speaker 3: you know, I understand it. I don't know if they
26:18
Speaker 3: were going to attempt to do it again, but this
26:21
Speaker 3: you know this doctrine and this this plan we can
26:24
Speaker 3: and that's what the Infrastructure Stability Fund also includes, is
26:28
Speaker 3: the elimination of the inheritance tax. Because counties always will
26:31
Speaker 3: come in and say that's part of our revenue stream.
26:34
Speaker 3: But if we have these off ramps that allow them
26:37
Speaker 3: to know that there's a you know, it's more predictable,
26:42
Speaker 3: more stable, they're going to be less more reluctant to
26:47
Speaker 3: push back. And that's where doing this in the sequence
26:50
Speaker 3: and phasing all of this in is very doable. But yeah,
26:54
Speaker 3: you have to keep budget the budget under three percent,
26:57
Speaker 3: which we did when I was in the legislature, and
26:58
Speaker 3: that allowed us to.
26:59
Speaker 2: Do these proper these tax cuts.
27:01
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of different things, a lot of mechanisms,
27:04
Speaker 3: but all of these things can be put in place
27:06
Speaker 3: all while we're trying to grow, so the framework can
27:11
Speaker 3: be worked one and again, I don't think this is
27:12
Speaker 3: a Democrat or Republican issue. Most legislative candidates and anybody
27:17
Speaker 3: running for office talks about property tax and cutting propery tax.
27:21
Speaker 3: This Once this is set on the tracks, it happens right.
27:25
Speaker 1: And it's important to know that no state has ever
27:29
Speaker 1: abolished property tax. It would make Nebraska the first, so
27:34
Speaker 1: there is nobody else to compare it, to compare us too,
27:38
Speaker 1: if that's the direction that people thought they wanted to go.
27:41
Speaker 1: But obviously that soaring property tax burdens are a genuine
27:45
Speaker 1: concerned and I think it's really important and appropriate for
27:50
Speaker 1: policy makers to seek solutions. I know you were involved
27:54
Speaker 1: in the individual and the corporate tax rates, is that
27:57
Speaker 1: right when you were in the legislature, and that those
28:00
Speaker 1: have been going down correct and I think twenty twenty
28:04
Speaker 1: seven they will be the lowest and then graduated corporate
28:07
Speaker 1: income text are down too, beginning in twenty twenty six.
28:11
Speaker 1: So all of that is underway, but there's still people
28:17
Speaker 1: aren't seeing it in their in their pocketbooks basically. So Okay,
28:20
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of calls, and then we went
28:22
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of other things. Oh, we hope
28:24
Speaker 1: we can get all these in. Brettlinstrom is with us today.
28:27
Speaker 1: We have some emails here, and Brett, you've seen this coming.
28:32
Speaker 1: I'm sure do you do you want the good, the bad,
28:34
Speaker 1: or the ugly version of.
28:35
Speaker 2: It, whatever you want to take them all.
28:37
Speaker 4: We'll go with this one from Tyler. And there are
28:40
Speaker 4: certainly some that are a bit more forceful on this comment.
28:43
Speaker 4: At kfab dot com, you can reach out to the program,
28:46
Speaker 4: and Tyler, emailing us from the thriving metropolis of Ohiowa, Nebraska, says,
28:53
Speaker 4: I don't know a lot about Brett, but I believe
28:55
Speaker 4: he is a good person and would make a decent governor. However,
29:00
Speaker 4: I'm truly concerned that is entering the race will set
29:02
Speaker 4: up Governor Lynn Wallas. If that happens, I don't think
29:05
Speaker 4: myself or other true conservative Nebraskans will forgive him or
29:09
Speaker 4: his ego for entering this race.
29:12
Speaker 3: That's from Tyler, and it's a concern that people have
29:15
Speaker 3: brought up to me, and I've been very transparent about
29:18
Speaker 3: what this looks like it you know, both Lynn and
29:23
Speaker 3: Governor Pillen, as I see it, even if you subscribe
29:26
Speaker 3: to their plans in both cases, I would argue that
29:30
Speaker 3: there really isn't a plan on either side, not one
29:33
Speaker 3: that I've ever heard or seen articulated that actually would work.
29:40
Speaker 3: When it comes to the percentages, and I dug into this,
29:42
Speaker 3: you know, twenty six percent of the state is registered Democrat,
29:46
Speaker 3: twenty two percent is registered nonpartisan or independent, about forty
29:51
Speaker 3: eight percent is Republican. Lynn is not going to get
29:55
Speaker 3: one hundred percent of the Democrat votes, especially if she
30:01
Speaker 3: doesn't again articulated plan. And I don't think the momentum
30:04
Speaker 3: is going to be there for her from the nonpartisan side.
30:07
Speaker 3: A lot of the I would say votes are things
30:09
Speaker 3: that I'm talking about the nonpartisan elected group or electorate
30:16
Speaker 3: would be in favor of and with the Republicans. After
30:20
Speaker 3: pill and spends however much he's gonna spend against Lynn,
30:25
Speaker 3: there's not gonna be a lot of crossover. Again, going
30:28
Speaker 3: back to what we first talked about, the polarization, You're
30:31
Speaker 3: just not going to get a lot of the RS
30:33
Speaker 3: voting for d's and d's versus RS. So I don't
30:36
Speaker 3: see Lynn being able to even achieve even close to
30:40
Speaker 3: the plurality needed to win this. And you know, I've
30:43
Speaker 3: looked at other states and other races where similar things
30:46
Speaker 3: have happened, and the percentages get into maybe the high
30:51
Speaker 3: high teens with her. So I'm not And really, this
30:55
Speaker 3: isn't about Republican Democrat. This is about how the outcome
31:00
Speaker 3: for people and all these things have been talked about
31:03
Speaker 3: for decades. How do we do it and how do
31:05
Speaker 3: we eliminate or probably can't fully eliminate it, but push
31:11
Speaker 3: back on the political divisiveness to do what's best and
31:15
Speaker 3: the best outcome for people, because again, people are tired.
31:17
Speaker 3: I feel like you know, I believe a lot of
31:19
Speaker 3: these politicians and leaders have poured gasoline on the fire
31:24
Speaker 3: of this and stoked it. And people have enough issues
31:28
Speaker 3: and problems going on they don't need their leaders to
31:31
Speaker 3: pile on. And so this is what I talk about
31:34
Speaker 3: here philosophically, is to strip that out and the doctrine
31:37
Speaker 3: is set and put in place where it's not a
31:40
Speaker 3: Republican Democrat deal.
31:42
Speaker 2: We want to grow.
31:43
Speaker 3: The more, the faster we grow, the better it is,
31:45
Speaker 3: and we can then systematically do these things to lower
31:48
Speaker 3: property tax.
31:49
Speaker 1: Well, let me just ask you this, Brett, and then
31:50
Speaker 1: we'll take another message here. But when you say over
31:54
Speaker 1: and over, it's not a Democrat or Republican thing. And
31:56
Speaker 1: in the perfect world, democrats and Republicans, no matter what
31:59
Speaker 1: they're philosophy is, could work together to get things done.
32:02
Speaker 1: But if you were governor, there are definitely some very
32:06
Speaker 1: partisan issues. I mean, pro life, pro choice, healthcare, immigration, climate,
32:13
Speaker 1: gun control, crime, death penalty. I mean, these things usually
32:18
Speaker 1: divide amongst party lines, So as a dependent independent, not
32:23
Speaker 1: a dependent as an independent, you know, how are you
32:26
Speaker 1: going to land on some of these issues? It is
32:29
Speaker 1: Democrat or Republican issues, it seems like from the philosophy
32:32
Speaker 1: of the different parties.
32:33
Speaker 3: Well, and I have a voting record on all these things,
32:35
Speaker 3: so it isn't that I switch a nonpartisan and.
32:38
Speaker 2: That just goes out the way.
32:40
Speaker 3: The reality of it is is odds are that Democrats
32:46
Speaker 3: pick up maybe three or four seats in November. Well,
32:49
Speaker 3: if that does happen, you now have a very divided
32:53
Speaker 3: legislature and that's where all of these issues will be debated. Yes,
32:58
Speaker 3: if they do debate those all the things that you
33:00
Speaker 3: just listed, not one of them will go everything. It
33:04
Speaker 3: would be filibustered either on either side, and not one
33:08
Speaker 3: of those issues is going to go. So instead of
33:11
Speaker 3: talking about that, I mean, I think most people know
33:14
Speaker 3: exactly where they're elected official stand or even though where
33:18
Speaker 3: I stand. This is about growing and that's where the
33:21
Speaker 3: doctrine is in place to do those things because those
33:24
Speaker 3: things are achievable in these first couple of years, regardless
33:29
Speaker 3: of the makeup of the legislature.
33:31
Speaker 2: Okay, that's what this is all about Okay.
33:34
Speaker 1: Next, you got another one?
33:35
Speaker 2: Yep.
33:35
Speaker 4: This one is via the talkback mic. Anywhere you are
33:38
Speaker 4: with our free iHeartRadio app, you can send a message
33:41
Speaker 4: with your own voice right here under the Zonker's custom
33:43
Speaker 4: woods inbox.
33:44
Speaker 2: Hi, this is Jeff.
33:46
Speaker 5: Why does it take seventy percent of property tax to
33:50
Speaker 5: get a kid from K through twelve? I don't understand
33:54
Speaker 5: why it would cost so much money. It seems like
33:57
Speaker 5: most of the high schools have elaborate football fields, artificial turf,
34:01
Speaker 5: and it's swapped out every few years. Maybe that's where
34:04
Speaker 5: the money's going, because it sure isn't going for education.
34:09
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm gonna let Brett, do you want to tackle
34:11
Speaker 1: that one? Because I once.
34:12
Speaker 4: Said he couldn't what might hear? I hear the ear
34:17
Speaker 4: was off there. So he says, why does it take
34:19
Speaker 4: seventy percent of property test? He says, why does it
34:23
Speaker 4: take seventy percent of your property taxes? Okay to go
34:25
Speaker 4: to education? To get a kid from K through twelve?
34:28
Speaker 4: He says, all these high schools have elaborate football fields
34:31
Speaker 4: and artificial turf, and they're swapping it out every few years.
34:34
Speaker 4: Maybe that's where the money's going because it sure ain't
34:36
Speaker 4: going for education. That's from Jeff Well, there's.
34:39
Speaker 3: Probably there's a good argument there to say that not
34:41
Speaker 3: all the dollars are getting to the student. But it's
34:45
Speaker 3: also a local control issue as well, it is, and
34:49
Speaker 3: those are the that's why.
34:51
Speaker 1: That's your elected school board members that you all elect
34:54
Speaker 1: to make these decisions.
34:56
Speaker 3: Right, And so the things that we can do at
34:57
Speaker 3: the state level is put in what I do described
35:01
Speaker 3: and in having these numbers not necessarily go go wild
35:05
Speaker 3: at twenty percent increases, but yeah, it matters who you
35:08
Speaker 3: liked locally, and you know, not a lot of people
35:11
Speaker 3: show up to those meetings at the school boards. And
35:14
Speaker 3: so when you get these conversations that haven't happened in
35:18
Speaker 3: communities where they go, hey, you know the consolidation will
35:22
Speaker 3: come up. Well, then the other school tends to build
35:25
Speaker 3: a gym or do something like that to make sure
35:27
Speaker 3: it's the best school if they were to consolidate.
35:29
Speaker 2: And those are the local issues. So tackling.
35:34
Speaker 3: What I think is this, you know, again the seventy
35:36
Speaker 3: percent is how we address it at the state level.
35:40
Speaker 3: And that's through that again that rolling average on evaluation.
35:43
Speaker 3: It's dealing with the local effort rate within TIOSA. Those
35:46
Speaker 3: are the things where we can control and stabilize. But
35:49
Speaker 3: we do you know, we spend in our in our region,
35:52
Speaker 3: spend more per per student in most states.
35:54
Speaker 1: And you can find out from the state, you know,
35:57
Speaker 1: cost per student in each of the different school districts.
36:01
Speaker 1: For instance, OPS in this area they have a higher
36:05
Speaker 1: I think it's about thirteen thousand a year per student,
36:09
Speaker 1: where Millard's around eleven thousand per student. But then they
36:12
Speaker 1: have a lot more kids on free and reduced lunch
36:15
Speaker 1: too and OPS. But that goes back to my point
36:18
Speaker 1: I was trying to make earlier and the gentleman was
36:21
Speaker 1: right that called in to say, a lot of this
36:23
Speaker 1: money doesn't go directly to educating the student, but it
36:27
Speaker 1: goes to a lot of overhead. You know, in each
36:29
Speaker 1: school district, you need, like I said, you need a superintendent,
36:31
Speaker 1: you need somebody head of elementary, at secondary, at special ed.
36:35
Speaker 1: You need you know, everything from you know, keeping the
36:38
Speaker 1: buildings up and the support staff and paying the teachers
36:42
Speaker 1: and all of that goes into running a school district.
36:47
Speaker 1: And you want your goal is to be the most
36:49
Speaker 1: cost efficient school district and yet the highest achieving. That's
36:54
Speaker 1: that's the goal of a school board. But you know,
36:57
Speaker 1: again this shows the important of knowing who you're voting
37:02
Speaker 1: for and knowing when you're voting for these school board
37:04
Speaker 1: members too. They're very important. A lot of times when
37:07
Speaker 1: people vote for school board members. I mean, they know
37:09
Speaker 1: who's running for governor, and they know who's running for Congress,
37:12
Speaker 1: but the school board members sometimes they'll go eenie meenie,
37:15
Speaker 1: miney mo, and let's just vote whoever is the first
37:18
Speaker 1: five or whatever. And it's so important because the biggest,
37:22
Speaker 1: the largest amount of your property tax goes to those
37:25
Speaker 1: school districts. And you know, I remembered when I first
37:28
Speaker 1: started the school districts, it was about fifty to fifty
37:31
Speaker 1: local school district and state aid. And then it changed
37:35
Speaker 1: and the state wanted us, as on school boards, to
37:38
Speaker 1: become more reliant on property tax and so we were
37:41
Speaker 1: we had to put more of property taxes into educating
37:46
Speaker 1: the students. And then it became while we were spending
37:49
Speaker 1: too much money, and so you know, it goes back
37:51
Speaker 1: and forth. But that state aid formula, the TIOSA that
37:54
Speaker 1: you brought up, it's very difficult to understand, I think,
37:58
Speaker 1: and I thought, I really understood it before. But it's very,
38:01
Speaker 1: very complicated, and I think the average Nebraska, because I
38:06
Speaker 1: would consider myself an average Nebraska, It's hard to understand
38:10
Speaker 1: how they figure all that out. How much goes into
38:12
Speaker 1: state aid, how much comes from local property taxes that
38:16
Speaker 1: your school board members vote on. So go ahead, Scott,
38:20
Speaker 1: I think we have one more.
38:21
Speaker 4: Oh, we have lots more. Okay, goods.
38:23
Speaker 1: Get those.
38:24
Speaker 4: Oh well, since we're talking about education, let's get a
38:26
Speaker 4: call in here from Kate. Tell Okate. You're on news
38:28
Speaker 4: radio eleven ten KFAB and the Comment Line with hosts
38:32
Speaker 4: Jean Stothard and guest gubernatorial candidate Brett Linstrom.
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Speaker 6: Good morning, Hi, good morning. I'm a former teacher, very
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Speaker 6: concerned about the front page of the paper today talking
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Speaker 6: about the readiness of or the lack of readiness of
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Speaker 6: kids going into kindergarten. Mentions the learning community specifically, never
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Speaker 6: understood it. Lots of my money goes to the learning community.
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Speaker 6: You know, you've got ops who is graduating. I think
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Speaker 6: about seventy percent of their kids, or maybe it's even
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Speaker 6: lower than that, sixty five point eight, depends on what
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Speaker 6: you're looking at. But can you just tell me a
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Speaker 6: little bit anybody has any clue as to why I'm
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Speaker 6: not connecting the dots here.
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Speaker 3: On why kids aren't quite ready when they get in. Yeah,
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Speaker 3: there's there's a lot of there's a lot of layers
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Speaker 3: within education and a lot of different groups and associations
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Speaker 3: that that come down there, especially down the Capitol one
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Speaker 3: one hundred percent of what they want, and there's not
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Speaker 3: a cohesive I would say leadership and making sure that
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Speaker 3: we're ultimately doing what's best for the kids. And I
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Speaker 3: know they've the legislation in the last couple of years
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Speaker 3: have tried some of those things. It is much more complicated,
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Speaker 3: especially were talking about kids getting ready and you know,
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Speaker 3: know what their home life is.
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Speaker 2: Are they ready?
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Speaker 3: Are they are the parents reading to them at a
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Speaker 3: young age? And so a couple things that have been
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Speaker 3: brought up is possibly extending some of that K through
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Speaker 3: twelve education into early childhood even before kindergarten. There are
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Speaker 3: some public private partnerships that we that I'm pretty keen on.
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Speaker 3: There's places like Red Cloud and Gothenburg that have done
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Speaker 3: some of those things, especially with childcare, so you know,
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Speaker 3: coupling childcare with some of those education initiatives that kids
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Speaker 3: can be ready, and there's there's a lot of studies
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Speaker 3: out there that show that if a kid doesn't isn't
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Speaker 3: able to read in the third grade, they're going to
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Speaker 3: have a lot of problems later on. And so those
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Speaker 3: are some of the things that we're going to tackle.
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Speaker 3: And where this we talked about earlier on the say
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Speaker 3: overhead or administrative cost savings, this is where I'd like
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Speaker 3: to go more into, you know, teacher retention bonuses for
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Speaker 3: the teachers that are doing a good job and those
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Speaker 3: outcomes for for kids. So we're gonna we're going to
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Speaker 3: find optimization. You know, not everybody is going to initially
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Speaker 3: be on board with some of those things because everybody
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Speaker 3: has their own little fiefdom that they want to control
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Speaker 3: and and and not participate in. But that's where some
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Speaker 3: of these levers in how we structure it in the
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Speaker 3: phase in that healthy friction and that dialogue has to
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Speaker 3: be done by by both you know, the governor and
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Speaker 3: uh with the legislature, And those are the things we're
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Speaker 3: going to tackle. I mean, I have three young kids.
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Speaker 3: Educations is important to me. I truly believe it's a
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Speaker 3: great equalizer for for kids and the outcomes regardless of
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Speaker 3: how how a child maybe grew up. Education can separate that,
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Speaker 3: uh for great outcomes. So we're going to tackle those things.
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Speaker 1: And I will just add on here. I think you
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Speaker 1: know the Buffet Institute, which the article talked about this morning,
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Speaker 1: they've been working in partnership with the Learning community for
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Speaker 1: at least ten years and eleven school districts that are
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Speaker 1: in Douglas and Sarpee County. And I think, I mean
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Speaker 1: it is known now that that early childhood education really
42:12
Speaker 1: makes a difference a lot of times depending on the
42:15
Speaker 1: background and where these kids are coming from. And you know,
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Speaker 1: like I said, Omaha Public Schools has a large percentage
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Speaker 1: of students on free and reduce lunch, meaning they're coming
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Speaker 1: from lower income families. And I always said, it doesn't
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Speaker 1: mean you have to be from high income to be smart.
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Speaker 1: You just have to be prepared and ready to go
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Speaker 1: to school. And that's what they're focusing on that some
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Speaker 1: of these kids that are vulnerable and from lower income families,
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Speaker 1: they can certainly do very very well in school if
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Speaker 1: they're ready for school. And what they are saying is
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Speaker 1: that brain They talk about brain development. A lot important
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Speaker 1: years are when you're three years old, like three to five.
42:52
Speaker 1: You don't start kindergarten un till five, and they're focusing
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Speaker 1: on those areas, what they're three to five, that they
42:58
Speaker 1: can help these kids that don't get a lot of
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Speaker 1: help and support at home to get them ready for
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Speaker 1: kindergarten and ready for school and school will be familiar
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Speaker 1: with them to them when they start school. And I
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Speaker 1: think that's what they're really really focused on. So it's
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Speaker 1: really that early childhood education. But again it's it's it's
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Speaker 1: who's paying for these things too. Boy, Brett, I had
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Speaker 1: about one hundred more questions I was going to ask you.
43:25
Speaker 1: I'm going to ask you one really really quickly. Are
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Speaker 1: you still getting the same partisan support that you received
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Speaker 1: with your last run as a Republican?
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Speaker 3: Yes, okay, it's been pretty interesting in the conversations whether
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Speaker 3: they're quite ready to say anything publicly. Okay, I've had
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Speaker 3: a lot of off the record conversations with a lot
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Speaker 3: of support from both elected officials and former electors.
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Speaker 1: Because when you when you ran before, I mean, I
43:54
Speaker 1: thought you were a good candidate. I supported you before.
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Speaker 2: I appreciate it, I know.
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Speaker 1: And you had a lot of support, some support, and
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Speaker 1: then are you getting your previous donors back again. Yeah, okay,
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Speaker 1: all right, that's important too. Scott Borghes is losing his
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Speaker 1: mind over here, Brett. We could talk. We could talk
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Speaker 1: for another hour or so. But thanks for being with
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Speaker 1: us today, Brett, Thank you, and thank you all for
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Speaker 1: listening and spending this hour with us. We'd love for
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Speaker 1: you to join us again tomorrow. I'm Jeane Stothard and
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Speaker 1: this is eleven ten k F A B