Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / State Senator Kathleen Kauth & Gretna Mayor Mike Evans

Transcript

State Senator Kathleen Kauth & Gretna Mayor Mike Evans · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: NewsRadio 1110, Omaha's news, weather, and traffic station here on
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  Speaker 1: the KFAB comment.
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  Speaker 2: Line, 402-558-1110.
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  Speaker 1: Or send us an email, comment at kfab.com. All of
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  Speaker 1: your questions, comments, and concerns are fair game today. And
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  Speaker 1: hosting the show, as Gene Stother would call it, State
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  Speaker 1: Senator Kathleen Kauth of Omaha and Gretna Mayor Mike Evans.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, guys. Good morning. Thanks for having us on.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Peyton. Good morning.
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  Speaker 1: This is a very exciting time. I'm excited to have
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  Speaker 1: you guys on the show today hosting the show. And
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  Speaker 1: as a matter of fact, mayor Evans, I already have
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  Speaker 1: a phone call from a Gretna resident. So let's get
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  Speaker 1: off to it right away. I know you guys have
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  Speaker 1: a lot that you'd like to discuss amongst yourselves, but
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  Speaker 1: let's take a phone call right away from a Gretna resident. Sam,
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  Speaker 1: thank you so much for the call this morning. You
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  Speaker 1: are now live on the KFAB comment line. Hey Sam,
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  Speaker 1: this Mike.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, good morning. Good morning, mayor. Uh, I'm a resident
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  Speaker 3: of Gretna. I live out in the... We built the
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  Speaker 3: house about five years ago in the Aspen Creek neighborhood and.
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  Speaker 2: Kind of.
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  Speaker 3: Behind where the world's largest Hy-Vee is.
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  Speaker 2: I know exactly where you live.
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  Speaker 3: And my question, a big concern with all of our neighbors,
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  Speaker 3: we always talk about it, is now that 192nd Street's paved.
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  Speaker 3: It's incredibly busy, and there's no stoplights at any of
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  Speaker 3: those intersections, 192nd and Cornhusker, the one coming into our neighborhood,
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  Speaker 3: the one over by Hy-Vee. And getting back, if you
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  Speaker 3: go across where all these and all that other new
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  Speaker 3: development is, trying to get turned left onto 192nd is like, I'm.
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  Speaker 4: Surprised there's not multiple accidents.
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  Speaker 3: I just didn't know if you knew if those plans
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  Speaker 3: were in the making.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 5: So first of all, thanks for being part of our community.
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  Speaker 5: We're excited to have new people move to community. And
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  Speaker 5: the tricky thing about Gretna is we have city limits
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  Speaker 5: and we have ETJs and there's a lot of SIDs
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  Speaker 5: and HOAs. So it's always hard to parse what part
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  Speaker 5: of the community you're in. In your case, north of 370,
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  Speaker 5: much of that is in the county. But we work
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  Speaker 5: hand in hand with the county for public safety. 192nd
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  Speaker 5: initially it was the easiest road in the metro to
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  Speaker 5: drive on because there wasn't any traffic lights and there
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  Speaker 5: wasn't much traffic but it is now getting busier and
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  Speaker 5: as the southern corridor tying into the interstate gets done
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  Speaker 5: it's going to get busier so anticipate there will be
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  Speaker 5: some traffic lights or something throughout that stretch. I couldn't
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  Speaker 5: tell you exactly where that is but we're watching that
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  Speaker 5: closely and expect that to be sooner than later we
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  Speaker 5: start having those conversations as the.
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  Speaker 2: Volume picks up.
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  Speaker 5: So that's all I know right now. Once again, part
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  Speaker 5: of this is in the county, the northern part, so
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  Speaker 5: we do need to work with the county to make
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  Speaker 5: sure we get that in the right place and keep
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  Speaker 5: your part of the community safe.
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  Speaker 2: So I appreciate your call.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for the call, Sam. Anybody else with questions, comments,
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  Speaker 1: or concerns, 402-558-1110 or comment at kfab.com.
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  Speaker 4: Now, Mrs.
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  Speaker 2: Kathleen Califf. Welcome to the show.
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  Speaker 1: You've been on The Chris Baker Show quite a few
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  Speaker 1: times over the last few months.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning. Good morning. I have been.
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  Speaker 6: And actually, for that last caller, I use that Aldi's,
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  Speaker 6: and it is a nightmare trying to get out and
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  Speaker 6: turning left because I go towards Harrison Street, and it's really,
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  Speaker 6: really hard to get out of there.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm glad to hear something. Well, thanks for shopping
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  Speaker 2: in Gretna. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 6: Oddly enough, that is– It's on my way home from
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  Speaker 6: the Capitol.
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  Speaker 2: Oddly enough, that's not even in the city limits.
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  Speaker 6: Really?
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  Speaker 2: So you don't pay city sales tax by shopping at Aldi's. See?
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  Speaker 2: All of these good reasons. There's your– Yeah. There's your hint.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So anyway, yeah, it's great. So how do we get
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  Speaker 2: on this show? What are we doing here?
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  Speaker 6: Oh, so this is just you and I like hanging out.
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  Speaker 6: We have fun and we thought, gosh, we would be
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  Speaker 6: great on the radio. So we started bugging Scott.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah. So we really appreciate what Mayor Stothert's done with
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  Speaker 5: really creating a communication with the public and answering questions
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  Speaker 5: because we want to serve our community. No, wait. There
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  Speaker 5: are politics aside. We both care a great deal about
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  Speaker 5: the state and about Omaha. So that's why we're here.
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  Speaker 5: We're here to serve and make sure we answer questions.
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  Speaker 5: If we don't answer them today, we'll definitely follow up.
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  Speaker 2: We'll find out. Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: And Mayor Stother always sounds like she's having a blast.
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  Speaker 6: Every time I hear the Badapti commercial, I just crack
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  Speaker 6: up because it's not often that you hear Mayor Stother
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  Speaker 6: doing something so fun.
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  Speaker 2: So I hate to say it, but you want to
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  Speaker 2: talk about elections a little bit. I do, actually.
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  Speaker 6: So this has been, I don't know. The craziest election
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  Speaker 6: season I think I've ever witnessed.
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  Speaker 2: Do we have the ballots set yet? The ballots are set.
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  Speaker 6: From what I understand, I don't think there are any
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  Speaker 6: more surprises.
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  Speaker 2: So the ballots are set.
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  Speaker 6: One of the things I talk to people about is
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  Speaker 6: you should try to download your ballot ahead of time.
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  Speaker 6: You can go to the county commission office and ask them.
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  Speaker 6: You can go to their website. I know Douglas County
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  Speaker 6: Election Commission has a really great website where you just
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  Speaker 6: plug in your house number. and your zip code, and
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  Speaker 6: it pops up exactly who you get to vote for
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  Speaker 6: and what's on your ballot. But it's really, it's important
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  Speaker 6: to go through and say, okay, investigate the people who
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  Speaker 6: are running, investigate the initiatives that are happening. We've had
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  Speaker 6: two brand new parties pop up, and these parties are,
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  Speaker 6: I think they're probably strategically brilliant because they're done to
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  Speaker 6: fool people. So the people who are doing it are,
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  Speaker 6: you know, thinking they're pretty smart. But The America First
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  Speaker 6: Party is actually started by a very, very far left
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  Speaker 6: progressive and trying to make it look like something conservative
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  Speaker 6: and it's really not. Again, very sneaky tactic. And the
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  Speaker 6: Working People's Party, is that the second one?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, right. I haven't heard as much about that. So
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  Speaker 2: we have two new parties.
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  Speaker 6: We have people who have been one party switching from
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  Speaker 6: Republican to independent to– Nothing and now joining the party.
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  Speaker 6: I mean it's just been chaos. Every time we watch
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  Speaker 6: it and we are pretty involved in politics and I've
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  Speaker 6: had trouble keeping up. So for everybody who is kind
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  Speaker 6: of saying what is happening here, go download. Find these websites.
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  Speaker 6: Ask people questions about the candidates, the initiatives that are
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  Speaker 6: going to be on the ballots. Ask people about the ballots.
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  Speaker 6: Do some research into them. And one of the things
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  Speaker 6: I want to tell people is if you don't understand
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  Speaker 6: a ballot initiative or you don't like it, don't leave
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  Speaker 6: it blank.
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  Speaker 2: You should put no because– pardon me.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry.
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  Speaker 6: Mayor Sauther always gets yelled at about the coughing and
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  Speaker 6: I did it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry.
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  Speaker 6: Anyway, when you don't put no, you've changed the math
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  Speaker 6: of the formula because those ballot initiatives and bond initiatives
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  Speaker 6: get passed. Sometimes with a very, very low proportion of
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  Speaker 6: people who actually want them. But because everybody else just
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  Speaker 6: leaves them blank, it's the number of people who say
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  Speaker 6: yes or no.
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  Speaker 5: Well, and I think we both agree. It's a pillar
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  Speaker 5: of our country to vote. So make sure you vote.
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  Speaker 5: Sometimes these turnouts are kind of disappointing. And our country
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  Speaker 5: is founding on our voice. And if you don't go
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  Speaker 5: and vote, you've kind of given your voice to somebody.
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  Speaker 5: So I think it's so important that everybody votes. But
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  Speaker 5: don't just vote based on a billboard.
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  Speaker 2: Do your homework. It's so important. These decisions matter. So
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  Speaker 2: make sure you get out and vote. That's one thing.
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  Speaker 2: And to all the candidates, good luck. We talk about
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  Speaker 2: how hard it is to run. I don't care what
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  Speaker 2: party you're with.
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  Speaker 5: It's hard to put yourself out there, whether it's a
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  Speaker 5: school board, which I think might be the hardest spot,
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  Speaker 5: or state senator or governor.
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  Speaker 2: All these positions matter. They're all hard to do.
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  Speaker 5: And thanks for all the candidates and all parties to
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  Speaker 5: really putting yourself out there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: And so the door knocking, the number of shoes you
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  Speaker 6: wear through is kind of a badge of honor. I
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  Speaker 6: will say that every time I've gone door knocking, with
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  Speaker 6: the exception of a few times, I've met such wonderful
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  Speaker 6: people who want to have conversations even though they're difficult
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  Speaker 6: conversations or are just so very generous. You go door
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  Speaker 6: knocking on a 100-degree day and you look like you're
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  Speaker 6: melting and people say, come in, have some water.
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  Speaker 2: You're like, thank you very much. Again, you don't have
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  Speaker 2: to agree to be kind. So here you are. You're
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  Speaker 2: at KFAB. Tell me a little about yourself. Are you
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  Speaker 2: from Omaha? No, actually. Or why are you even a
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  Speaker 2: state senator? We moved here 14 years ago.
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  Speaker 6: So this is– my husband and I just celebrated our
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  Speaker 6: 33rd year anniversary.
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  Speaker 2: Is he listening?
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  Speaker 6: He is most likely not listening. He's an exceptionally busy person,
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  Speaker 6: which means I can say anything today and it won't
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  Speaker 6: get back to him for a while.
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  Speaker 2: About 30 seconds. Yeah, probably 30 seconds.
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  Speaker 6: I keep forgetting people have text and they can move quickly.
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  Speaker 6: But no, we moved here in 2012. This was our
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  Speaker 6: seventh relocation. So my husband runs retirement communities. He worked
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  Speaker 6: for a management company that moved us around everywhere. He
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  Speaker 6: was also in the military. I'm a consultant, so I
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  Speaker 6: could pick up and go. And what I love telling
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  Speaker 6: people is I started doing consulting right around the time
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  Speaker 6: the Internet became a thing. And kids look at me
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  Speaker 6: like I'm insane. Like what do you mean before the internet?
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  Speaker 6: You used to actually have to show up everywhere and
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  Speaker 6: talk to people or call on the phone and you
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  Speaker 6: have to mail your stuff to people. And so this
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  Speaker 6: is– it gave me a lot of freedom to do consulting.
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  Speaker 6: And so we've moved around. This has been the best
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  Speaker 6: place we've ever lived. And again, we've lived in some–
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  Speaker 6: we lived in West Palm Beach. We lived in Overland
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  Speaker 6: Park and Des Moines and Northern Iowa.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah.
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  Speaker 6: Brief stint down in St. Louis, and that's what actually
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  Speaker 6: brought us here. My husband called and said, this is
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  Speaker 6: not the place for us. We cannot bring the kids here.
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  Speaker 6: So we just feel like we are so blessed and
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  Speaker 6: lucky to be here.
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  Speaker 2: And we'll talk about it later, but I really think
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  Speaker 2: we live here.
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  Speaker 5: We take things for granted how incredible this city is.
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  Speaker 2: And our state, the whole state, it's just a great state.
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  Speaker 5: We get it be fortunate enough to talk to people
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  Speaker 5: outside the state that are making decisions and when they
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  Speaker 5: come here and i'll talk about bucky's later but yeah
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  Speaker 5: i mean these guys were so impressed with our state
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  Speaker 5: they hadn't really heard of it hadn't been here and
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  Speaker 5: when they start staying downtown they go what a beautiful
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  Speaker 5: city so i think there's uh That's why.
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  Speaker 2: We want to make it better.
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  Speaker 6: That's why Nebraska's special. I mean, it truly is. It's
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  Speaker 6: a very, very special place to be. So you've been
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  Speaker 6: here forever, though, right? I'm a Nebraskan, I can just say.
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  Speaker 2: Well, pretty much.
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  Speaker 5: So I lived in Omaha until I was about nine.
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  Speaker 2: Okay.
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  Speaker 5: And then my mom's from Burwell, so we moved out
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  Speaker 5: to Albany to be a little closer, I think, to parents.
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  Speaker 2: Worked on a ranch. You must have been a handful. Oh, maybe.
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  Speaker 6: Let's not talk about that today. If Mike's mom is listening,
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  Speaker 6: it'd be great if she'd call in.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. Anyway, so.
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  Speaker 5: In the summers, I worked on a ranch in Spalding
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  Speaker 5: for a while. Then I got older and helped my
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  Speaker 5: dad drill wells in Albion and loved that part of
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  Speaker 5: the country. It's just fantastic being able to kind of
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  Speaker 5: get the metro experience but then go out west and
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  Speaker 5: I guess north central, what they would call. It's not
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  Speaker 5: west but really get that experience. People out west would– yeah.
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  Speaker 5: I really– I just love the whole state. Then I
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  Speaker 5: went to school at University of Nebraska. I was a
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  Speaker 5: pretty average wrestler on the team.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, you wrestled.
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  Speaker 5: Nice.
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  Speaker 2: I wrestled, yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Well, most people in the metro know my face. from
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  Speaker 5: officiating wrestling and football in the Metro a lot. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: I said, I think mayor is being hard. You got
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  Speaker 5: to do a state semifinal at CHI.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 5: So these calls can be actually easier than being 15,000
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  Speaker 5: people upset about your out-of-bounds call.
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  Speaker 2: But no, it's a.
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  Speaker 6: See, so being a politician after being a referee is
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  Speaker 6: no big deal, right?
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  Speaker 2: And I always put that in context.
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  Speaker 5: You know, people that get upset and call in and
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  Speaker 5: they just don't know. Sometimes you just don't know the
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  Speaker 5: rules of the sport, but you're passionate. And the fact
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  Speaker 5: that you care is... Really the best part.
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  Speaker 2: You called. That's important.
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  Speaker 5: So when somebody calls me and gets upset, I'm going,
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  Speaker 5: thank you for calling. Because without your voice, I don't know.
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  Speaker 5: I learn all the time when people reach out to
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  Speaker 5: me or you. And so that's the part of the process.
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  Speaker 5: Once I realize, oh, they're not mad.
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  Speaker 2: They're just passionate. I said, okay, let's work with that.
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  Speaker 2: Or they're just mad, but it's not personal. Actually, sometimes
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  Speaker 2: it's personal. That's okay. That being said, you want to
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  Speaker 2: talk about any state stuff? Let's see here.
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  Speaker 6: Well, my poor staff, every time, so during the interim,
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  Speaker 6: everybody thinks that state senators are done as soon as
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  Speaker 6: the bell rings and we're done for the session, but
• 12:24
  Speaker 6: our interim is when we plan all of our bills
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  Speaker 6: for next year and we're having meetings with people, we're
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  Speaker 6: doing research, we're going to conferences, and I feel like
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  Speaker 6: every time I talk to someone, I'm like, you know what, okay, yes,
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  Speaker 6: we can do legislation, at least look into it. So
• 12:39
  Speaker 6: when I go to my office and I walk in,
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  Speaker 6: I feel like my staff cringes just a little bit like,
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  Speaker 6: who did you talk to today?
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  Speaker 2: So, and in fact, they're probably listening today. I told
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  Speaker 2: them I was going to be on. That's cool.
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  Speaker 5: And I'll interrupt just one second because I want to
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  Speaker 5: say this year seems different from a mayor standpoint. You know,
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  Speaker 5: we have the mayors of Sarpy County, we get together and,
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  Speaker 5: you know, we always talk to the new candidates or the,
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  Speaker 5: you know, the current ones who are in our jurisdiction
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  Speaker 5: that affect our part of the world. And I will
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  Speaker 5: say I've seen more of people listening and working out
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  Speaker 5: and working together than ever before, which is really encouraging
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  Speaker 5: to say, okay, what can we do, guys? I had
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: an opinion on how things wanted to get done. We
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  Speaker 5: literally need to get things done and start making a change.
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  Speaker 5: Tell me a little bit about what you think that's.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and that's– so I'm a mediator.
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  Speaker 6: And so getting people who have very different opinions in
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  Speaker 6: a room and who want very different goals sometimes to
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: figure out, okay, there's probably a way through it where–
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: Everyone might get something, but nobody is going to get everything.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's always something to keep in mind.
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  Speaker 6: But communication and talking about it is the first thing
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  Speaker 6: that you've actually got to start having the conversation. So
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  Speaker 6: I actually got to meet with the Unified Cities. I
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: think you guys have the unofficial name. So a bunch
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  Speaker 6: of mayors in Sarpy County and I met to talk
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  Speaker 6: about some of the things, concerns that they have specifically
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  Speaker 6: around property taxes and how to– how the state can
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  Speaker 6: help make more transparency for that.
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  Speaker 2: So that was really exciting.
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  Speaker 6: I liked visiting with all you guys, and I think
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  Speaker 6: we're working on how we can give more transparency to
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  Speaker 6: you when the state does things that interact.
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  Speaker 5: Well, we know we all have to get better, right?
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  Speaker 5: We all have to get better. And we can't just
• 14:20
  Speaker 5: say you have to get better.
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  Speaker 2: Right. And so we feel like we can, but it
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  Speaker 2: won't work.
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  Speaker 5: We can sit there and be disappointed with everything, but
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  Speaker 5: unless we get in the game and start having discussions,
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  Speaker 5: it's our fault too.
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  Speaker 6: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly. So we love having you down there. Any other
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  Speaker 2: big issues?
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  Speaker 6: So throughout the session or the interim, I've been talking
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: with my colleagues about what bills are they bringing?
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  Speaker 2: What are they looking at? Property taxes.
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  Speaker 6: And every year we try to bring different things. I
• 14:50
  Speaker 6: brought one based on the Prop 13, like freeze the
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: property tax rate when you buy your house. And we
• 14:56
  Speaker 6: couldn't get that out of the committee. So There's so
• 14:58
  Speaker 6: many different parts to the process. I would love it
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  Speaker 6: if it was just an easy, oh, here's the fix,
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  Speaker 6: and everybody agrees on it. But every time we have
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: these discussions, every time we have the hearings, we get
• 15:09
  Speaker 6: a little bit closer to something that will work well.
• 15:12
  Speaker 6: So we've been working on property tax things. The e-motos
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: is a big, big issue right now. So that's the e-bikes,
• 15:19
  Speaker 6: the e-scooters.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I saw a.
• 15:21
  Speaker 6: Hoverboard the other day going probably 20 miles per hour.
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: all of a sudden we have this proliferation of these
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: super cool– they're not toys.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: They're vehicles.
• 15:32
  Speaker 6: And we have kids, young kids using them and not
• 15:35
  Speaker 6: understanding the rules of the road. We have drivers who
• 15:38
  Speaker 6: are now having to share the road with these people
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: and not understanding how they should be used. So I
• 15:44
  Speaker 6: think we're– I met with Bike Walk Nebraska last week
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: to talk about, okay, how do we work on this?
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: There are at least three senators working on bills today.
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: Part of it is going to be the state's role
• 15:55
  Speaker 6: will be defining it. Tell us the definitions of what
• 15:58
  Speaker 6: it is so that you and the cities can say, okay,
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: here's how our particular city is going to handle it.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: And I know MAPA, which is a metro planning. Yeah,
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: they're very involved in what's tricky about the metro. You
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: go from Papillion to Livis to DeBellevue to Gretna to
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: the county to– It's all pretty seamless. You don't want
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: to have to change– rules every time you cross a jurisdiction.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: So that's why I think it's important to work together,
• 16:20
  Speaker 5: but we have to figure this out. Because after that
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: fatality in Bennington, it was so sad. I think everybody's
• 16:26
  Speaker 5: heart really wears out to that family. And we just,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: we need to fix that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 6: There have been serious, I mean, a young girl hit
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: a tree and passed away.
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: And the driver last week.
• 16:39
  Speaker 6: Or two weeks ago who chased three kids off the
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: road and ran over one of them. I mean, that's
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: There is stuff going on. Yeah, that's horrible and it
• 16:48
  Speaker 6: should not be happening. So we've really got to get
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: a grip on that. So that's going to be one
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: of the big discussions. That one I see as being
• 16:55
  Speaker 6: an incredibly bipartisan issue. Again, the senators who are working
• 16:59
  Speaker 6: on it, there are different parties, different areas of town,
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: and we'll have to have local control be involved with that.
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: Great.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: I look forward to that. Peyton, how much time do
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: we have before break? We just got a few minutes here,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Mayor Evans. Gretna Mayor Mike Evans joins us as well
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: as State Senator Kathleen Kauth co-hosting the KFAB comment line
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: this morning, 402-558-1110 or comment at kfab.com. Mayor Evans, just
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: to talk about Gretna here for a moment. Gretna is recognized,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: and I'm sure you're more than aware, as the fastest
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: growing city in Nebraska within the fastest growing county in
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Nebraska of Sarpy County. What is one thing that you
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: are really excited about being a mayor of the fastest
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: growing city as well as something that might be a
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: little bit of a struggle or something that you're working
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: on improving?
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: Now there's about a two hour answer to that. But
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: I will say, I mean, the thing that is most
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: important to me isn't growing. Growth is not a goal.
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: My goal is really to build a community where people
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: love living. There's jobs, there's opportunities, the quality of life
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: is high. We always talk about in the state that
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: we need places to live that our young generation want
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: to stay in. We hate losing all our talent outside
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: the state. I know it's frustrating for people in the
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: western part of the state to lose children to the
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: eastern part. But Omaha is not competing for that. We're
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: trying to keep a lot of people in our communities.
• 18:32
  Speaker 5: We compete against Des Moines and Kansas City and Minneapolis.
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: So I want to build a community that's just an
• 18:38
  Speaker 5: incredible place to live where people want to stay instead
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: of leave. So that's what my goal is. So what
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: I'm concerned about is we lose that as we grow.
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: And the symptom of being good is everybody wants to
• 18:49
  Speaker 5: be part of it. And so we have a lot
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: of people moving because I think we're doing the right things.
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: We just have to keep that sense of community and
• 18:55
  Speaker 5: we keep investing in our core part of the community.
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: But there are some exciting things, some things I can't
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: even talk about. We'll talk Buc-ee's later. But we have
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: a new community center we're just thrilled about.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: And we have to keep scaling our community together. And
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I always say it's not always the size of your town.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: It's the size of the heart in your town.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: And as long as we keep doing stuff like that
• 19:16
  Speaker 5: and building a community where people want to be at
• 19:18
  Speaker 5: and take care of each other, respect each other, and
• 19:21
  Speaker 5: build a really great community.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: So that's our goal.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: And we have a plan, but super excited about some
• 19:28
  Speaker 5: new developments.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: But we'll get to Buc-ee's after the break.
• 19:31
  Speaker 6: Well, I love that, the size of the heart of
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: your town. That's really hard to measure. I mean, that's
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: not something that you can– Put a data point on,
• 19:38
  Speaker 6: but it is really important.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: And once again, just quick, I had some Buc-ee's vice
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: presidents come in and they came into town and they go,
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: I love your small city.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: And they were talking about Omaha. It wasn't great. I'm like, really?
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: I said, well, you guys are from– but they're from
• 19:55
  Speaker 5: like Dallas and Houston and they're from big– they're like,
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: you know, I can see part of my family living here.
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: Your community is so easy to get around. Everybody is
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: so friendly. You have Fort Klein, which is great. We
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: only have a couple. And so I think we undersell
• 20:10
  Speaker 5: what we have in Omaha, and I think Omaha has
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: got a great heart. The philanthropic community is incredible in
• 20:15
  Speaker 5: this town. And all these nonprofit organizations that I'm fortunate
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: to be part of in the metro, not in just Gretna,
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: but in the metro, organizations, those nonprofit and the philanthropic community,
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: really special in this metro.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: It really is.
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: Well, when I lived in Des Moines, the conversations were
• 20:32
  Speaker 6: always– Well, what's Omaha doing? Omaha is doing this, so
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: we should be doing that. I mean they're very– there's
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: a little bit of an inferiority complex.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: That's good. Yeah, exactly. I don't think we're here.
• 20:44
  Speaker 6: But it was– Omaha was seen as the cool place
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: to be and so I think that we've got some
• 20:52
  Speaker 6: good stuff here.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. This is the KFAB Comment Line here on News
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Radio 1110 KFAB. State Senator Kathleen Kauth of Omaha joins us.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: as well as Gretna Mayor Mike Evans hosting the KFAB
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: comment line today.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: We'd love to hear from you. Anything that's on your mind.
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: Phone lines are open, email inbox wide open, or the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: radio talkback mic on the iHeartRadio app. That's a great one.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Up to 30 seconds, you can send a message in here,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and we'll play it on the air. Today, hosted by
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: Gretna Mayor Mike Evans and State Senator Kathleen Kauth. Welcome in, guys.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: Over the break, we talked about a few exciting topics today.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: Mayor Evans, I'll let you steer the ship here because
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: you've got a few different things going on in that
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: mind of yours.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: First, we'll start with the P word, the property tax.
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: Property tax, yeah.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Coming out hot. Yeah, it's so important.
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: For one, you have to know where this revenue is
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: going to because look at those statements you get.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Where are the revenues? And they came out last week
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: for Douglas County.
• 21:54
  Speaker 5: There's a big misperception of where that revenue goes and
• 21:56
  Speaker 5: why it goes to certain places.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: So– Cities think we do a pretty good job.
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Of course, everybody thinks they do a pretty good job.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: But cities say they're generally a part, around 20% of
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: that levy. The school districts run somewhere between 60% and
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: probably 70% in most of the communities. But there's still NRDs.
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: There's SIDs.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: And NRD is Natural Resource District.
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of parts to this puzzle.
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: And they all matter.
• 22:24
  Speaker 5: And for one, I'm kind of a guy that thinks–
• 22:26
  Speaker 5: We need to spend our money better within our jurisdictions
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: in the state before we start collecting more.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: So we try to focus on– I always talk about levies.
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: Because if you have a valuation that goes up 12
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: percent or 10 percent or 5 percent and you hold
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: your levy, well, then you have a 5 percent increase.
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: So we try to look at how much property tax
• 22:49
  Speaker 5: revenue do we collect and the revenue– I mean the
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: levy is what it is. But how much? property tax,
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: we're taking more from our existing citizens. And I think
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: that's the conversation we need to focus on.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Exactly.
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: Because as you said, if the levy stays the same
• 23:04
  Speaker 6: or people have said, hey, I've reduced the levy, but
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: those valuations have gone up 30%, they've reduced the levy
• 23:10
  Speaker 6: maybe 1%, they're still collecting the difference that that went up.
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: And so more money is being taken away. And our
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: constituents know that. They're like, I'm paying more to you.
• 23:22
  Speaker 6: And it feels very false when you say, but you
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: lowered the levy, but you didn't lower it enough to offset.
• 23:29
  Speaker 6: And that's what we really need to get to. If
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: you know the valuations are going up a certain amount,
• 23:33
  Speaker 6: how do we get it to lower by that corresponding amount?
• 23:37
  Speaker 6: And it's an unbelievably complicated task with a lot of,
• 23:40
  Speaker 6: because when you throw one lever in one area, you
• 23:43
  Speaker 6: think you've got it. It's messing with a bunch of
• 23:45
  Speaker 6: other things downstream. So that's why it's taking us some
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: time to figure out how do we make this work
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: so that we're not starting. And I will tell you
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: when I sit on the revenue committee. When we talk taxes,
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: people will come in and we'll have cities, never, Gratna,
• 24:01
  Speaker 6: coming in and saying to us, well, this is dire straits.
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: If you change how we can assess our taxes, the
• 24:09
  Speaker 6: city is going to go bankrupt or we'll have to
• 24:12
  Speaker 6: make cuts and our first cut will probably be 9-1-1
• 24:14
  Speaker 6: and wouldn't that be terrible? So the catastrophizing of what
• 24:18
  Speaker 6: will happen if you cut spending is really, you know,
• 24:21
  Speaker 6: we kind of sit there in the committee and go, look,
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: that's not actually what you'll do. You'll cut spending somewhere else.
• 24:27
  Speaker 6: But anytime a family is working and there's less money
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: coming in, they cut spending. And so that's what we
• 24:33
  Speaker 6: really have to look at is how do we get
• 24:35
  Speaker 6: it so that cities and counties can be responsible and
• 24:39
  Speaker 6: strike that balance of having the nice things that make
• 24:41
  Speaker 6: our community great, but at the same time not putting–
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: our constituents in the poorhouse or having them lose their homes,
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: which is a real concern.
• 24:50
  Speaker 5: And I know, and my staff is incredible. You don't
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: do this alone. We have incredible staff. And we challenge
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: each other on how to do things better. How do
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: we do it smarter? Do we need to buy that?
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: Can we get something used? Can we use technology instead
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: of people? We challenge ourselves all the time on how
• 25:10
  Speaker 5: to get better. And sometimes if you just have the money,
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: you'll spend it. We say, let's start with We don't
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: deserve any of this. Let's talk about getting better and
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: how do we spend it the best way we can.
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: And the thing is if you have– and I'm using
• 25:24
  Speaker 6: air quotes. You can't see this because this is radio.
• 25:25
  Speaker 6: If you have leftover money, that doesn't belong to the state,
• 25:30
  Speaker 6: the city, whoever has it. That is money that was
• 25:33
  Speaker 6: taken from the constituents and it should be returned to
• 25:36
  Speaker 6: the constituents. We have had an issue at the state
• 25:41
  Speaker 6: level where departments and divisions will have. They'll have good
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: spending habits, and then they have extra money left over,
• 25:47
  Speaker 6: so they just kind of keep it in a pot.
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: And then they ask for the same amount the next year.
• 25:52
  Speaker 6: And so sometimes those pots of money grow, and we're like,
• 25:54
  Speaker 6: you shouldn't have pots of money. We have one specific
• 25:58
  Speaker 6: rainy day fund as a state that's very, very well funded,
• 26:02
  Speaker 6: and that's where we should go. But any money that
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: is left over that didn't get spent for the particular
• 26:07
  Speaker 6: purpose it was used for should go back to the taxpayers.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 26:11
  Speaker 5: And as simple as all that sounds– The cities have
• 26:14
  Speaker 5: increased costs too, whether it's public safety.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Those costs go up. We try to pay our people responsibly.
• 26:21
  Speaker 5: And so there are a lot of moving parts and
• 26:23
  Speaker 5: it's not easy. We hate to make it sound like
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: it's all government's fault. But we are part of the
• 26:28
  Speaker 5: solution for sure and we need to work better how
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: we spend it. And obviously property tax– I feel sorry,
• 26:34
  Speaker 5: not sorry, but it's hard for the schools because that's
• 26:37
  Speaker 5: really their primary revenue source, right? Property tax, reliance on states.
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: You want to talk a little bit on how that works?
• 26:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and we at the state put in an education
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: future fund where we set aside a billion dollars and
• 26:51
  Speaker 6: we're going to add to it I think over four years,
• 26:53
  Speaker 6: $ 250 million to it to make sure that we have
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: funds to continue supporting the schools. We increased per pupil,
• 27:02
  Speaker 6: we gave every pupil gets $ 1, 500 to the school that
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: is specific for that student. And then we increased the
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: special ed funding. Our special ed funding was at about
• 27:13
  Speaker 6: 40% of what it costs to actually educate a special
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: ed student, and we doubled that. So the state took
• 27:19
  Speaker 6: a lot of that money and really said, okay, we
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: want to make sure our schools feel secure and have
• 27:26
  Speaker 6: what they need to do it. But they also have
• 27:28
  Speaker 6: to keep their spending– I mean they've got to keep
• 27:30
  Speaker 6: a tight rein on it because the goal is not
• 27:32
  Speaker 6: to have, ooh, this means we can do more, bigger, better.
• 27:35
  Speaker 6: It means, OK, now we can start lowering our levies
• 27:38
  Speaker 6: so our property tax owners won't have that pinch.
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: I always say prove to me that you're responsible for
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: what you have. Then I can help you get more.
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: I like that.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: I like that a lot.
• 27:48
  Speaker 5: I think it's important and I know there's a lot
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: of discussions with a lot of senators on rebalancing how
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: we pay property tax, lowering property tax caps.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Managing that assessment. So there's a lot of great conversation.
• 28:01
  Speaker 6: Well, and one of the things that happens is we
• 28:03
  Speaker 6: have political subdivisions that have the ability to tax you. City, county, NRDs, schools, SIDs.
• 28:12
  Speaker 6: The community colleges used to be able to do that,
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: but we removed them from it and the state pays
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: for them. And so the state has a little bit
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: more control over it, but it's also not something that
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: you're seeing on your property tax assessment. We also, a
• 28:26
  Speaker 6: couple years ago, Senator Hanson sent out, passed a bill
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: for the pink postcards, basically to give people information about
• 28:34
  Speaker 6: here's what your taxes are, here's what they're going to
• 28:36
  Speaker 6: be next.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: We've changed the timing on it.
• 28:39
  Speaker 6: So this year, because what was happening is people were
• 28:41
  Speaker 6: getting it and they'd show up at the meetings really
• 28:44
  Speaker 6: mad and they were voting on the budget. Well, when
• 28:46
  Speaker 6: you're actually voting on the budget, all the discussion has
• 28:49
  Speaker 6: already been had. And so it was too late for
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: people to actually make an impact. which I think increase
• 28:55
  Speaker 6: the frustration levels even more.
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: It's a clumsy process and it needs to get better,
• 28:58
  Speaker 5: but it's an important process. At least it brings awareness.
• 29:01
  Speaker 5: I don't know why they picked the color pink.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I think to get attention.
• 29:05
  Speaker 6: And then it just kind of– or that may have
• 29:07
  Speaker 6: been the color they had on hand and then it
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: just kind of stuck. But those should be coming out
• 29:12
  Speaker 6: earlier so that you can get to those board meetings.
• 29:16
  Speaker 6: You can get to your school board and you should
• 29:18
  Speaker 6: be trying– and I've been at school board meetings where
• 29:20
  Speaker 6: there's like two people there And not showing up. And
• 29:23
  Speaker 6: so you can see them online, so you can pay
• 29:26
  Speaker 6: attention to what's going on. But being part of the
• 29:29
  Speaker 6: process and letting the boards know, hey, we're interested and
• 29:32
  Speaker 6: we don't want our taxes raised is really an important
• 29:35
  Speaker 6: part of the constituent's responsibility.
• 29:38
  Speaker 5: So everybody knows, too. the pink postcard is kind of
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: the end of the game almost. There's a process of
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: public hearings and all kinds of things that schools have,
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: cities have. Be involved early. Get involved in March and
• 29:51
  Speaker 5: April and not just wait till August. And Once again,
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: if you want to run for a seat, that's great too.
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: Be part of the conversation though. We do listen and
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: I really like what I'm hearing throughout the legislative body
• 30:03
  Speaker 5: about really want to make a change this year and
• 30:05
  Speaker 5: make a difference.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: So I have a phone call here with a different topic,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: but I did get an email first. This comes from Matt,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: comment at kfab.com. Very grateful for the conversation about property taxes.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And that's not sarcastic either. Does the legislature ever discuss
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: alternative tax solutions to get us away from property taxes
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: carrying the entire burden and making it cost prohibitive for homeowners?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Seems like all we hear is how difficult and complicated
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: it is, but nothing changes except the dollar amount, which
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: always conveniently goes up. Maybe for you, Senator Kauth, are
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: there certain senators blocking a solution that.
• 30:49
  Speaker 6: So yes and no yes there are always centers who
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: everybody has great ideas like i i had one based
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: on prop 13 out of california which said basically when
• 31:00
  Speaker 6: you buy a house that is the price that will
• 31:03
  Speaker 6: always be taxed at and it will be one and
• 31:05
  Speaker 6: a half percent of the sale price of the home
• 31:09
  Speaker 6: forever as long as you live in the house now
• 31:11
  Speaker 6: that seemed like Great idea to me. They love it
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: in California. They have fought really hard to keep it.
• 31:17
  Speaker 6: All of the elected people in California who want to
• 31:19
  Speaker 6: spend the tax money don't like it, which to me
• 31:23
  Speaker 6: says even more good things.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: But I couldn't get it out of committee. And there
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: are problems with it. And that's just it.
• 31:28
  Speaker 6: So when we have those discussions, there are issues that
• 31:31
  Speaker 6: come from it. So California does not have great schools.
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: Their roads are terrible. I mean there are tradeoffs with that.
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: Go ahead.
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: So I was going to say– The cities are fortunate
• 31:41
  Speaker 5: because we have the ability with sales tax. So we
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: have only like under 15% of our budget is property tax.
• 31:51
  Speaker 5: We have more sales tax and other revenue sources. And
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: that's what's a little tricky for the schools and the counties.
• 31:56
  Speaker 5: You can, like I said to the earlier caller, you
• 32:00
  Speaker 5: can go to Hy-Vee and not pay a city's sales
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: tax but cross the street and now you're paying something.
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: So– I don't know if there's ever a possibility at
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: some point maybe it is a rebalancing because both those
• 32:13
  Speaker 5: jurisdictions are almost reliant on property tax. And some states
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: have a different way to kind of provide them a
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: revenue source without having to rely completely on property tax
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: to rebalance things more than just limit it.
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: And that's one of the things we had looked at
• 32:29
  Speaker 6: is taking over some of these schools' funding to the
• 32:32
  Speaker 6: state and making the state responsible for it. So that
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: their property tax asking would lower, like give them the
• 32:39
  Speaker 6: ability to do maybe 30 percent, 40 percent. The schools
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: fought back against that very, very hard. They did not
• 32:45
  Speaker 6: want to give up that kind of control, which I
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: understand because that means you can't spend it. But again,
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: you're spending other people's money. So the best way to
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: get that money for you might not be the best
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: way for other people to be giving it to you. So, yeah,
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: there are– and there's not one specific senator who's blocking things.
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: There's a lot of– we have a rule. We have
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: an urban divide. Not really divide, but there's a big
• 33:10
  Speaker 6: difference in how agricultural property is assessed versus how residential
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: or commercial property is assessed.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: We also have uniformity clauses.
• 33:18
  Speaker 6: So every time we think we have a great idea
• 33:21
  Speaker 6: and we run into, okay, that's against our constitution, so
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: you can't do that. I'm like, all right, well, then, well,
• 33:26
  Speaker 6: back to the drawing board. We looked at the Tabor laws.
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: Senator Slama brought the Tabor law that is done out
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: in Colorado to us for consideration. And those, again, are
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: wildly popular with constituents. The people who want to spend
• 33:44
  Speaker 6: the money don't like them at all and keep trying
• 33:46
  Speaker 6: to get rid of it because it restricts their money.
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: Part of that is we need constituents to be coming
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: and saying, hey, we like this. We think this is
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: a good idea. We want you– we are telling you,
• 33:57
  Speaker 6: our representative, to vote for this.
• 33:59
  Speaker 5: Yeah, so I would say I love what I'm hearing
• 34:03
  Speaker 5: not just from you, Senator, but from a lot of senators.
• 34:05
  Speaker 5: There's really an appetite to make a difference this year,
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: and we just hope there's a way to do something
• 34:10
  Speaker 5: instead of not do something, speaking for a resident.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: That's the goal, I think, is really we have to
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: fix this problem.
• 34:16
  Speaker 6: Well, we have the epic tax, which is eliminate property
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: income and commercial taxes, I think, and just go straight
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: sales tax. I personally think that is too much of
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: a shock to our system. I think we have to
• 34:31
  Speaker 6: do something slow, which means it's painful. It's a slow
• 34:36
  Speaker 6: shift of how we do things. I see things moving.
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: We are less dependent on some things, but like you said,
• 34:43
  Speaker 6: it's going to take some time.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: It's going to take some time, but we're ready to go.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: That epic would make it just straight sales tax, and
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: it would be an absurdly high percentage of sales tax
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: on everything.
• 34:53
  Speaker 6: Right, and part of the problem is we have 2
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: million people in this state. We don't have a huge
• 34:59
  Speaker 6: tourism base. We don't have people. What you want, if
• 35:03
  Speaker 6: you have that kind of a, you're just sales tax only,
• 35:06
  Speaker 6: And by the way, that sales tax would apply to food.
• 35:10
  Speaker 6: We need to have lots of people coming in who
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: want to be here for a little bit, spend their money,
• 35:16
  Speaker 6: and then they leave and go back to their homes
• 35:18
  Speaker 6: because that's how that actually works.
• 35:21
  Speaker 5: And obviously the third leg of this is, you know,
• 35:24
  Speaker 5: Control spending, rebalance how we're doing this, but also economic development.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: And that's what we're working on in Gretna. Which is awesome.
• 35:31
  Speaker 6: I love how Gretna is doing that. And can you
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: tell us about Buc-ee's?
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Buc-ee's?
• 35:36
  Speaker 5: I'm so excited about Buc-ee's. And partly, it isn't just
• 35:39
  Speaker 5: because of Buc-ee's, frankly. It's because we were able to
• 35:43
  Speaker 5: get something that I think was unattainable a couple years ago.
• 35:47
  Speaker 5: We're really starting to get noticed. I know there's the
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: narrative that, well, Nebraska's closed for business. But when I
• 35:55
  Speaker 5: start talking to executives from across the country and site planners,
• 35:58
  Speaker 5: they're starting to look in the Midwest. And I think
• 36:00
  Speaker 5: there's a real opportunity to change that narrative. We have
• 36:03
  Speaker 5: to compete. And the Good Life District incentive really is
• 36:06
  Speaker 5: why they're here. They said we had never been here.
• 36:09
  Speaker 5: We never had Nebraska on our radar. Once we got here,
• 36:12
  Speaker 5: we go, this is fantastic. We really like what the
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: community of Omaha is doing and what the possibilities are.
• 36:20
  Speaker 5: But even everybody thinks it was a big giveaway. Buc-ee's
• 36:23
  Speaker 5: is essentially getting about $ 30 million. $ 23 million of it
• 36:27
  Speaker 5: is going to a new improvement of the interchange. So
• 36:30
  Speaker 5: it's all– two-thirds or three-fourths of it is all going
• 36:33
  Speaker 5: to infrastructure for the state of Nebraska that they don't
• 36:36
  Speaker 5: have to pay for. So it was a great incentive.
• 36:39
  Speaker 5: They are excited. They'll probably only do one in the state.
• 36:42
  Speaker 5: They'll probably only do a couple more. They're going to
• 36:44
  Speaker 5: do like six a year I think is their goal
• 36:46
  Speaker 5: throughout the country.
• 36:47
  Speaker 2: So we're just so fortunate. But they said they're not
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: going to any more blue states, correct?
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Correct.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: I like how you think. But that's what they said.
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: But it isn't, frankly, because of the policy or the–
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: they just need a stable environment to operate. And there's
• 37:01
  Speaker 5: just a lot of things going on in these other states,
• 37:03
  Speaker 5: and they just don't trust their investment. And so they
• 37:06
  Speaker 5: really– they thought highly of Nebraska, not just because of
• 37:10
  Speaker 5: the color of their letter, but because they really love
• 37:12
  Speaker 5: the community. They love I-80 and what it offers. Right
• 37:16
  Speaker 5: now they're waiting– we're doing the interchange, the new improvement interchange,
• 37:19
  Speaker 5: understanding when that will do.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: When that will be completed, and they'll time the opening.
• 37:23
  Speaker 5: Of the store with the completion of that new improved interchange.
• 37:27
  Speaker 5: Probably going to be, probably start groundbreaking early next year,
• 37:35
  Speaker 5: hopefully February.
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: February groundbreaking in Nebraska?
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Well, snowbreaking. Okay. We'll do a snowbreaking.
• 37:42
  Speaker 5: And then from there, it's probably an 18-month, two-year build.
• 37:46
  Speaker 5: It's all dependent on how quick that interchange can get done.
• 37:49
  Speaker 5: But it seems like a long time, but I think
• 37:51
  Speaker 5: we'll be eating brisket and jerky pretty soon.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: Everything moves fast. That sounds so amazing.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: And we already know that Gretna has the world's largest Hy-Vee,
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: so I wouldn't be surprised to see Gretna have the
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: world's largest Buc-ee's as well. This is the KFAB Comment
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: Line here, hosted by State Senator Kathleen Kauth of Omaha,
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: Gretna Mayor Mike Evans. So much more to talk about. Chuck,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: you're on the phone line. We're going to get to
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: you next when the KFAB Comment Line returns. Yeah, we're
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: dancing a little bit here.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: In the studio. I love it.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: News Radio 1110 KFAB, the KFAB comment line. State Senator
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: Kathleen Kauth and Gretna Mayor Mike Evans hosting the KFAB
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: comment line today. What a fun show today, guys. And
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: I do want to get a phone call in here
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: from Chuck, 402-558-1110. Chuck, you are live here on KFAB.
• 38:37
  Speaker 4: Hey, Chuck. Yeah, I mean, yeah, thanks. During election time,
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: I see all these ads that are being paid for
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: by these different organizations, and I just wondered what your
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: guests think about passing state legislation to require the identity
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: of large donors of dark money in state and local elections.
• 38:59
  Speaker 6: So one of the things, so the dark money issue is,
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: it's really hard to understand, and they have created hundreds
• 39:07
  Speaker 6: of pathways to get money to candidates. And I think
• 39:12
  Speaker 6: that Kavanaugh's were calling Denise Powell dark money Denise because
• 39:16
  Speaker 6: even they were astonished by the amount of money that
• 39:18
  Speaker 6: was being funneled to her campaign. One of the things
• 39:21
  Speaker 6: that happens with those are super PACs. So regular PACs,
• 39:25
  Speaker 6: which is a political action committee, they collect money and
• 39:29
  Speaker 6: that is– you can find out who that is with
• 39:32
  Speaker 6: the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission. Those are all listed.
• 39:36
  Speaker 6: Any direct donations to a candidate, those are all listed. Now,
• 39:40
  Speaker 6: Nebraska does not have donation limits for its candidates. So
• 39:44
  Speaker 6: sometimes you get people who are like, yep, I'll just
• 39:46
  Speaker 6: give you $ 10, 000, which is just an amazing thing if
• 39:49
  Speaker 6: it happens. but that person's name would be listed. The
• 39:53
  Speaker 6: super PACs are the ones that they collect money and
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: give it to nonprofits, and then the nonprofits can donate
• 40:02
  Speaker 6: it in. So nonprofits are not required to show who
• 40:06
  Speaker 6: their donors are. The super PACs have much different rules
• 40:11
  Speaker 6: and regulations to them, and I'm not familiar enough with them.
• 40:14
  Speaker 6: I understand the state level of the PACs and things,
• 40:17
  Speaker 6: but Once you get to the super PAC level, you're
• 40:19
  Speaker 6: playing at a much, much different ballgame. I don't even
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: know where we would begin to start as a state
• 40:26
  Speaker 6: to say because that's federally regulated. So as a state,
• 40:30
  Speaker 6: you can say any entity started in the state can
• 40:34
  Speaker 6: require that. Donations are– but again, if they donate to
• 40:38
  Speaker 6: a nonprofit and then that nonprofit then donates to a candidate,
• 40:41
  Speaker 6: the nonprofit donors are not necessarily disclosed and you're not
• 40:45
  Speaker 6: sure– what money went to who and if that person
• 40:48
  Speaker 6: intended it to go to that candidate.
• 40:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I kind of buy into Chuck's thought on this
• 40:53
  Speaker 5: a little bit. And I wish we could do more
• 40:55
  Speaker 5: because government is all about transparency. And unless it's transparent,
• 40:59
  Speaker 5: the people don't trust it.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: And so it's good.
• 41:02
  Speaker 5: If you're going to run for office, I really like
• 41:03
  Speaker 5: the fact that you say what you're about and who
• 41:05
  Speaker 5: you're for and who's supporting you. I think it's a
• 41:08
  Speaker 5: great way to start your candidacy and also how to
• 41:12
  Speaker 5: be a public servant.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: So I do agree that there's something there.
• 41:15
  Speaker 6: And it keeps the politicians more– I mean if I
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: know that people show their name on my disclosure form,
• 41:24
  Speaker 6: they are saying something about supporting me.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: That's a great question. Very good question. Thank you, Chuck.
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: And just a few minutes here to wrap up the show.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: This has gone fast. I know. It just zips right
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: on by.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: And for you, Mayor Evans here, do you know anything
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: about what happened to the Fleet Farm building in Gretna?
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: You've got about 30 seconds here. Yeah, and I don't
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: want to take Trenton and Jeff's show away from them.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: So, no, just quickly on the Fleet Farm, the same
• 41:49
  Speaker 5: thing that happened to Gretna was the same thing that
• 41:51
  Speaker 5: happened to the one on Maple in Omaha, the one
• 41:53
  Speaker 5: in Lincoln. The corporation was having– I'm going to say
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: financial concerns, but they were growing too fast and they
• 42:01
  Speaker 5: had a back office that was supposed to support that
• 42:04
  Speaker 5: store and I don't think they could build right then.
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: It had nothing to do with the city of Gretna.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: It had nothing to do with the city of Omaha
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: or Lincoln.
• 42:10
  Speaker 5: It was just a matter of the corporation making a
• 42:12
  Speaker 5: different decision financially.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Amazing.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: Thank you for that.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: This is News Radio 1110 KFAB, the KFAB comment line. Today,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: hosted by Senator Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, Gretna Mayer, Mike Evans.
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for hosting the show today.
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us. This has been fantastic. Peyton, you
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: made this easy.
• 42:27
  Speaker 5: You said don't touch any buttons.
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: We did. We did pretty well.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: But if you want to hear this podcast today, if
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: you missed it at all, go to KFAB.com, the podcast page,
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: the KFAB comment line. You can find that. You can
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: send it to your family and friends. It's an amazing
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: resource to hear the shows back again. This is 1110 KFAB.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining today. My name is
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: Peyton Highlock.