Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / State Senator Brad Von Gillern

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State Senator Brad Von Gillern · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jean Stothert. Peyton Highlock, my producer, is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: also here. Good morning, Peyton.
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  Speaker 2: Very good morning to you, Jean.
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  Speaker 3: And we are guaranteed human.
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  Speaker 2: I think I am, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: No, I know it.
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  Speaker 3: All this talent, and we are human.
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  Speaker 1: This is not AI for you all to know that,
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  Speaker 1: but thank you for being with us today. We really
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  Speaker 1: want to hear from you. We want to get your feedback,
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  Speaker 1: hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints. Whether it's city, state, national,
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  Speaker 1: or the world, really anything goes. We won't back away
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  Speaker 1: from anything. And we're going to have plenty of good guests, too,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the next two weeks. We're going to have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of guests. But, of course, you're going to
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  Speaker 1: hear plenty of opinion from me, too. But it is
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  Speaker 1: your chance to speak up and sound off. Please send
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  Speaker 1: your emails to comment at kfab.com. You can call us
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  Speaker 1: at 402-558-1110, or you can leave us a recorded message
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  Speaker 1: on the talkback mic, and we will play it on
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  Speaker 1: the air. We're happy that you are with us, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm very happy that state legislator, state senator Brad von Gilleran,
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  Speaker 1: Excuse me. Right off the bat, I messed up your name.
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  Speaker 1: Brad Von Gilleran is with us today.
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  Speaker 4: Good morning.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning. You know, I got to tell you, everybody
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  Speaker 3: goofs up my name. They still do.
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  Speaker 4: Well, actually, mine is Gilern, not Gilleran. Gilern? As long
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  Speaker 4: as we're getting it all straight.
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  Speaker 3: There we go. Brad Von Gilleran.
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  Speaker 4: Everybody does it the other way.
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  Speaker 3: It's G-I-L-L-E-R-N.
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  Speaker 4: There you go.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I spelt it right, but I said it wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Brad Von Gilleran is... been in the Nebraska legislature since 2022.
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  Speaker 1: You represent District 4, which I would consider Western Douglas County, Elkhorn.
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, if you envision Boys Town to the Women's Hospital
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  Speaker 5: on both sides of Dodge Street, that's kind of a
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  Speaker 5: good mental picture of what District 4 is.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And you are chair, currently chair of the Revenue Committee.
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  Speaker 1: Before that, you were president and CEO of Leader Construction.
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  Speaker 1: I know people see that name everywhere, L-E-U-D-E-R.
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  Speaker 5: L-U-E-D-E-R, and everybody wants to say Luder, which I'm pretty
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  Speaker 5: sure was the correct German pronunciation a long time ago, but.
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  Speaker 4: Somewhere along the line, it got Americanized.
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  Speaker 3: And its leader.
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  Speaker 4: Correct.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And you were the president and CEO, but now full-time,
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  Speaker 1: you are in the Nebraska legislature.
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  Speaker 3: You are running for re-election. We really want to talk.
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  Speaker 1: This election cycle has been really quite interesting, I think,
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  Speaker 1: for everybody and especially for our listeners. But there's several
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  Speaker 1: things that I really wanted to talk to you about,
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  Speaker 1: especially being chair of the Revenue Committee. The one main
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  Speaker 1: issue we hear in the city of Omaha, all over
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  Speaker 1: the state of Nebraska, is people want relief of property taxes.
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  Speaker 1: That's the number one thing. And then they will– all
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  Speaker 1: the opponents that are coming around will say, well, how
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  Speaker 1: can the legislature– achieve this and get this done when
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  Speaker 1: we do not have a balanced budget? We started out
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  Speaker 1: with about a billion dollar surplus and now there's a
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  Speaker 1: billion dollar shortfall. Why is that happening? And all these
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  Speaker 1: opponents are coming out. Your opponent, I read, is coming
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  Speaker 1: up blaming you individually. It's just your fault because there
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  Speaker 1: is this shortfall. If you could just explain to our listeners,
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  Speaker 1: Senator Von Gellern, and just explain why we have a shortfall,
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  Speaker 1: but what we need to do as far as property
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  Speaker 1: tax relief.
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  Speaker 2: Sure.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, let me start with the first question. They're now
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  Speaker 5: projecting about a $ 200 million shortfall for this year.
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  Speaker 4: That's achievable. It won't be fun.
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  Speaker 5: There's a few things that we need to do to–
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  Speaker 5: I think there are low-hanging fruit, some ways that we
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  Speaker 5: can get there to resolve about $ 100 million to $ 150
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  Speaker 5: million of that deficit. And we'll go through the normal process.
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  Speaker 5: Every committee, every department comes in before appropriations, and they
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  Speaker 5: make their pitch for what their budget should be. And appropriations,
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  Speaker 5: those folks work so hard. And they go through a
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  Speaker 5: very thoughtful process and they'll present a budget. Now, the
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  Speaker 5: out years, you know, the number that gets thrown out
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  Speaker 5: there all the time is that there's a billion dollar
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  Speaker 5: shortfall going into the out years. Well, technically, that's correct
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  Speaker 5: if we did nothing. I was sharing last night with
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  Speaker 5: a group of business people. In business, you build a
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  Speaker 5: plan for this year and then you also build a
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  Speaker 5: plan for next year and the year after that. Sometimes
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  Speaker 5: five or seven-year strategic plans. Well, the legislature is required
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  Speaker 5: to project in the out years what you might spend
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  Speaker 5: if you had the revenue. Well– So that billion dollars
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  Speaker 5: is if we did nothing. If we just went ahead
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  Speaker 5: and increased spending and increased the budget by what we
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  Speaker 5: thought we could two years ago, which is about 3.5 percent,
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  Speaker 5: that's where that billion dollars comes from.
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  Speaker 4: But guess what?
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  Speaker 5: We're not going to do that. We can't spend another
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  Speaker 5: billion dollars. So we will level set the budget this
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  Speaker 5: year and we'll backfill and we'll make sure that we–
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  Speaker 5: correct the $ 200 million shortfall. So that's the budget. Again,
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  Speaker 5: it's not easy, it's not simple, but we will get there.
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  Speaker 5: That doesn't concern me.
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  Speaker 1: So let me just clarify. So you said now we're
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  Speaker 1: at about a $ 200 million shortfall. Now, All these opponents
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  Speaker 1: out there that are challengers are using the number a billion.
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  Speaker 5: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And so they're misleading when they're saying that.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely. Absolutely. All right.
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  Speaker 1: Because we've had– in the past, I remember I had
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  Speaker 1: the governor on Gali back in July, and we were
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  Speaker 1: going up and down from– you know, a 600-something deficit
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  Speaker 1: to a 300 to... It's a lot that has to
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  Speaker 1: do with your Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board, too, correct?
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  Speaker 3: Correct.
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  Speaker 4: And they meet on October 30th.
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  Speaker 5: They meet a week from Friday, and they will give
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  Speaker 5: us the actual number that we have to set the
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  Speaker 5: budget to. They will give us a projection number, and
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  Speaker 5: we are constitutionally required as a legislature to budget to
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  Speaker 5: that number.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 1: And then the Appropriations Committee, which you mentioned... they can
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  Speaker 1: do budget adjustments, correct?
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  Speaker 5: Well, they develop the budget that eventually arrives at that
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  Speaker 5: number that the forecasting board gives us. So whatever budget
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  Speaker 5: they develop cannot exceed that number that the forecasting board
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  Speaker 5: comes up with.
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  Speaker 4: Okay.
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  Speaker 3: And so they have made a variety of cuts. Is
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  Speaker 3: that correct?
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  Speaker 5: Well, they did a year ago, yes. Yeah, we had
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  Speaker 5: a mid-year biennium budget adjustment. And actually, last year, we
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  Speaker 5: cut a half a billion dollars out of our state budget.
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  Speaker 5: And that's Some folks talk about that like it's tragic. Well, again,
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  Speaker 5: having come from a business background, I can tell you
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  Speaker 5: never waste a good problem. And we were short on revenue,
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  Speaker 5: and we used that as an opportunity to dig into
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  Speaker 5: every line item in the budget and to level set
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  Speaker 5: the budget. And we were able to come up with
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  Speaker 5: a half a billion dollars in savings. I mean every
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  Speaker 5: dollar that the state government spends comes out of our pockets.
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  Speaker 5: So that's a half a billion dollars. less that came
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  Speaker 5: out of our pockets.
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  Speaker 3: Okay. Now let's get into property tax.
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  Speaker 1: But before we do that, there's commercials everywhere about online betting, wagering.
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  Speaker 1: And what I have said so many times during this
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  Speaker 1: show is that I want people to be very informed
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  Speaker 1: and make up their own mind. I'm not telling them
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  Speaker 1: one way or another about this legal sports wagering. But
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  Speaker 1: what I opposed is when it says on the flyer,
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  Speaker 1: I got to my house, you can vote for $ 166
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  Speaker 1: million in direct property tax relief. I wanted people to know,
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  Speaker 1: and I'll have you give me your point of view
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  Speaker 1: for 440 and 441, the two initiatives.
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  Speaker 3: My position is if.
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  Speaker 1: You support the illegal sports wagering online, then by all
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  Speaker 1: means vote for it. If you don't, then vote no.
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  Speaker 1: But don't vote yes because you think your property taxes
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  Speaker 1: are going to fall because you're voting yes. That's what
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  Speaker 1: the commercials are trying to lead you to believe.
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  Speaker 5: It's really frustrating. The commercials don't talk at all about
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  Speaker 5: online sports gambling. They talk about property tax relief. Yes.
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  Speaker 5: Last year, localities– and just as a reminder, every dollar
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  Speaker 5: of property tax is assessed locally. It's collected locally and
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  Speaker 5: it's spent locally. Not a single dollar goes through the
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  Speaker 5: state capitol building. But last year, localities collected about $ 5. 6
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  Speaker 5: billion in property taxes. So if you divide 160 into
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  Speaker 5: 5 points– or 5.6 by 160, it's about 3 percent locally.
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  Speaker 5: I don't think I'm going to feel that next year
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  Speaker 5: on my property tax bill.
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  Speaker 1: No, and we've said before on this show that that's
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  Speaker 1: what was promised six years ago with the legal gambling
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  Speaker 1: in the state of Nebraska. From the War Horse Casino,
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  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha gets about $ 2. 5 million a year.
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  Speaker 1: And when you think that our property taxes, our revenue
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  Speaker 1: that comes in is— is so much more than that
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  Speaker 1: as far as property taxes go. In fact, our property
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  Speaker 1: tax revenue for the city of Omaha is about.
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  Speaker 3: $ 250 million.
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  Speaker 1: When you think $ 2. 5 million from the casinos, I'm still
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  Speaker 1: waiting for my property taxes to go down too. So
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  Speaker 1: you are so correct to say that they are levied locally.
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  Speaker 1: It's your local taxing authorities that levy the property taxes.
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  Speaker 1: Your school districts take 62% to 70%, your public schools.
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  Speaker 1: City of Omaha is about 22%. Douglas County is about 12.5%.
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  Speaker 1: So they are levied locally. What can the state do
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  Speaker 1: then to lower property taxes?
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  Speaker 5: So again, just one more time. All property taxes levied locally,
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  Speaker 5: collected locally, spent locally. What the state's role in property
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  Speaker 5: taxes is is to set the rules by which all
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  Speaker 5: of that happens. So that's where the state comes in,
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  Speaker 5: and I have a bill that's posted on my website, vongillern4ne. com.
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  Speaker 5: It's posted on my website under the blog section. It's
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  Speaker 5: a six-point plan for property taxes. Number one is hardening
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  Speaker 5: the cap at 2.5 percent spending growth, and before we
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  Speaker 5: do that … We've peeled out classroom expenses, so teachers
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  Speaker 5: are not negatively impacted, paras are not negatively impacted. We've
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  Speaker 5: peeled out public safety, so fire, rescue, police, public safety
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  Speaker 5: is not negatively impacted. But beyond that, the administration and
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  Speaker 5: so on can only grow at a rate of about 2.5%.
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  Speaker 5: We've got several other features in that bill.
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  Speaker 4: One of them is a protection.
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  Speaker 1: Let me stop you right here. But that, I want
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  Speaker 1: to make sure people understand that 2.5% cap on revenue
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  Speaker 1: from property taxes.
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  Speaker 3: Correct.
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  Speaker 4: Correct.
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  Speaker 1: So like the city of Omaha, we get more sales
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  Speaker 1: tax and property taxes into our budget. It doesn't affect
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  Speaker 1: the sales tax.
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  Speaker 3: This is only property tax.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, correct.
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  Speaker 3: Okay.
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  Speaker 5: So yeah, and let me back up a little bit.
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  Speaker 5: And I say this quite often. People are tired of
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  Speaker 5: hearing me. But property tax is a ninth grade algebra equation.
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  Speaker 5: It's your valuation times your levy equals what you write
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  Speaker 5: a check for.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly.
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  Speaker 5: And if we don't cut spending, if spending is not
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  Speaker 5: controlled and not– the growth in spending not reduced for, again, schools, counties, cities, NRDs, ESUs,
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  Speaker 5: everybody else, nothing will ever change. People have messed with
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  Speaker 5: the– how we do valuations or messed with other parts
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  Speaker 5: of the equation. The only factor in that ninth grade
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  Speaker 5: algebra equation that matters is what is spent. And if
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  Speaker 5: we don't change how much is being spent at the
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  Speaker 5: end of the day, nothing else will matter. So that's
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  Speaker 5: why I'm focusing on the increase in growth. Okay, let
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  Speaker 5: me ask you this then. I'm going to challenge you
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  Speaker 5: here a little bit. The levy for the city of
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  Speaker 5: Omaha right now is 43.99 pennies per $ 100 valuation.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's beaten in my head.
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  Speaker 1: So, I mean, I know what that is, but to
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  Speaker 1: run the city of Omaha, it does cost more every year.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, everything costs more. Steel costs more. Concrete costs more.
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  Speaker 1: About 85% of the city of Omaha's employees are in
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  Speaker 1: a bargaining unit, meaning they are in a labor contract,
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  Speaker 1: meaning we are contractually legally obligated to honor that contract
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  Speaker 1: with their raises in there. So every year it does
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  Speaker 1: cost more. So how do you recommend that we really.
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  Speaker 3: Cut that spending.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: The exceptions that I have written into the bill, and
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  Speaker 5: it's in bill drafting right now, are to exempt collective
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  Speaker 5: bargaining units. So that addresses the issue that you're talking
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  Speaker 5: about with employees. The increases to teachers are under a
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  Speaker 5: collective bargaining agreement. Police and fire are under collective bargaining agreement,
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  Speaker 5: and public employees are under collective bargaining agreement. It's for
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  Speaker 5: wages and benefits. So the benefits part covers the what
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  Speaker 5: is a huge concern for many localities, and that's medical
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  Speaker 5: insurance expenses, which continue to rise. There is an override feature.
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  Speaker 5: If there's a supermajority of the board that can override,
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  Speaker 5: then that can happen also. So there are means by
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  Speaker 5: which this can happen, but we want to create an
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  Speaker 5: environment where it's challenging, it's difficult, and quite frankly, it's
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  Speaker 5: politically unpopular to raise the levies or raise the taxes
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  Speaker 5: on beyond the rate of inflation that we're all receiving.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, for sure.
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  Speaker 1: And just to remind the listeners, the city of Omaha,
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  Speaker 1: 74% of our.
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  Speaker 3: Budget is personnel.
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  Speaker 1: Right. And the majority of those are in a bargaining unit.
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  Speaker 1: The other thing you mentioned, health care, the city of
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  Speaker 1: Omaha right now in this year pays $ 90 million for
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  Speaker 1: health care.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Well, and to refer to the schools, schools make up
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  Speaker 5: about 65% of your property tax bill, round numbers. Personnel
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  Speaker 5: makes up about 80% of that 65%. So you multiply
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  Speaker 5: that out, it's about 45% to 50% of your property
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  Speaker 5: tax bill is related to personnel.
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  Speaker 1: So when you said a hard cap, you said 2.5%.
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  Speaker 1: So what you're talking about is, say, a city, say Omaha,
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  Speaker 1: You cannot take in any more revenue than 2.5% over
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  Speaker 1: the year before. That's where it's kept, and there are
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  Speaker 1: some exceptions to that. But if you get more revenue
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  Speaker 1: than that, then what that means is you should turn
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  Speaker 1: around and lower your levy.
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  Speaker 4: Right, right. And here's another thing that's important. Over the summer,
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  Speaker 4: I have met.
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  Speaker 5: Exhaustively with the cities, the organization that represents cities, organization
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  Speaker 5: that represents the counties. I've met with every school district
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  Speaker 5: in my district. I've met with the school administrators groups.
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  Speaker 5: I've met with the ESUs. I've met with the NRDs.
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  Speaker 5: I've talked with everybody that would be impacted by this.
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  Speaker 5: And as you well know, Jean, the perfect place for
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  Speaker 5: legislation and policy is where we don't like it, but
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  Speaker 5: we can live with it. And that's where we're landing here.
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  Speaker 5: And each one of them are like, have gotten to
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  Speaker 5: a point Because we've had an open conversation, they said,
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  Speaker 5: you know, this is not something that we are going
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  Speaker 5: to love, but we know we need to do something
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  Speaker 5: to correct this dramatic year-over-year rise that continues to happen
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  Speaker 5: in property taxes. So they've all been cooperative in working
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  Speaker 5: with me.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, like this– for the 2027 budget, I
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: keep on going back to the city of Omaha because
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  Speaker 1: I know so much about it.
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  Speaker 3: But the new budget that was just.
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  Speaker 1: Approved is almost a 7 percent increase in the general
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  Speaker 1: fund budget. I mean, that's huge, but mainly because the
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  Speaker 1: sales tax are coming in so strong, too.
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  Speaker 3: So that cap, there is a cap that already exists, though,
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  Speaker 3: a revenue cap.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And it's zero, right?
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  Speaker 4: It's 3%.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, it's 3%.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, all right. All right, let's move on because
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  Speaker 1: we've got so much to talk about. One of the
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  Speaker 1: things that I know that you really want to protect
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  Speaker 1: is income tax cuts in the state of Nebraska. Talk
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  Speaker 1: about that.
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  Speaker 5: So in 2023, we passed a bill that cut our
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  Speaker 5: income tax rate in the state of Nebraska from almost
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  Speaker 5: 8 percent to just under 4 percent. It will be
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  Speaker 5: down to 3.99 percent next year. And the left has
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  Speaker 5: lost their mind over this because they continue to say
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  Speaker 5: that these were tax cuts for rich people, for millionaires.
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  Speaker 5: For billionaires, my opponent keeps saying for out-of-stake corporations, well,
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  Speaker 5: guess what? It also impacts next year the bottom of
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  Speaker 5: that income tax rate is $ 18, 000. So I guess– I
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  Speaker 5: don't know.
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  Speaker 4: Good news.
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  Speaker 5: You make 18 grand next year, you're rich according to
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  Speaker 5: my opponent and many folks on the left. Their easy
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  Speaker 5: button– remember the Office Depot easy button? Their easy button
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  Speaker 5: for resolving the budget deficit is to roll back the
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  Speaker 5: income tax cut. and just go back to the old rates.
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  Speaker 5: And that is an easy way to do it. And
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  Speaker 5: the math works. You know, you collect a couple hundred
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  Speaker 5: million dollars more. That's fantastic. But I tell you what,
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  Speaker 5: that income tax cut has been, for a family of
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: modest income, that income tax cut is represented somewhere between $ 3, 000
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: and $ 5, 000 back into their household budget every year. That's
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: not unsubstantial. That's a lot of money.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: It is a lot of money. Now, the approved....
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Tax cuts were for reducing top individual and corporate income tax.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Is that right?
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: The top rate, but now the top rate, again, as
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: of next year, will go down to $ 18, 000. And the
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: rates below that are lower than that. And the reality
• 16:42
  Speaker 5: is in Nebraska, if you have any children and you
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: make anywhere from like $ 50, 000 Chances are you're not paying
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: probably any state income tax because of the earned income
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: tax credit, which, by the way, we also increased the
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: same time that we made this tax cut. So it's
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: not like there was nothing in this package that helped
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: people of modest incomes.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: So what your opponent and many others are saying is
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: they're saying because you made these income tax cuts, which
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: put money back in people's pockets– that they were made
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: too much, and therefore there's a shortfall in the budget.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: So they're going to come back and they're going to say,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: let's raise the income tax?
• 17:23
  Speaker 5: If my opponent gets elected, she will follow along with
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: those on the left that have been leaders in this
• 17:29
  Speaker 5: discussion in the unicameral, and their plan is to roll
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: back that cut, which essentially is raising.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Taxes in Nebraska.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Absolutely it is.
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: Now, she won't say that out loud.
• 17:38
  Speaker 5: She's been very careful to not release any plans– She
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: hasn't released any plan or any strategy with regards to
• 17:45
  Speaker 5: balancing the budget or property taxes or resolving high prices
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: for gas and groceries and medicine and everything else. She
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: talks about this all the time, but we have yet
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: to find any evidence of any plan on her part
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: to resolve any of those issues.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: We have Brad Von Gellerin with us today, and he
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: is the chair of the Revenue Committee of Nebraska Legislature
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: for District 4. What about additional tax credits like– child
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: care credits. Are those something that's on the table?
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and we did.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: We expanded the earned income tax credit, and that is
• 18:19
  Speaker 5: a great program. I mean, the earned income tax credit
• 18:21
  Speaker 5: is a way, it's a refundable credit. So even if
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: you don't have a tax liability, you can apply for
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: that credit. And I hope people of modest means know
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: about that and they know how to find that. It's
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: pretty simple in the tax form and in the process.
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: So that is the most effective way to get tax
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: dollars back into the hands of people of modest means.
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: Correct.
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: And I'm not aware of a plan to increase that
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: or to impact that, but certainly that could be considered.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: And one thing I do want to get straightened out to,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: and I want you to help me with it because
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: we've talked about it before, is there is a challenger
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: for governor is Lynn Waltz.
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: She was on this show.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: One of the things that I brought up was she
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: has a commercial out there saying– that Governor Pillen, of course,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: her commercials are against Pillen, Governor Pillen wouldn't reduce property tax,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: but the commercial says, but he jacked up sales tax
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: 36% on everything. And then when I asked her about it,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: she said, well, we voted it down. It was never introduced,
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: was it?
• 19:37
  Speaker 5: Somewhere in the middle. And that was something that was-
• 19:39
  Speaker 5: Throwing out ideas. It's kind of like rolling back the
• 19:42
  Speaker 5: income tax cut. Well, this is the easy button. We
• 19:44
  Speaker 5: could just raise sales taxes and solve all these problems.
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: Well, guess what? It creates a whole bunch of other problems.
• 19:49
  Speaker 6: Absolutely.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: It never made it to the floor, never made it
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: into a vote.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: So, yeah, that is completely false.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: So I always say these commercials, so many of them
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: now are meant to mislead you. That one is very misleading.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Anybody can look. Their sales tax in the state of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Nebraska is still 5.5 percent.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: In the city of Omaha, it's 7.
• 20:06
  Speaker 4: It's not misleading. It's untrue.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: It absolutely is untrue.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: Explain, Senator, what the property tax relief fund is. People
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: think that there's this big pot for property tax relief,
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: and why aren't you using it?
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: Explain that.
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: We do use it, and I encourage people– and I've
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: actually done this where I've had conversations as I'm campaigning.
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: People will get– property tax is the number one issue
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: that comes up on front porches as I'm knocking doors.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: And I actually have pulled up individuals' tax statements off
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: of the county records and sent them to them. And
• 20:37
  Speaker 5: if you do that, you can go to the Douglas
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: County Assessor's website. You can pull up your own tax statement.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: And if you look on there, you can see that
• 20:44
  Speaker 5: the state is refunding about 20 percent, actually buying down
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: about 20 percent of your property tax burden.
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: Now, that's great.
• 20:53
  Speaker 5: That was about round numbers of a billion dollars in
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: 2023 that we pulled off of the table. And I'm
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: going to go backwards here a little bit. My opponent
• 21:01
  Speaker 5: often says, well, there was this billion-dollar surplus when you
• 21:05
  Speaker 5: and Pillen took over. Well, yeah, there was, and we
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: took it off the table for property tax relief. We
• 21:10
  Speaker 5: also took another billion off of the table for the
• 21:13
  Speaker 5: Education Future Fund, but that's another– discussion. So anyway, that
• 21:16
  Speaker 5: property tax relief fund is what we utilize to essentially
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: buy down every Nebraskan's property taxes to the tune of
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: about 20%. Now, the problem is valuations have gone up
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: since then, and it's either wiped out all of that
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: or most of it. So it's no longer being felt,
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: and that's where the frustration is coming from.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: And is doing something state law-wise about valuations, property tax evaluations,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: is that something that's on the table to say, You
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: can't increase the valuation of your property over a certain
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: percent per year.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: Is that being discussed?
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: We actually talked last year about kind of a Prop 13,
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: California Prop 13 model, which would freeze your valuation. There's
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: problems with that, too. There's a constitutional problem with that,
• 22:00
  Speaker 5: number one. Number two, it does not control spending.
• 22:03
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 22:03
  Speaker 5: If you freeze the valuations on my house, it just
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: pushes that burden onto your house.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: Or somebody else's. It makes it harder for a young
• 22:11
  Speaker 5: person to get in. To homeownership, it makes it– it
• 22:16
  Speaker 5: redistributes the problem to sometimes the least able to pay
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: that tax burden.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: It's almost destroyed the homebuilding industry in the state of
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: California for doing that.
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been a real problem.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: Well, California is a couple trillion dollars in debt and
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: primarily because the state's had to backfill that problem.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Senator Brad von Gellerin is here today. We've got a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: little bit more time, but a lot to talk about.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Talk about your position on the boys' and girls' bathrooms.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: I think there's LB— boy, there's several of them. There's several
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: of those LBs, LB 89, LB 574.
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: Talk about your position on that.
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: So I don't have many absolute red lines, but that's
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: one of them. One of my red lines this next
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: year is the income tax— not rolling back the income tax cut.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Another one is protecting— disabled families and the funding for
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: that within the budget, but this is another one. Boys
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: do not belong in girls' bathrooms or locker rooms. I
• 23:11
  Speaker 5: was in high school when Title IX went into effect,
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: and so I got to see, I kind of had
• 23:16
  Speaker 5: an odd front row seat to that, but it has
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: been effective. My youngest daughter played volleyball in high school
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: and college. And I can tell you if there had
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: been a man in the locker room, if there had
• 23:26
  Speaker 5: been a man on her team, I would– dad would
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: not have had to say a word. She would have
• 23:31
  Speaker 5: walked away. And that would have been very disappointing because
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: it was a great experience for her. It creates unsafe
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: and inappropriate environments. And one of the pushbacks is, well,
• 23:41
  Speaker 5: it's really– it's discriminatory.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: Well, you know what?
• 23:44
  Speaker 5: We can have– we can be thoughtful about things without
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: hurting people and we can build safeguards in. Without challenging
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: people in inappropriate ways. But this is completely inappropriate to
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: have men in women's spaces.
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: So this is LB 89, is it?
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: Well, last year– all the LBs will– all the numbers
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: will go away this next year because we start a
• 24:05
  Speaker 5: new session. But there is the ballot initiative I think
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: is what you're talking about.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: Which would be a constitutional amendment which would enshrine this
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: in the state constitution.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And has this been on for a vote and failed? No.
• 24:20
  Speaker 5: Actually, well, kids– boys and girls sports passed in Nebraska. Okay.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: We passed that a year or so ago.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: I want to make sure.
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: The locker rooms and the restroom protections did not pass.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: And I– The debate on this, I mean, honestly, I
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: feel the same way you do. I don't understand it.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, I go back to high school biology. And,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: you know, first of all, there is no argument that
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: whether you're male or female happens at conception. And that's
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: your DNA, and that DNA is in every single cell
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: of your body for life. And so those that are
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: arguing all these different points on this, it just doesn't
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: make sense to me.
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: I will just share one thing. In having met families
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: that are going through this challenge, I just want to
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: share my level of compassion for what they're going through
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: has increased.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: I don't want to be callous. I don't want to
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: be numb to it.
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: What most families did not invite as a challenge within
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: their family, and it does present some challenges. And again,
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: I'm not numb to that. I've gotten to know a
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: family that's had to deal with this, and it's been
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: very helpful for me to get to know them and
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: understand the challenge that it's presented for them. But that
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: does not change the fact that we need to protect
• 25:32
  Speaker 5: girls' from boys being in their spaces.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and that was my point too because biologically, males
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: are different. Their physiques or their athletic ability are just different.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: Innately different than women.
• 25:47
  Speaker 4: Exactly.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: And that's the real issue.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And I understand what you're saying because I feel the
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: same way.
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: Let's talk just a little bit more, though. Experience does matter.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: And I mean, when you are talking about these things
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: and how complicated and difficult they can be, and we
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: all want property tax relief, bringing someone brand new in
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: that is making statements that are actually inaccurate and It
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: concerns me a lot. And doing commercials that are inaccurate.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: The one thing that got me is your opponent is
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: blaming you for a billion-dollar shortfall.
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: You individually. It's just you. Nobody else.
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: I'm one out of 49.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Not any of those other 48 that you're with all
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the time. And so I want people to hear the candidates.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: And I will ask your opponent. We will reach out
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: and ask her if she wants to be on.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: And I'll ask her the same questions. But I think
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: that's what's important.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: We want to make sure that people understand, are well informed,
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: understand what we have at stake here, and then are
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: informed voters. But the one thing I think you and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: I both want to say is. please get out to vote.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, yes.
• 26:54
  Speaker 5: Yeah, you know better than anybody what happens when people
• 26:57
  Speaker 5: don't show up to vote.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, absolutely critical.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And your primary in May, I think the voter turnout
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in Douglas County was 26%.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Right. You need your voice to be heard.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Your voice is not going to be heard if you
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: don't go out and vote.
• 27:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, don't, you and I shared a couple of stories
• 27:14
  Speaker 5: on this. I had a, conversation with an individual after
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: the primary who said, what happened?
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: And I said, I don't know. Did you vote? And
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: they said, well, no.
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: And I was still in a pretty bad mood at
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: that point. So I tried to be polite about it.
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: But all I can say right now is it absolutely matters.
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: You cannot, cannot stay home. And there's an effort out
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: there to get out the vote effort. Pick up the phone,
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: call five friends, call 10 friends, see who needs a ride.
• 27:39
  Speaker 5: Get everybody to the polls. And the other thing is
• 27:41
  Speaker 5: if you have a An absentee ballot, you can't just
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: show up on Election Day and vote. That becomes a
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: provisional ballot. If you have an absentee ballot, don't let
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: it sit on the countertop at home.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And you can deliver it in any of the boxes
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: around town, but they have to be delivered by 8 p.m. Right.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: Get them turned in.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: And anything that comes to the election office after 8 p.m.
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: on election day, it is not going to be counted
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: if you forgot. So make sure you get those ballots in.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Usually in an election like this, the return on the
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: mail-in ballots are about 85%. but we need them to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: be about 100%. So Brad Van Gulleren, thank you so
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: much for being here today, running again for re-election for
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: District 4 out in Western Douglas County in Elkhorn, chair
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: of the Revenue Committee. Boy, you've got a lot of
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: stuff on the table. Good luck with that. And like
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: I said, experience definitely does matter.
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: Ask folks to visit my website, vongillerin4ne. com.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: There you go. Thanks for being with us today. And
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: we are back. Welcome back.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: I want to thank Nebraska legislator Brad von Gillerin again
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: for being on the show. We will reach out. We
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: have reached out to his opponent, Cindy Maxwell-Ostick. Hopefully, she
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: will agree to come on the show. We've also reached
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: out to Mark Martinez. He is Aaron Hansen, Sheriff Aaron
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Hansen's opponent. And I've had Sheriff Aaron Hansen on the
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: show several times. I have reached out to Mark Martinez
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: more than once and we get crickets.
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: He won't even respond to me.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: So I want people to know that we did reach
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: out and we will reach out to these candidates that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: are on the air here with us. to their opponents
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: to give them a fair and very respectful interview too.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: We've had Pete Ricketts' opponent, Dan Osborne, in the studio.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: We've had Jim Pillen's opponent, Lynn Waltz, in the studio.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And so I want to make sure everybody understands that
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: I have reached out and most of these opponents won't
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: even respond to me.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: What is it about me, Peyton?
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: And you know, all our interviews, like with Dan Osborne
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: and Lynn Waltz, they were very fair and very respectful.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: And so I want to be able to give them
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: a chance to to talk about these things too and
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: what their position. The election is two weeks from today, folks,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and I want you to hear as much as we
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: can from all of these candidates so that you can
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: make up your own mind. I'll go back with what
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: we were talking about with Senator Von Gellerin. In the
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: very beginning, when we started talking about the number one
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: issue in Omaha, the number one issue in the state
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: of Nebraska is property tax relief. And yet I want
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: you to understand how these ballot initiatives, 440 and 441,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: are working. Because if you support, like we talked about,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: online betting and wagering, fine.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: That's fine.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be the nanny here and tell
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: you what to do and not to do. You go
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: ahead and vote for it. If you don't, vote no.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: But don't vote for it because... you can get $ 166
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: million in direct property tax relief. What does that mean
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: to you as an individual, to your household? Not a
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: whole hell of a lot, really. And like I said before,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: that that's what we were promised six years ago when
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: the casinos were approved for the state of Nebraska and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: nothing has really happened. I will say from Warhorse in Omaha,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: we budgeted about $ 2. 5 million a year that the city
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: of Omaha gets from Warhorse. And when you talk about
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: a $ 600 million general fund budget, that $ 2. 5 million isn't
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: even a half a penny. of property tax levy. So
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: it's not very much. So don't be fooled to think
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: that if you vote yes for this, you're voting for
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: property tax relief because that's what the commercials say. Now,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: I've had the opponents on. I had the auditor, State
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Auditor Mike Foley on to talk about his opposition to
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: these two initiatives. There is a lobbyist, Jordan McGrain, that
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: was on the radio with Rosie and with Scott Voorhees
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: one time this week. I think it was yesterday morning.
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: We will invite him to be on too because he
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: is a proponent of this. So we want to be
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: fair and we want to make sure that you have
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: the right information so that you can vote as an
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: informed voter. But as we both said, Senator Von Gellerin
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: and I, the important thing is to get out and
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: vote That 26% voter turnout in Douglas County in this
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: primary last May That.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: Is really, really sad.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Not good enough. Not good enough for these midterms. And
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: so we– and, you know, your vote is almost more
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: important now than ever because every vote does count, and
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: it's typically in the midterms a loader voter turnout. So
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: every vote does count. I will go back to Gene
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Stothert in 2006. I don't mind talking about this because
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: I ran for the Nebraska legislature for District 12– I
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: lost on a recount by 14.
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: Votes, 14.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: So yes, I will be one that will say every
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: vote does count because after that happened, you're like, holy cow,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: if I would have knocked on two more blocks of doors,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: would that have made a difference? So every vote does count.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: Let's get to the phone lines real quick. 402-558-1110. We
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: got Jeff on the line. Thanks for calling the KFAB
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: comment line. You are live with Gene Stothert.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: The senator talked about budgeting, budgeting, budgeting. In my case,
• 33:19
  Speaker 6: we don't pay income tax on Social Security or my
• 33:22
  Speaker 6: Army retirement pay. Basically, I got $ 2, 000 back or $ 2, 500
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: back from the state Somewhere they've got to tax my
• 33:32
  Speaker 6: retirement pay and my wife's and not all of it
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: if they don't want to, but they've got to tax
• 33:37
  Speaker 6: some of it because you can't cut yourself out of
• 33:39
  Speaker 6: a billion dollar shortfall that the state won't allow. Unless
• 33:47
  Speaker 6: it's the roads or whatever. He's in trouble. He's in trouble.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, number one, there isn't a billion dollar
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: shortfall at the time.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: At this time, there isn't.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: There's about a 200, I don't know, 250 million dollar
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: shortfall now. And that just goes, that goes up and
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: down all the time, depending on the economic forecasting. And,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: you know, about how they are managing and how the
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Appropriations Committee is, how their budgeting package comes out.
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: You know, they have gone up and down so much.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: But I will say that they are looking at what
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: the state can do and then looking at what the
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: local taxing authorities can do. And that's why I wanted
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to stress this so much too. With your local taxing authorities,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: they're the ones that levy your taxes and they're the
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: ones that collect your taxes. And as we've said many
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: times before, the school districts are 62 to 65% of
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: your total tax bill. And so, you know, if we
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: are wanting the state involvement, what can they do? They
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: can make state law of how much revenue you can
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: bring in. But again, look at the city of Omaha.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: They bring in more sales tax and property taxes. So
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: it's got to be a combination of the local taxing
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: authorities working really reducing their spending as much as they can.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: The city of Omaha's budget in 2027, that was Mayor
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Ewing's first budget, almost increases by 7%. It's almost a
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: 7% increase. Now, my goal was always to keep it
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: 4% or less because it was always, you know, the
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: cost of living goes up, things cost more. Lots of
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: people are under labor contracts, but almost 7% is a
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: huge increase. And so when you said Von Gilleran is
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: in trouble, I'm not sure what exactly you mean by
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: that because that property tax relief is number one. The
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: income tax cuts, that will be down to 3.99% by 2027.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: And I think it just reflected another commitment to lower taxes.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: But the money has got to come from somewhere to
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: run the government too.
• 36:09
  Speaker 3: So thank you for your comments.
• 36:11
  Speaker 6: The thing is, I'm talking about state taxes, not local taxes.
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: And he's a state tax guy. The thing is, you
• 36:17
  Speaker 6: can't change the subject. You've got to talk about state taxes.
• 36:21
  Speaker 6: And they have to change the income tax rate, particularly
• 36:25
  Speaker 6: in my case, about taxing some of my retirement pay
• 36:28
  Speaker 6: and maybe giving a 1% or 2% increase in income taxes.
• 36:33
  Speaker 6: The thing is, he's got state taxes, not local property taxes.
• 36:37
  Speaker 6: He can't talk about school teachers' taxes. and art programs
• 36:41
  Speaker 6: and football and basketball he's got to talk about state
• 36:45
  Speaker 6: running the penitentiary running the health and human services uh
• 36:49
  Speaker 6: that's what he's got to talk about and you need
• 36:51
  Speaker 6: to talk about it too when you when we're talking
• 36:53
  Speaker 6: about state taxes well i know you're an expert i
• 36:57
  Speaker 6: know you're an expert on local taxes but this is
• 36:59
  Speaker 6: a state tax thing and the billion dollars is an
• 37:01
  Speaker 6: estimate and even if it's not a billion say it's
• 37:04
  Speaker 6: 600 million instead you can't fire state patrol. You can't
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: fire the office workers at the capital, at the income
• 37:12
  Speaker 6: tax department, tax revenue department. He's got a problem with
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: the budget shortfall.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I know you're so right.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: And I think the state, it's got to be a
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: combination of general fund cuts. It's got to be revenue generators.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: It's got to be some transfers. There's all sorts of
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: different approaches that they can take to this. And that's
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: why the one thing that I want to say is
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: when I look at a lot of these challengers, to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the current incumbents. They will come out and they will say,
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: this is wrong and this is wrong and this is wrong,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: but they never say what their solution is. And that's
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: what my point is to say, I think that experience
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: really matters because it is complicated.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: To your point, it is very complicated.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: But somebody coming on saying, I've got all these ideas,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: but never says what their ideas are or what their
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: solutions are.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: That's what concerns me. Thank you so much.
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: Gene Stothert on the KFAB Comment Line. One segment to
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: go here on a Tuesday on NewsRadio 1110 KFAB. KFAB.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: Gene Stothert on the KFAB Comment Line. My name is
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Peyton Highlock. And so much to talk about today. We
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: had a wonderful interview to start the show. Nebraska State
• 38:27
  Speaker 2: Senator Brad Von Gillern. You can find that on the
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: podcast page uploaded here in about an hour or so
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: if you missed any of that. And plenty of guests
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: last week. Yes, lots of guests last week.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: And, you know, to Jeff that just called, I want
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: to just comment a little bit about it because he
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: is so right as far as what the state does
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: is different than what the cities and the local taxing
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: authorities do. But, Jeff, you got to, I mean, I
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: understand what you're saying because I'm retired. You know, I'm
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: retired too. I'm collecting Social Security. I have a small
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: pension from being down at City Hall for 16 years.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: But here I have a part-time job. I work an
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: hour a day in a radio studio.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: So this is fun. But, you know, I know what
• 39:09
  Speaker 3: you mean.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: And when people are on a fixed income and when
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: people are working, it makes a big difference.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: And so I understand what you're saying.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: But that's why I think experience really does matter.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: I did get a question here from Dale and it's
• 39:24
  Speaker 2: a bit of a broader question and it is in
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: regards to campaign reform. And I know this could be a,
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: you could write a whole dissertation on this probably.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: Hi, Ms.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: Mayor.
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: Do you believe there should be major campaign reform? If so,
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: where would you start? I've never seen such nastiness and
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: downright evil from many I.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Have not seen it either. I think that this campaign
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: right now is an all-time low. I don't even look, honestly,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: at the comments about me anymore. But I do follow
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: all the candidates and what people are saying about these candidates. It's,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: there's so much vitriol, there's so much anger, there's so
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: much name calling, but I don't think that you can
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: stop it. Here's the deal is, you know, when I
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: first ran for mayor, that was in 2012 and 2013,
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: it was when I was elected.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I remember my.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Opponent, which was the current mayor at the time, Jim Suttle,
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: his campaign were saying some really, really nasty things about me.
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: And I, I mean, untrue, nasty things about me.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: And they were even.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: Relating how I did in a debate to, I will quote,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: to a, no, I don't even want to say it
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: because it's about a rape. I don't even want to
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: say it. But it was awful stuff. It made national news.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: But I went to an attorney that taught defamation at Creighton.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: And I said, can I respond to this? Can I
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: sue somebody for saying these horrible things about me? And
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: he said to me, there's not a judge in a
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: country that would take a defamation or a libel case
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: in a political race.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: They just expect it.
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: See, I just have a hard time, you know, when
• 41:06
  Speaker 2: it comes to campaign reform, I feel like it starts
• 41:09
  Speaker 2: with the candidates.
• 41:10
  Speaker 6: Yes.
• 41:10
  Speaker 2: They're so brutal to each other. And, and that's a
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: nonpartisan thing. All parties are, are toxic towards the other candidate,
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: but it's worse than it's ever been. But, but don't
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: you think that that sponsors vitriol and hate coming in
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: these comments and people's opinions about it? I just think
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: it kind of starts at the top.
• 41:27
  Speaker 3: It, it, It does.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: And these candidates come out swinging. And at first, it's
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: about why you should vote for me. And I'm the
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: best candidate. And here's what I'm going to do most
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: of the time without any explanation about how they're going
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: to get it done. But boy, when they start swinging,
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: they swing hard and they tell actual things that are untrue.
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: They lie. And this is what really, really bothers me.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: And I wish that there was some way that they
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: could Reform.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: Let's talk about that. Let's talk about that tomorrow.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: That's a very interesting topic.
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: Because there are, I could think of several things that
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: they could do. Limit the amount of money spent on media, whatever.
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: I mean, limit how much campaign finance, those laws, limit that.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: I think that there's certain things they can do, but
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I'd like to know what you think about that too.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: But thank you all for spending this hour with us today. Again,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: thank Senator Brad von Gellerin for being on. We'd love
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: for you to join us tomorrow. And I'm Jean Stothert,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: and this is 1110 KFAV.