Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Blue Dot and Consumption Tax 6-25-26

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Blue Dot and Consumption Tax 6-25-26 · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am your host, Jeans Dothard. Peyton Hilock, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is also here. Good morning Peyton, Good morning Jean.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You have a sweatshirt on. It looks like you're cold today.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: You know it's a little cloudy and rainy outside today
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: and sometimes it's cold in here.
• 0:12
  Speaker 4: You're wearing no sleeves today.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Well, I am solar powered. I love this summer and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I love hot weather. But we want to hear from
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: you today and we want to get your feedback. We
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: want to hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints, anything goes,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: whether it's city, state, national, the world, and we will
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: have plenty of guests. We don't have a guest today,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: but I'm lining some good ones up for next week.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: And we're going to continue on our conversation that we
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: had yesterday about taxes, because that seems to always get
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: a lot of comments and a lot of people want
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to have, you know, ask questions and they want to
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: be heard too, So we're going to cover a lot
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: of the emails that we got yesterday that we didn't
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: get to. But you're going to hear a lot of
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: opinions from me too. But it's your chance to speak
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: up and sound off. You can send your emails to
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: comment at kfab dot com or you can call us
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: at four two five to five, eight eleven ten. We
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: are very happy that you are Weathers today and Peyton
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: America is playing today. USA is playing today, USA.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: USA is playing today World Cup where they playing? Give
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: us an update? Ooh, I actually don't know where they're playing.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: Oh well, you will give us an update soon where
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: they're playing and who's playing.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: But here's the thing.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: United States has already done what they needed to do,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: finished on top. So this game for them is just
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: kind of let's get some of the other guys on
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the team that haven't played yet a chance to play,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: get the morale up on the team. I don't want
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: to say it means nothing, but United States has already
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: done as good as they needed to do, so they
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: played today their final game, so I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: This is going to be in Los Angeles, California, Inglewood.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: More specifically, this is a sofi stadium where the Los
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: Angeles Chargers play a sorry Los Angeles Rams, but yes.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: And it's going to be great.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: Son o'clock nine, is that past your bedtime?
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Oh? No, I can stay up past nine thirty.
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: Wow, there you go.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: You know, as elderly people, we have to get our sleep.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: But you know, I was speaking of the USA team
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: national team playing and alls you hear on the news,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and I want to hear all your opinion about this too,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: is how all of these people that are in the
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: United States, from all of these forty three countries, from
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: all over the world, and how much great things they
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: have to say about our country. They are just they're
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: they're mind boggled about what we have here, and they
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: keep on.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, they talk about BUCkies.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: For gosh sakes, you know how great BUCkies you know are,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: and and just how nice the people are and what
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: we have here and the opportunities we have here. And
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: then last night I was watching the program about the
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: celebration on the National Mall. The President was there, you know,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: all of the branches of service, and the bands were playing,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: and the patriotism you could just feel it. And then
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I think of all that is going on of our
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: citizens in this country with this hatred that we keep
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: on hearing about, and it just boggles my mind that
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: people that are US citizens, the hatred that they are
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: viewing some of these new elected officials, some of our
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: congressmen and our senators. The things they are saying just
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so negative about this country. It just really really is
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: disheartening to hear all of that when you see on
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the other side all of this pride coming out of DC,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and so many people are against all of this celebration
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: because they don't like Donald Trump. Well, it's not about
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump. It's about celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: anniversary of our independence against the British Empire, our American independence.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: That's what we are celebrating. George Washington was president then, folks,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: and we should be celebrating what we have in this
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: country too. Want to hear your comments about it. You know,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: the other day there's a little shopping center on ninetieth
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and Center, which I really like. And I know a
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: lot of you that live in Omaha know about this
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: shopping center. I go there a lot. There's Fairway Meet
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: Market there, there's a clothing store there. I like, there's
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: a flower shop.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: I like a lot.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: The market Basket used to be there. A lot, really
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: nice little shopping center there, And I was told just
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the other day that one of the stores there, which
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: is The Bookworm was basically hosting a Lynn Waltz rally,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: but it turned into a very loud anti Trump rally
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: out in front of all of these stores, and it
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: was outside the Bookworm. And then they had these I
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: guess they were like troops rallied and they were called
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the pode I'm just saying po'd because I don't want
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: to say that word on the radio. The pode Gradmas
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is what they call themselves. And they were wearing homecoming sashes,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: wild hats, singing songs about ousting pillin all sorts of
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: radical talk. Makes me very uncomfortable. I go to that
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: shopping center all the time, and I'm doubted that they
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: asked them all management, and I'm a little bit annoyed
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: about it, to be honest. Now, I believe in freedom
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: of speech, but I mean people are just carrying it
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: too far, very very negative, very hateful rally towards Republicans,
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  Speaker 1: the president, the governor, etc. In this really nice little
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: open mall that should be open for everybody and enjoyed
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: by everybody.
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  Speaker 3: Gene, that's a really good point to bring that locally.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: I was just thinking about when you were talking about
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: America two fifty celebration, and there have been nine states
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: that have declined to participate in America two fifty. In Washington, DC,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: and we have all these people coming over for the
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: World Cup and talking about how great our country is,
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: and we don't even have nine of our own states
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  Speaker 3: participating in America two fifty.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: It's a shame I did. It's a shame.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: And I'll go back to this nice little shopping center
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: because I know the owner and who the developer, and
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: they do a great job. But I really doubt that
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: it was using that public area was not in their
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: lease agreement. If it was indeed organized by the Bookworm
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: or anybody involved with it, but I doubt that was
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: in their lease agreement that they could have a rally
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: out there that was so political and so anti against
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: what is going on with the Republican Party right now.
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I have a phone call already this morning
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: from Max who it might contribute to this conversation. Max,
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: thank you so much, a sixty year listener here on
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: the line. Welcome to KFAB. You're live with Jeanist author.
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Gean, I've got a question here for you. I
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: would like to ask you personally, what's your opinion of
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: the blue dot here in Omaha. I've got a lot
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: of Democratic friends. I am Republican, but I have Democratic
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: friends that give me their opinions, but they really don't
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: give me any real deathment opinion. And I'd like to
• 7:25
  Speaker 5: just kind of know your opinion.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you for that question. And you know, I have
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a lot of Democrat friends too. My son is a Democrat,
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you know, and my daughter's a Republican. So there you go.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: But the blue dot are saying a city is blue.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: It used to be just that the majority of voters
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: were Democrat over Republican. Republican typically are called red, like
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Nebraska is typically called a red state because the majority
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: of voters in the entire state are Republican. Blue used
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: to signify Democrat, and if they would say that city's
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: blue or that city's red, basically all it meant was
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: that it was the majority of voters were either Democrat
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: or Republican. Now in the state of Nebraska, this has
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: taken a turn because I think right now, calling Omaha
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: the blue dot is more about winner takes all, and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it's more about you know, our our votes that we
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: have in the state of Nebraska, and it's just it.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense to me anymore. It's become a
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: symbol of anti Trump, anti Republican, and that's what concerns
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: me a lot, because yes, the city of Omaha, they
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: have more Democrat voters than they have Republican Okay, that's fine,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: That's been that way for quite a while. I was
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a Republican mayor of the Blue Dot for twelve years,
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  Speaker 1: you know, and so I got a lot of votes
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: from independents and from Democrats to and from Republicans. But
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: this is just now focused on that electoral votes that
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: we have here that they really really want. The governor
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: would like the winner takes all. I think it makes
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: sense because all but two states, Nebraska being one of them,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: don't have winner takes all. But right now, you know,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: in the state of Nebraska, we have five electoral votes,
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: two for the overall winner and then one for each
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: congressional district. Congressional District two is the one that they
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: are focused on now, and that's the one that Don
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Bacon is a representative for now, and that's the one
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: that Brinker Harding is running against Denise Powell for it
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: now and alls you hear Denise Powell talk about is
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: maintaining the blue dot. In what she is talking about
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: is she wants to maintain that this congressional district remains that,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: you know, independent of the winner takes all. Every other
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: state except one has and so I think it's just
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: taken a turn of what the blue dot actually means.
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: And it's a shame that it does, because that's all
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  Speaker 1: you hear about is the blue dot, the blue dot,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: the blue dot.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: And people are saying, what's this mean?
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: And you know, now we see a lot of neighbors
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: people that I like, I mean people all over Omaha
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: with blue dots in their window and blue dots in
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: their front yard, and it's just it's it's kind of
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: mind boggling to me that this has been such a
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: wave that they and you know now I use that term.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: It pops into my mind now instead of just the
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: blue dot, you see posters all over of the blue
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: wave meaning the Democrats are going to take over, the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Liberal Party will take over, And I just I don't
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: I really I don't get it. When I had Dennis
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Crawford on the other day, who has to be on
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: this show, and he is a lawyer in Lincoln an author.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Now he calls himself a historian and he's written a
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: few books. He wanted to be on this show to
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: say I was a Republican and now I have become
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: a Democrat and here is why.
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: And I mean, he was.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Really, really, really angry against the Republican Party on this show,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the president on this show. He was, you know, giving
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: out all these statistics and things which I didn't have
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: a chance to even fact check. But I wasn't here
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: to debate him. I just let him go on and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: that was it. But you know, I do know Dennis
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Crawford now does a lot of trolling on Republicans Facebook,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: saying a lot of really really negative things and so
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: and you know he's talking about the blue dot. So
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: what used to be what used to be just significant.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: The significance was just that it was the majority where
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Democrats has now taken a turn and it's signifying about
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: your electoral votes. And they want to keep this congressional
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: district independent of the winner takes all, and they want
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: to keep it Democrat.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: And that's what that's.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Why so many outside organizations are getting involved in this
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: congressional race. That's why Denise pal had so much outside money,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars of outside money from outside this state
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: putting money into her race so that she could win
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: this race and maintain the blue dot. And you know, frankly,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: I don't think people from out of state need to
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: be telling us in Omaha, US, in Nebraska, US, in
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: congressional district too how to vote.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: No, thanks, we can figure it out on our.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Own, most definitely, And we're always open to comments anything
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: that's on your mind four zero two, five to five,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: eight eleven ten comments at kfab dot com or on
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app we have the radio talkback MIC. One
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: topic that we really got into yesterday, which you can
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: find on the podcast page, was property taxes. And one
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: big topic that we kind of briefly touched on yesterday
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: that I think is very complex that we should talk
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: about a little bit more today is the consumption tax. Yes,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: and Mark sent me an email yesterday and said, I'd
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: like to hear your opinion on the consumption tax. Yes locally,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: he also threw it nationally. I don't know how relevant
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: that is, but consumption tax. Maybe, Gene tell us a
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: little bit more. What is the consumption tax? Your opinion
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: on it? What it would look like. Just to spend
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: a second here at explaining that to.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Us, it will take me more than a second here,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: because and I do know a lot about it, because
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: you know, there was a ballot initiat to a petition
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: going around to get this on the ballot, and it
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: really scared me for a while because I thought the
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: way they were presenting the consumption tax, I was thinking, Hmmm,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I'm afraid they're going to get enough signatures to get
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: to ad on the ballot and vote this in here
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: is what it is the advocates propose replacing. They will say,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: if you vote for this or sign this petition for
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the epic tax or the consumption tax, is what they
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: are saying. As they will say, it will replace your
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: property tax, your income tax, and your inheritance tax with
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: a consumption tax, which is effectively a sales tax on
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: services and new purchases. And they will say it will
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: be set at seven point five percent sales tax now
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: in the city of Omaha. Now keep in mind the
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: state of in Nebraska now is five point five percent
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: sales tax. Each city or governing entity has the option.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: The City of Omaha had the option a local option
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: sales tax of adding another one point five and so
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: that makes the sales tax in Omaha seven. So people
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: in Omaha go, oh wow, you mean I could pay
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: seven and a half percent and I won't have to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: pay property tax, income tax, inheritance tax.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: Again, I'm all for it. Well that petition, thank goodness,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: it did fail to get on the ballot. And here's
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: what it would tax. And it would tax not groceries,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: so we know that, and that's something that I think
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: everybody was worried about. They would say, oh my gosh,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I don't want it to tax groceries. Groceries and would
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: the petitioners would say, it won't tax groceries at all.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: But it would be a sales tax on all new
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: goods is basically what it is. So think about this
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: and then I'm going to tell you what the tax
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: really would be. A new home you would pay a
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: sales tax. A new car you would pay a sales tax.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Prepared food and beverage. People are still screaming about a
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: two and a half percent restaurant tax. Well now they're
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: saying it'll go up to seven and a half percent
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: on all prepared food and beverage. But you don't have
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: to pay your property taxes. Then it would be all
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: sales tax exemptions would go away, So farmers, equipment, everybody
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: would be paying sales tax. You would pay sales tax
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: on medical bills. You would pay sales tax on dental bills.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: You would pay sales tax on government wages. If you
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: were remind modeling and existing property, rental property, your monthly
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: rent would pay sales tax. Almost everything new would have
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a sales tax. Now here's the clencher.
• 16:12
  Speaker 6: Here.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: The Tax Foundation did many calculations and analysis, and they
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: suggest that for that epic plan to actually work so
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: that you can replace all of your property tax, income tax,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and inheritance tax won't work with seven and a half
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: percent even with all of these things I just mentioned
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: that would now have sales tax. They are saying it
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: would have to be a statewide consumption tax rate of
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: at least twenty one point six percent. Okay, omahans, we
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: pay seven percent now, and they're saying, the Tax Foundation
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: says it's going to have to be to eliminate all
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: those other taxes at least twenty one zero point six percent.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: And then it also did not prevent local government from
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: enacting their own consumption taxes like the City of Omaha,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: Metro Community College, metro Transit, so that total rate could
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: even be more than twenty one point six percent. So
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: now you're talking about a sales tax. If you go
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: eat food, if you go eat in a restaurant, if
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: you buy a house. Can you imagine if you bought
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a four hundred thousand dollars house and you paid, say
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: a twenty five percent sales tax on it, or a
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: new car. It would ruin the housing industry. It would
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: ruin the new housing industry. It would ruin car sales
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: for new cars. I mean, just think of all of
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: these things that would be tax beyond what people could afford.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: And here's what's going to happen. And this is what
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: they what they don't tell you too. What will happen then,
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: is everybody in Nebraska that lives on the border, they
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: are going to go to Iowa, They're going to go
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: to Missouri, they're going to go to Colorado, They're going
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: to go to South Dakota to buy things. And it
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: would the burden would be placed on all of those
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: in Nebraska that live in the interior because people in
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: Omaha aren't going to go out to dinner here anymore
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: if they're going to have to pay, say a twenty
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: five percent sales tax.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna play a little bit of Devil's advocate here, Gene.
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: So when you started this conversation, it was seven and
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: a half percent, hypothetically seven and a half percent catch
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: such they were selling. So when I think about that,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, not bad. Well, that's not too bad, you know,
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: that's manageable. I don't got to worry about the property
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: taxes or all this other junk tax that is confusing
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: in too much. Seven and a half percent on everything blanket. Well, hey,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: that doesn't sound too bad exactly. But if it's upwards
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: of twenty five percent, yes, that feels unbelievable.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: And that's what the Tax Foundation, all the analysis that
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: they have done on this, they're saying, no, there's no
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: way in the state of Nebraska that you're going to
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: replace property tax, income tax, and inheritance tax if you
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: have a sales taxes seven and a half percent on everything.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: They said, you know it is the proposed rate is
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: based on a flawed calculation that really does not reflect
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the tax base. And so they said the corrected calculation
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: is at least twenty one and a half percent, if
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: not more. And then think about that, like I said,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: on a new house, on food, on remodeling, on your
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: medical bills, there would be a sales tax. They said,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: not food, but still because and I think everybody understands
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the problems with food. But in my opinion about that
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that I think the policy makers in the state of Nebraska,
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: including the governor, which is his number one concern, they
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: are seeking to constrain and to lower property taxes with
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: with I think, with the better ways to target and
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: to achieve these aims, I think that they can they
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: can come up with much better ways that they can
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: reduce our property taxes without doing something this drastic. This
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: scary thing to me is what they were doing with
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: their petitions is they were telling people basically what it
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: involves and what would come out of it, but it
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: was all based on flawed calculations. People were being given
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: a bit of goods that weren't true. And you know,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I had a real fear that that was going to pass.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: People were going to think, oh, yeah, I get this
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: seven and a half percent, why not? But that's not
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: what it's going to be folks, and that's what really
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: really bothers me. And plus that no state, no state
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: has ever abolished property tax, that would make Nebraska the first.
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: So we don't have anything.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: To compare us to soaring property tax burdened or a
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: genuine concern, and it's the state of Nebraska, and it
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: is very appropriate for policy makers to really really look
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: for solution.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: But I think you.
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: Know that that's that what they have done with the
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: with the state income tax, social security tax. But you know,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: there's been in the past several years just a dramatic
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: rise and assess value on your property, and also the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: cost of government services has gone up, so doing away
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: with property taxes has a substantial appeal. But we've always
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: heard the phrase it's too good to be true, and
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I think with the epic tax, that's exactly what it is.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: I think it's too good to be true to tell
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: people that you won't have to pay property tax, all
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: these other taxes, inheritance taxes, it, state income tax, if
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: you just want to pay seven and a half percent
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: sales tax.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: It's too good to be true, folks. Your host Gene Stutht.
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: My name is Peyton Highlock, here on news radio eleven
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: to ten KFAB the KFAB comment line. We love to
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: hear from you, Gene. I have an email from a
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: listener yesterday that has a little bit of feedback based
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: on your show, and I'd love to get into that. Yesterday, Gene,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: we talked a lot about property taxes and I got
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: a lot of thoughts and opinions in my email inbox. Good,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: that's what we want. This is exactly what we want.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: And I'm going to take that head on. And I
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: got an email and I want to bring it up
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: to you so you can address it. Sure, Gene and
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: I have not talked about this at all. This is
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: a raw response, Okay. Today's comments by Jeane st author
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: This was yesterday. Yesterday's comments by jeene'st author were very
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: typical of a seasoned politician. Excuses, blame game, people would scream, etc.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: To begin with, her argument against capping revenue is ridiculous.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: A very very well written email. But I'm going to
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: cut down to the bottom and it says you argued
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: that the city of Omaha doesn't have an option. As
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: an example, you quoted labor costs as the most significant
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: expense and complain that you were unable to reduce the
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: expense of union contracts. But a quick search shows that
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: the mayor holds the official authority to negotiate labor contracts
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: and sign off on agreements. So the blame comes back
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: to you and weak negotiating typical of an experienced politician
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: versus an experienced business owner.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'd love to answer that email. First of all
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: excuses in blame game, No, I will say they are facts,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: and this is not coming from a political point of view.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: It's coming from a point of view of someone who
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: was responsible for creating and maintaining and controlling a over
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: billion dollar budget for the City of Omaha for twelve
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: years in a row. It is the mayor's responsibility to
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: do the city budget. It's a mayor's response ability to
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: control the city budget.
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: Folks. The city budget is balanced to the.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: Penny when it goes into effect January first, at the
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: beginning of the year. It has to be balanced to
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: the penny on December thirty first, at the end of
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: the year. And it's the mayor's responsibility to do that. Now,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: saying capping revenue is ridiculous, No, it's saying doing cappingue,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: he said, Saying it that it would be hard to
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: cap revenue is ridiculous. Absolutely not ridiculous. Here's the deal.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Like I said, you are saying at home, the cost
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: of living is going up every day. The cost of
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: running a city is going up every day too. And
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I was absolutely one hundred percent accurate yesterday to say
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: that seventy four percent of the city budget is personnel cost.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: It's police, it's fire, it's civilians, it's all of those
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: people that are out there repairing potholes and fixing your
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: streets and running your park all of that. That's seventy
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: four percent of the entire city budget. It things cost
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: more every year. If you cap revenue and you have
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: to say you can't get any more revenue whoever the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: mayor is than the year before, but all your expenses
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: are going up every year, then what do you do?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: You cut?
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: So where do you cut? If seventy four percent of
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: the budget is people, then you cut people. So who
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: are we going to cut? Are we going to cut
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: the fire department, the police department, public works, street maintenance?
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, who are we going to cut to get
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: those expenses down?
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Every year?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: If your revenue has to stay the same as the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: year before. And you know, I said the other day,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: if you have to lower your levee every time that
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: you get more revenue in to keep it zero balanced
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: from the year before. Keep in mind that I did
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: lower the levee five times and the city's portion of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: your property tax is only twenty two percent, and people
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: didn't feel it. I lowered the levee on twenty two
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: percent of your total property tax bill. You take for
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: every penny you lower the levee for the city of
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: Omaham just talking about Omaha here, you take about five
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: and a half million dollars out of the budget. So
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: now you're saying you got a cap revenue, you got
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: to keep it at the same as the year before.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Expenses are going up. You want your levee to go down.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: That's taken more money out of the budget. So what
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: do you do? I mean, And this is the challenge.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: And this is not politics. This is not talking about
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: this is coming from a big politician making excuses. This
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: is facts, folks. This is the way it is. And
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: you know, sales tax is our biggest source of our revenue.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: The general fun budget for the City of Omaha this
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: year is about five hundred and sixty two million dollars.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: The biggest source of our revenue is sales tax. The
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: next biggest source is property tax, and then the restaurant tax.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: If you can't your property tax revenue can't be any
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: more than the year before, and the other two stay
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: pretty steady. You're gonna have to cut people and you're
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: gonna have to cut services. That's all there is.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: They brought up the mayor is the chief negotiator negotiator. Yes,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: it is the mayor for all of these labor negotiations.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: And I've been involved with them for years, and even
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: when I was on the school board, I was involved
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: in teacher negotiations. But here's the deal. They are negotiated.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: I initiate the negotiations, but to get an agreement, to
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: get a settlement, to get a collective bargaining agreement approved,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: both sides have to agree, the employee and the employer.
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: And so the employer is the mayor. It's the city
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: and you are responsible for these negotiations.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: But then you have the unions.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: You have OPOA with the police, you have Local three
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: eight five with the fire and they have to agree
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: to these negotiations, and if they don't agree, you're at
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: an impasse and you're not going to get a contract.
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: And so then what do you do?
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: So you want as mayor, you want the best You
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: are representing the taxpayers. As the mayor, they're representing their
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: members of their union, but the members of their union
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: are also city employees. And so I felt like I
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: was representing the taxpayers to try to do the best
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: job I can in the labor negotiations for the taxpayers,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: but these are also our employees. As you remember, for
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: since twenty twenty, we were having a heck of a
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: time getting people and it was happening all over the country,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: but to apply for jobs with law enforcement, with our
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: police department, and the one thing we found that was
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: one of the issues is a lot of other law
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: enforcement agencies were paying more than the City of Omaha.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: So what do we do to really solve that problem
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: is we had to negotiate to give our police officers
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: more money, more salary, to make us more competitive with
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the other law enforcement agencies. This is the problem that
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: you deal with with running a city. I mean, it
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: becomes very challenging. So to say I just sound like
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: a politician here. I want to sound like somebody who
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: has done it, who has actually done it, who has
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: actually been in there and created twelve different city budgets
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: that were multi multimillion dollar budgets and then manage them
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: year after year after year. Every year that I was mayor,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: we ended the year with a surplus. I never ended
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the year the year with a negative. So I tried
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: to tell people. I tried to control the budget the
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: best I can lower the levee as often as I
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: can and still maintain the number of employees that we
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: needed in the City of Omaha to provide good city services.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: That's the facts.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: There we go and I love the sound of that.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: And there's a lot of other things going on here
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: as well. And one thing that we talked about earlier
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: today from a caller was about the blue dot, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: we'll get into that here very shortly.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: Like we have a guest we just dropped out. I
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: told you to keep the doorlight.
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: Wait, what is that?
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: What is that adopted? Oh wait, it's adopted, Chris Baker.
• 30:22
  Speaker 6: I'm sorry to butt in on your great show. No,
• 30:25
  Speaker 6: but we're talking about taxes and revenues and things like that.
• 30:29
  Speaker 6: And something that a lot of people don't know, and
• 30:32
  Speaker 6: I'd love to get your perspective as someone who I
• 30:34
  Speaker 6: don't know if people know this, she was mayor here
• 30:37
  Speaker 6: for twelve years, I think, I said, if you've ever
• 30:39
  Speaker 6: brought that up, But I do know that I don't
• 30:46
  Speaker 6: think that city government is given really good budgeting numbers
• 30:52
  Speaker 6: because of things that are not how do you just
• 30:57
  Speaker 6: put it, uh well covered? Because one of the things
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: that I'm very passionate about obviously illegal immigration. Illegal immigration
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: crimes are not tracked right. In other words, crime statistics
• 31:14
  Speaker 6: are not separated by legal resident versus illegal resident, right,
• 31:20
  Speaker 6: And the same thing goes for education. It's never separated
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: like that, and incarceration. I mean, there's so many different
• 31:30
  Speaker 6: avenues where we're not able as taxpayers, and I would
• 31:34
  Speaker 6: imagine as civic leaders to look at that budget accurately
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: and see, Okay, this money we really shouldn't be spending anyway.
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: Does that make sense?
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: I'm following you, Okay.
• 31:48
  Speaker 6: So I'm just wondering, And again, I don't know if
• 31:51
  Speaker 6: people know you were the mayor for I think twelve years.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: Oh stopped?
• 31:55
  Speaker 6: So did that ever come up? Did anybody ever mention this?
• 32:01
  Speaker 6: Because when you have to budget for the city, for fire, police,
• 32:05
  Speaker 6: all this other kind of stuff, I think you should
• 32:07
  Speaker 6: be able to know that.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: Well, I think I'm following what you're trying to what
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: to your point you're trying to make here, Chris, But
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: with the budget, the city budget is one of the
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: mayor's number one responsibilities. And you know I always said
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: my priorities number one were public safety. Number two the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: city budget in lowering taxes. Those two priorities that I
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: had are not even listed as Mayor Ewing's priorities. His
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: number one priority is affordable housing. However, since that budget
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: city budget was my responsibility, I tried to be as
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: transparent with the community as I possibly could. And what
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: I would do is I well, first of all, I
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: would do a budget speech, which just goes over the budget,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: but I would do a report to the community quarterly,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: and I would put that out as a press release,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: and I would list each city department, each one of them,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and I would list those that are on budget, those
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: that are under budget, and those that are over budget.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: And I would get a report monthly, and then if
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: any of the departments were off where I wanted them
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: to be, I would reel them in right then. I
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: wouldn't wait till the end of the year and say, oops,
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: you know, we got a big shortfall here, right, And
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: so I tried to be very transparent with it. Now,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: another couple things that I did is I did put
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the city budget online the.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: Day I gave the budget speech.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: And I put the city checkbook online, so anybody could
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: go online at any time, any citizen in Omaha. They
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: could see where the money's coming from, and where the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: money's going, and where the money is being spent anytime,
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: any citizen.
• 33:49
  Speaker 6: What about the city credit card? Could you get that online?
• 33:52
  Speaker 6: Because you know, yeah, I mean yeah, we could have
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: some fun with that.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: And listen, listen, jeans do there did not have a
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: city I just had.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: There's very few of those.
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: Actually, I didn't mean to come in and butt in
• 34:04
  Speaker 6: on your show, but it seems to me, if you're
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: gonna you have to put together a budget. Yes, you
• 34:10
  Speaker 6: have to know where money is going, absolutely and where
• 34:13
  Speaker 6: money is coming from, but you also need to know
• 34:17
  Speaker 6: which of your expenditures you really shouldn't have to be
• 34:21
  Speaker 6: dealing with in the first place.
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: And that's why I tried to put everything out there
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: that people could get online and they could see where
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the money is coming in and where the money is
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: going out, and they could see where it is going.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: And I think and when I put the city checkbook online,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that is basically all the bills that we are paying
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and where that money is going, so people could look
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: at it if they wanted to.
• 34:44
  Speaker 6: Hmm, oh, okay, well did that Did you ever get
• 34:48
  Speaker 6: like a giant vault of cash never that you would
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: have in your office just for flex purposes.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: No, no, that didn't happen.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: But keep in mind again, Chris, I know you are
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: a big proponent of public safety.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: I know that.
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: And out of that budget this year, the general fund
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: budget is five hundred and sixty two million. Two thirds
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: of that entire budget is fire and police, two thirds
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: of the entire budget the third the remaining third of
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the budget goes to fund every other city department, libraries,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: swimming pools, parks, roads, public works. All of that is
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: one third of the city budget. So try like try
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: to manage all of that when to say, well, you
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: can't spend more than the year before, but all the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: expenses are going up.
• 35:33
  Speaker 6: By the way, the emailer took a cheap shot at
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: you two about negotiating union.
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: This is not the first time.
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: Well, but I was listening to that too, and I remember,
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: you know, the contract is not a yearly deal.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: It can be, it depends on what the agreement is.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: But I usually like long term, longer term.
• 35:53
  Speaker 6: Trying to bail you out here, Okay, go ahead, I'm interrupted,
• 35:56
  Speaker 6: So long term. See these contracts just not like every
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: year you go on negotiation. It's it's a yearly thing. Okay,
• 36:03
  Speaker 6: right way, I'm getting out of your way, no ruining
• 36:05
  Speaker 6: your entirety.
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: So that was very thoughtful things because I would always
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: and the reason I would try to do a multi
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: year contract is it gives you some certainty when you're
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: doing the next year's budget of what you're going to
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: be paying these folks.
• 36:19
  Speaker 6: Do you think that adoptee treatment could be on the
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: city health plan?
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: Adoptee?
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: That's but we love the that's and speaking of the
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: blue dot, you know that's the blue dot and I
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: do that commercial with Chris and which is really really funny.
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: Speaking of the blue dot, gen we'll talk about it
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: when we come back. Yes, Peyton, here we are today
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: and earlier today we are talking about the blue dots.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: We had a listener ask Geen, what are your thoughts
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: about the blue dot? And I had a caller, Dave.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I believe he lives in Iowa. I'm going to assume,
• 36:55
  Speaker 3: but he brought this up to me. Josh Turik is
• 36:58
  Speaker 3: a Democratic candidate for Jony Ernst seat in the Iowa Senate,
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: and he was just acknowledging he feels like there's a
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: lot of outside influence here in Omaha in Nebraska campaigns
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: for the Democratic Party, hence the blue the blue.
• 37:17
  Speaker 4: Dot, and that whole philosophy and idea.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: And he says that he feels like it's the same
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: for Josh Turk in Iowa and across the state of
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: Iowa as well, not just a Nebraska issue with outside money.
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Point well taken.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, even in my last race, John Ewing
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was receiving outside out of state money to help him
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: when because they really the Democrats really wanted a Democrat
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: mayor of the city of Omaha. And you know, talking
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: about the blue dot, though I said, it became it's
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: symbolic now and it's became an issue about the winner
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: takes all in electoral college. But you know, I want
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: to expand on that, because the blue dot is also
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: embolic of a lot of other things. And when you
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: talk about Denise Powell, the things that she keeps on
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: saying that I'm going to fight for the blue dot,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: I mean she's talking more about fighting for socialism, for
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: free everything, and higher taxes, taxpayer funded abortions. You know
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: what Chris was saying, should we be paying for a
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: lot of the things we're paying for? You know, taxpayer
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: funded abortions. Seems like it comes under the blue dot. Now,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: men and women's sports, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: They want to they want it to support that, they
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: want to keep it to support the national radical left agenda.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: That's what the blue dot is symbolic for now, and
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: that is not Nebraska values.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: I also heard during the break, Gene that you've got
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: a few pieces of information that you would like to
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: provide to help wrap up as we end the show
• 38:54
  Speaker 3: here today.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: Pieces of information. Yes, you know.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: One of the things is Senator Kathleen Kauf with on
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: earlier today and she just wanted me to remind people
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: as we talk about property taxes, that their last day
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: to file for homestead exemption is June thirtieth. They can
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: get in an extension, but we want She wanted to
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: make sure everybody knows June thirtieth is at target for
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: when you file for homestead exemption. So thank you Senator
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Calf for bringing that up to And I do want
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: to remind people once again about off the subject but fireworks,
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: because I think I'm hearing those noises out there myself.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: They can be used or discharged only folks July second, third,
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: and fourth between noon and eleven pm. That's it, and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: then over of course the New Year's Eve. But we're
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: not even going to talk about New Year's Eve now.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: So that is it for us today. We really hope
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: you join us again tomorrow. Thank you so much for
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: listening and spending.
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: All of this time with us.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: When we start talking about taxes, there's a lot to
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: talk about, and we can talk about it tomorrow again too.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: But I am Jean Stothard and this is eleven ten
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: KFA B