Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / District 20 Candidate, Roads, and Unicameral

Transcript

District 20 Candidate, Roads, and Unicameral · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: You know Peyton.
0:01
Speaker 2: Somebody called in the other day and said, you know,
0:03
Speaker 2: this broadcast to Des Moines. We don't get a lot,
0:05
Speaker 2: We don't talk a lot about Iowa. And we will
0:08
Speaker 2: take questions about Iowa anytime. Absolutely And you know what,
0:13
Speaker 2: I don't know a lot about the politics in Iowa,
0:15
Speaker 2: but you know we could get Emory. Emory knows a
0:17
Speaker 2: lot about Iowa too, Absolutely so. But it is your
0:20
Speaker 2: chance to speak up and sound off. Send your emails
0:24
Speaker 2: to comment at kfab dot com or you can call
0:26
Speaker 2: us at four oh two five five, eight eleven ten.
0:30
Speaker 2: And today I have a great guest with me today
0:33
Speaker 2: Chris Anderson.
0:34
Speaker 3: Good morning, Good morning, Benjim.
0:36
Speaker 2: And he is running for the legislature for a legislative
0:39
Speaker 2: District twenty. And the reason I had Chris On and
0:43
Speaker 2: I think this is going to be interesting for our
0:45
Speaker 2: listeners because this caused quite a bit of a of
0:48
Speaker 2: a conversation a while back is it did come out
0:52
Speaker 2: that in LD twenty that I endorsed the incumbent Senator
0:57
Speaker 2: John Fredrickson. And remember on the air I called him
0:59
Speaker 2: fergus and which I still am apologizing for. But John
1:03
Speaker 2: Fredrickson is the incumbent he is a Democrat, And I
1:07
Speaker 2: explained why I came out early and said I endorsed him.
1:10
Speaker 2: Number one, he endorsed me for mayor. He went out
1:12
Speaker 2: on a limb and endorsed me for mayor. But number two,
1:15
Speaker 2: I explained that of all every one of the Omaha
1:18
Speaker 2: senators in the legislature, Republicans included John Fredericson was the
1:23
Speaker 2: most engaged with me, and that meant a lot to me.
1:26
Speaker 1: It really did.
1:26
Speaker 2: I mean he would call me, he would ask me
1:28
Speaker 2: how bill certain bills affect me and I mean not me,
1:31
Speaker 2: and it would affect Omaha.
1:33
Speaker 1: Did I support him? Did I not?
1:35
Speaker 2: He was very engaged with the city and I appreciated that.
1:38
Speaker 2: Now did I support all of his politics?
1:42
Speaker 4: No?
1:42
Speaker 1: I did not.
1:43
Speaker 2: I mean he has you know, he obviously is a Democrat.
1:46
Speaker 2: I'm a Republican. I'm much more conservative. Even Doug Kagan,
1:51
Speaker 2: who is head of the Omaha Taxpayers for Freedom, called
1:56
Speaker 2: me the Piranha of the Republican Party.
2:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's pretty rough.
2:01
Speaker 2: I've been called a lot of things, but not Parana
2:04
Speaker 2: for endorsing John Frederickson. Now, once again I said, I
2:08
Speaker 2: gave the reasons why I did, because he was very,
2:11
Speaker 2: very engaged, but our politics are not the same. Chris
2:15
Speaker 2: Anderson is another candidate for LD twenty. When I endorsed
2:20
Speaker 2: John Frederickson, I didn't even know who Chris Anderson was
2:22
Speaker 2: because and you weren't.
2:23
Speaker 1: You didn't say that you were running at that time either.
2:26
Speaker 2: But it's not up to me about who District twenty
2:30
Speaker 2: is going to elect for their legislative representative.
2:33
Speaker 1: It's up to the voters.
2:34
Speaker 2: And that's why I thought it was really important to
2:36
Speaker 2: have Chris on today so that we could get to
2:39
Speaker 2: know Chris a little bit better. And here here why
2:42
Speaker 2: he's running two because there are two, well is there
2:45
Speaker 2: more than two, there's three candidates that are running for
2:49
Speaker 2: LD twenty. So first of all, I met Chris l
2:52
Speaker 2: just a couple of weeks ago. He's got a very
2:55
Speaker 2: interesting background. And we're going to start off. I should
2:58
Speaker 2: quit talk and you're here to be interviewed, but we'll
3:01
Speaker 2: start off with just Chris. Tell us who you are,
3:03
Speaker 2: tell us about a little bit about your background.
3:06
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, Gene, thanks for having me, and thanks
3:08
Speaker 5: to the listeners. And also I want to say real
3:10
Speaker 5: quick thanks for your service to the city of Omaha.
3:12
Speaker 3: When I moved.
3:13
Speaker 5: When we moved here in twenty eighteen, by choice, I
3:16
Speaker 5: had the blessing to have a job here, interview here,
3:20
Speaker 5: relocate here, and you were the mayor and you did
3:21
Speaker 5: great things, and so I appreciate your service.
3:23
Speaker 3: Thank you to the city.
3:24
Speaker 5: Thanks relocated here in twenty eighteen by choice. I grew
3:28
Speaker 5: up in speaking of Iowa. I grew up in eastern
3:30
Speaker 5: Iowa and spent my whole life there till I went
3:33
Speaker 5: to college and joined the Air Force, and that's where
3:35
Speaker 5: the adventure started. I ended up spending ten years on
3:39
Speaker 5: activiuty in twenty one years in the reserves. In my
3:42
Speaker 5: last twenty years in the reserves, I also worked for
3:44
Speaker 5: publicly traded companies in various roles, working from home since
3:49
Speaker 5: twenty eleven actually, and had the opportunities and the privilege
3:53
Speaker 5: to still serve and serving the various command levels at
3:56
Speaker 5: pretty high levels. I retired as a colonel, spent almost
3:58
Speaker 5: nine years as a colonel at various locations around the country,
4:01
Speaker 5: but also living in Omaha and working for various corporations.
4:05
Speaker 5: So that's a little bit about me. But most importantly,
4:07
Speaker 5: I got a fourteen year old and nineteen year old
4:09
Speaker 5: that keeps you busy, it keeps me busy. And then
4:11
Speaker 5: why am I freshman in high school and freshman in college?
4:14
Speaker 5: And that's mainly reason I'm doing this. And I fell
4:16
Speaker 5: to calling I also am strong in my faith, and
4:18
Speaker 5: I prayed. I felt like, due to the diverse experiences
4:21
Speaker 5: I've had around the world, both in the public sector
4:24
Speaker 5: and private sector, that I could pay some of that
4:27
Speaker 5: back to the state of Omaha and the legislature and
4:30
Speaker 5: the people in the District twenty. Absolutely great experiences are
4:33
Speaker 5: very fortunate.
4:34
Speaker 2: Now explain to the listeners, because I can't keep up
4:38
Speaker 2: with all of this, Tell the demographics of l D twenty.
4:43
Speaker 2: Where does it go from where to where? Because it's
4:45
Speaker 2: pretty spread out it is.
4:46
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a very wide and narrow district. So it
4:51
Speaker 5: starts as seventy second in Pacific and if you just
4:54
Speaker 5: do a develop a mental image, all the way out
4:56
Speaker 5: to Harvey Oaks, basically, oh, all the way out we
4:58
Speaker 5: have Harvey Oaks, and then it kind of agnals down
5:01
Speaker 5: to south of eighty or basically where the you know
5:04
Speaker 5: when eighty cuts south. The basically the railroad is a
5:08
Speaker 5: southern boundary, so south of center and the kind of
5:10
Speaker 5: curves back all the way back to seventy second. There
5:13
Speaker 5: is a small cutout of the Burke High School and
5:16
Speaker 5: the surrounding neighbors from one hundred and twentieth to one
5:18
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty fifth.
5:18
Speaker 3: Okay, it goes up.
5:19
Speaker 2: The dodge is Burke High School in LD twenty. Okay,
5:22
Speaker 2: so you get a long wide district. So you've been
5:25
Speaker 2: knocking on doors. That's a lot of walking you've been doing.
5:28
Speaker 2: I know everybody always says you better wear at a
5:30
Speaker 2: few pair of shoes when you're running for any type
5:32
Speaker 2: of office, and I certainly did.
5:35
Speaker 1: In fact, I had to.
5:36
Speaker 2: Go buy these like walking boots, because you just had
5:39
Speaker 2: to have something that works for your feet, right, And
5:41
Speaker 2: I remember walking in freezing cold weather. I remember walking
5:44
Speaker 2: in snow and rain. But you know what, that's what
5:47
Speaker 2: you do. And I know you've been doing that, haven't you.
5:49
Speaker 3: Yes, I had.
5:49
Speaker 5: I started this in December in Earnest as far as
5:53
Speaker 5: praying and then making my decision and having some mentors
5:56
Speaker 5: advised me and help me. But you know, we had
5:58
Speaker 5: a somewhat of a mild winter, but there were weeks
6:00
Speaker 5: where I walked lack to you, there are some weeks
6:02
Speaker 5: where I walk where I had winter on a Monday
6:03
Speaker 5: and summer on Thursday. So as we all know, so
6:06
Speaker 5: it's been a it's been a blessing. I've had over
6:08
Speaker 5: thousands of homes.
6:08
Speaker 2: I remembered one time I was walking in a blizzard
6:11
Speaker 2: and I just thought it was a weekend and I thought,
6:13
Speaker 2: I just cannot stay home until one person said, I'm
6:16
Speaker 2: not going to vote for you because I think you're crazy,
6:19
Speaker 2: and I thought, Okay, it's time.
6:21
Speaker 1: For me to get in the car and go home.
6:23
Speaker 4: Now.
6:23
Speaker 5: Well, it's funny, sick because one of the cardinal rules
6:26
Speaker 5: I was advised by many, including how and others, was
6:29
Speaker 5: do you never walk during the Nebraska football game?
6:32
Speaker 1: Oh no, Yeah.
6:32
Speaker 5: However that I started this effort during November slash December,
6:37
Speaker 5: and I really realized very quickly that now it was
6:39
Speaker 5: Nebraska basketball, so I had to be very wary of
6:43
Speaker 5: kind of staying off the streets.
6:44
Speaker 3: And that gives you all the fans.
6:45
Speaker 2: Don't bother them during a game, that's for sure. Have
6:48
Speaker 2: you been attacked by a dog yet, because I have
6:51
Speaker 2: not yet.
6:51
Speaker 5: Yesterday I had three that was very close, and I
6:53
Speaker 5: had a fellow, a current legislator recommended he said, you know,
6:57
Speaker 5: I carry three dog biscuits in my pocket, so if
7:00
Speaker 5: Dave run out, I throw them one way and run
7:02
Speaker 5: the other. So I've got some techniques that I have,
7:04
Speaker 5: but I haven't had that yet.
7:05
Speaker 1: That's a good idea. Why didn't I think of that?
7:07
Speaker 1: But I'm going to ask you.
7:08
Speaker 2: You know, you kind of said why you are running?
7:10
Speaker 2: You know you felt like it was a calling you
7:12
Speaker 2: want to deserve. You have served the community and your
7:15
Speaker 2: communities in many ways in the past, especially with being
7:18
Speaker 2: in the Air Force. But this is one of the
7:21
Speaker 2: hardest questions because I got this ask a lot, and
7:24
Speaker 2: it should be the easiest, but it's hard. But what
7:27
Speaker 2: do you hope to achieve in the legislature if you
7:30
Speaker 2: are elected you, I know you watch what's going on
7:33
Speaker 2: in the legislature. You're aware of what their responsibilities are.
7:37
Speaker 1: What do you want to achieve?
7:39
Speaker 5: That's a great question. I hear that routinely to the
7:42
Speaker 5: doors too. Both different under different parameters.
7:45
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, I believe I did.
7:47
Speaker 5: I mentioned to you that my faith informs my decision
7:49
Speaker 5: making in my particular particular this decision. But I believe
7:54
Speaker 5: that I love Omah. I knew within a living here
7:57
Speaker 5: within a week that we are going to stay here,
7:58
Speaker 5: and I'm staying here until for tell them called back
8:01
Speaker 5: home by the Lord.
8:01
Speaker 3: But I love it here.
8:03
Speaker 5: I think that I love the good life, and I
8:06
Speaker 5: think we're right at a decision point in my opinion,
8:08
Speaker 5: Nebraska and Omaha where we just need a little tweak
8:12
Speaker 5: to our form of government, our approach to government, our
8:15
Speaker 5: fiscal responsibility to the taxpayer, which in my opinion is
8:18
Speaker 5: the customer of the government. We have a responsibility to
8:22
Speaker 5: be fiscally responsible and keep it the good life.
8:25
Speaker 3: And socially, there's some.
8:26
Speaker 5: Other things going on to around the world that inform
8:29
Speaker 5: me and guided me and informed my decision making. But
8:32
Speaker 5: I feel it's very important to keep it the good life.
8:34
Speaker 5: And at the end of the day, we have a
8:36
Speaker 5: great We have one of the best states, if not
8:38
Speaker 5: the best state in the Union, and I think it
8:40
Speaker 5: is a good life. I want to make it better.
8:42
Speaker 5: There's just some small tweaks. I think I can leverage
8:44
Speaker 5: my background and help them.
8:45
Speaker 2: Well, you know, I'm going to get back to the
8:47
Speaker 2: budget shortfall that they were facing. But you know, you
8:50
Speaker 2: and I share some of the same thoughts because you
8:53
Speaker 2: said I chose to live here. A lot of times
8:56
Speaker 2: in campaigns, your opponent will say I'm from here, he's not,
9:00
Speaker 2: or she's not. This is a fifth state I've lived in,
9:04
Speaker 2: But I chose to live here too, you know. And
9:07
Speaker 2: I've been here thirty three years, and they always tried
9:09
Speaker 2: to use that against me.
9:10
Speaker 1: I'm from Omaha, she's not.
9:12
Speaker 2: But we chose to live here. And I felt the
9:15
Speaker 2: same thing you did. And when I arrived in Omaha,
9:18
Speaker 2: it was April. I came up from Texas, which it
9:21
Speaker 2: was like one hundred and fifty degrees in Texas, got
9:23
Speaker 2: off the plane and it was twenty degrees in a snowstorm,
9:26
Speaker 2: and I thought, what is going on here? But I
9:30
Speaker 2: loved it the first day I was here, and I've
9:32
Speaker 2: loved it ever since. I love Omaha, I love Nebraska.
9:35
Speaker 2: But that is something that's really really true and accurate
9:38
Speaker 2: that we're both saying we chose to move here, and
9:40
Speaker 2: when we got here, we loved it and we want
9:43
Speaker 2: to stay forever. And I'm like you, I'll be pushing
9:46
Speaker 2: daisies before I move out of Omaha. But let's talk
9:50
Speaker 2: about some of the legislative issues then, just going to
9:54
Speaker 2: get your general thoughts on it. We can't dig in
9:56
Speaker 2: into it too deep. But the biggest I think one
10:00
Speaker 2: of the most important jobs that the legislature has and
10:03
Speaker 2: city councils is to approve a budget and manage a budget.
10:08
Speaker 1: And this last.
10:09
Speaker 2: Year they were facing this huge budget shortfall. They talked
10:13
Speaker 2: about it all session, and then they balanced it out,
10:16
Speaker 2: and then the forecasters came out and said, whoops, you're
10:18
Speaker 2: short again. But that's all based on their revenue projections
10:23
Speaker 2: and then they come in less than they actually, you know, projected,
10:27
Speaker 2: So the budget shortfall, it seems like it was a
10:30
Speaker 2: major issue. But at the same time, we are a
10:34
Speaker 2: really high tax state and they want people everybody wants
10:38
Speaker 2: their taxes lower, and that's the number one issue in Omaha,
10:40
Speaker 2: and that's the number one issue in Nebraska. Make our
10:43
Speaker 2: taxes lower. So just if you could just a little
10:46
Speaker 2: bit about your thoughts about lowering taxes in a state
10:50
Speaker 2: that's around two million people. I mean, there's not a
10:53
Speaker 2: lot of people that are paying into the revenues for
10:56
Speaker 2: our taxes.
10:57
Speaker 1: Just talk a little bit about your thoughts about that.
10:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, yeah, we do.
11:01
Speaker 5: I've throughout this process, I've learned that, you know, Nebraska
11:04
Speaker 5: is the fourth highest taxation in the country after California, Illinois,
11:07
Speaker 5: and New Jersey. I believe in that order fourth highest
11:11
Speaker 5: taxation when you take the conglomeration of all of our
11:14
Speaker 5: various methods of taxation. As after knocking on thousands of doors.
11:18
Speaker 5: And by the way, when you and I chatted at first,
11:21
Speaker 5: we talked about your transparency initiative and importance in the
11:25
Speaker 5: city government, and I am fully support that. I believe
11:29
Speaker 5: we've made some progress in this session the unicameral did
11:32
Speaker 5: in terms of transparency. But I believe that the customer
11:35
Speaker 5: of the government the taxpayer, and having worked in public
11:38
Speaker 5: traded companies, I think there's internal customers which are shareholders,
11:41
Speaker 5: and external which are the customers of the product in
11:43
Speaker 5: the state of Nebraska. That we the taxpayer, are both.
11:47
Speaker 5: We're a shareholder in the government. We're also a customer
11:49
Speaker 5: of the government in terms of what goods and services
11:51
Speaker 5: we have. So there are certain constitutionally mandated services, but
11:56
Speaker 5: I believe that we need to take a kind of
11:58
Speaker 5: a profit and loss look as much as possible, recognizing
12:01
Speaker 5: that we have to. We certainly have essential functions, but
12:04
Speaker 5: maybe there's some areas where we can look at it
12:07
Speaker 5: like we have a shareholder and may there's some commissions
12:09
Speaker 5: that could either be downsize or find find some efficiency.
12:13
Speaker 5: Because at the end of the day, and you mentioned
12:15
Speaker 5: Iowa earlier, I run into every day five to ten people,
12:19
Speaker 5: depending on how many hours I walk, of people that
12:21
Speaker 5: are exploring going to Iowa, moving to Iowa, that are
12:24
Speaker 5: at different ages fifty to eighty.
12:26
Speaker 1: And because I hate to hear that, I hate.
12:28
Speaker 5: To hear that this is a good life. I'm staying here.
12:31
Speaker 5: I want them to stay here, and I want to
12:32
Speaker 5: keep people here. I don't think it's a crisis, but
12:35
Speaker 5: we have to recognize. I believe that we're in somewhat
12:37
Speaker 5: of a competition for our goods and services or the
12:40
Speaker 5: product we provide to the taxpayer, and they have an option,
12:43
Speaker 5: and some are looking at Iowa's maybe more affordable, or
12:46
Speaker 5: South Dakota. We're doing good things, and I think this
12:48
Speaker 5: session they made some good with ATO three and some others,
12:51
Speaker 5: some good progress. I want to keep working on that
12:54
Speaker 5: and leverage taking a approach that the government is here
12:58
Speaker 5: to serve the people, not the other way around.
13:00
Speaker 2: And you know, Governor pillon Is is really really I mean,
13:03
Speaker 2: that's one thing that he talks about all the time
13:05
Speaker 2: is we have to be more efficient with the money
13:07
Speaker 2: that we are getting in. We only have a limited
13:10
Speaker 2: amount of revenue that's coming in that we have to
13:12
Speaker 2: run this state and we want good services. People demand
13:15
Speaker 2: good services, and that's that's really hard for anybody elected.
13:19
Speaker 1: It's hard for a mayor, it's hard for the governor.
13:21
Speaker 1: People do they demand good.
13:23
Speaker 2: Services, but they want their taxes lower, meaning we have
13:26
Speaker 2: less revenue that comes into the state. So you know,
13:29
Speaker 2: and when like I said, I came from Texas, well,
13:31
Speaker 2: Texas had oil and Texas had the highest sales tax
13:36
Speaker 2: and they had a gazillion people paying into it. You know,
13:39
Speaker 2: our sales tax the state is five and a half percent.
13:42
Speaker 2: We have the local option of another one and a
13:44
Speaker 2: half percent in Omaha, but there is a limited amount
13:47
Speaker 2: of people in the entire state that is paying into
13:50
Speaker 2: that tax. So you know, you're you're really kind of
13:53
Speaker 2: pushed into a corner saying how do we balance this out.
13:56
Speaker 2: I know, the conversation has been out for many years
13:59
Speaker 2: about all the sales tax exemptions that we have and
14:02
Speaker 2: if we got not got rid of them, that maybe
14:05
Speaker 2: lowered some of those exemptions we would have a lot
14:07
Speaker 2: more revenue coming into the state. But then it's always
14:11
Speaker 2: whose ox are.
14:12
Speaker 6: You going to go?
14:13
Speaker 2: You know, and when you talk about well, maybe we
14:15
Speaker 2: should lower sales tax exemptions here or there or wherever,
14:19
Speaker 2: then people are saying, hey, not me. So it's very
14:21
Speaker 2: very difficult. And when you and I were talking about
14:24
Speaker 2: you mentioned a minute ago about transparency. The one thing
14:27
Speaker 2: I did is mayor is I put the city's budget
14:29
Speaker 2: online and then I did a quarterly report to the
14:32
Speaker 2: community about where every department was, and so if police
14:37
Speaker 2: was over budget and another department was over budget, then
14:41
Speaker 2: we'd let the public know and real in then and
14:44
Speaker 2: so at the end of the year we could balance
14:46
Speaker 2: the budget out and not at the end of the
14:47
Speaker 2: year to go, oh my god, what are we going
14:49
Speaker 2: to do?
14:49
Speaker 1: We're short.
14:50
Speaker 2: And I think that was very very helpful to do that,
14:53
Speaker 2: And then I would look at the budget monthly and
14:55
Speaker 2: make sure that every department was on track where they
14:58
Speaker 2: should be, and not wait until you're in a bad spot.
15:01
Speaker 2: So I think transparency is very very important. You just
15:05
Speaker 2: mentioned the minum though, LB eight O three, and since
15:08
Speaker 2: there is over a thousand legislative bills, I can't remember
15:13
Speaker 2: which one is which Half the time I know LB
15:16
Speaker 2: eleven sixty five was one I was watching, and that
15:19
Speaker 2: is referred to the up merger bill. But you mentioned
15:21
Speaker 2: aight oh three, tell us about aight oh three.
15:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you.
15:24
Speaker 5: And by the way, that on the transparency data point
15:29
Speaker 5: day to day, and we talked earlier about the width
15:33
Speaker 5: of the district. It's pretty you know, middle class certainly,
15:37
Speaker 5: but when I walk behind, for example, you know Mangleson's
15:40
Speaker 5: in that area to Harvey Oaks, different kind of physical
15:44
Speaker 5: makeup of the neighborhood. Great, all great Nebraskans. But what
15:46
Speaker 5: I hear consistently is property taxes and just tax in general,
15:51
Speaker 5: but also the transparency. I hear the routinely. Somebody says,
15:54
Speaker 5: well where where? I just want to know where my
15:56
Speaker 5: money is going? And I know, and probably all of
15:58
Speaker 5: us in the studio we know that most of it is.
16:00
Speaker 5: If you dive into the it's pretty transparent if you
16:03
Speaker 5: look at certain layers online to find the LB, the
16:07
Speaker 5: people that track the un cameras, bill tracking, et cetera.
16:11
Speaker 5: But for the average person, I think they especially now
16:14
Speaker 5: that we have you know, these these cell phones, people
16:16
Speaker 5: want that information at their fingertips as easy as possible,
16:19
Speaker 5: So I applaud your initial to make it as easy
16:22
Speaker 5: as possible at the city. Working in publicly traded companies,
16:25
Speaker 5: it's one of the most obvious metrics as a share price.
16:28
Speaker 5: But then you have series ten K other filings that
16:31
Speaker 5: are very readily available, so your financials are open to
16:34
Speaker 5: the customer and anybody wants to invest. So I think
16:37
Speaker 5: transparency is key. Eighth three is true basically the Truth
16:41
Speaker 5: and Taxation Bill and what I like about there's different
16:45
Speaker 5: dimensions of that, but again tying it back to my
16:48
Speaker 5: most important requirements. Just talking to over thousands of doors,
16:52
Speaker 5: is I hear a lot about childcare. That's not the
16:54
Speaker 5: number one or two. It's it's certainly property tax and division,
16:57
Speaker 5: which we can talk about in a second, but division
16:59
Speaker 5: and the country. But childcare is is I meet people regularly,
17:03
Speaker 5: like a mom that's our dad that's at home with
17:06
Speaker 5: the children, saying it's cost prohibitive for me to go
17:10
Speaker 5: work even if I make you know, forty, it's.
17:13
Speaker 1: Like sending them to college anymore.
17:15
Speaker 5: Thirteen hundreds what I heard yesterday fourteen month a month,
17:19
Speaker 5: and that's a lot of a lot of hard earned money.
17:22
Speaker 5: For the constituency District twenty so eight O three has
17:26
Speaker 5: a part in there that which is great, that gives
17:29
Speaker 5: some childcare relief and allows I think at one point
17:33
Speaker 5: it was going to be they had to have childcare,
17:35
Speaker 5: corporations had to provide it on site. But I think
17:37
Speaker 5: now that that version of the bill actually lets the
17:41
Speaker 5: get some off off campus childcare, which could have been
17:45
Speaker 5: a challenge for some companies to have limited real estates.
17:47
Speaker 2: So that bill will be brought back next year obviously, yeah,
17:50
Speaker 2: with more conversation, okay, okay. And then the other one
17:55
Speaker 2: it was LB eleven sixty five, and that's referred to
17:57
Speaker 2: as the up Merger bill. But the whole bill was
18:00
Speaker 2: set up to help attract and retain employees with tax incentives.
18:04
Speaker 2: That's the one thing I hear a lot is just
18:06
Speaker 2: the state of Nebraska does not have a lot of incentives,
18:09
Speaker 2: tax incentives and to bring businesses here, and then maybe
18:13
Speaker 2: that's why some are leaving and going to Iowa for
18:15
Speaker 2: more incentives. So is that something important to you too?
18:19
Speaker 5: Extremely important, because I think at the end of the day,
18:22
Speaker 5: I mean, if we look at it from a business
18:23
Speaker 5: case of the individual that has thirteen or fourteen hundred
18:27
Speaker 5: dollars of childcare expenses and exponentially rising property tax bills,
18:32
Speaker 5: which that's a different but I'm very big on we
18:34
Speaker 5: need to have our property tax at least be predictable.
18:37
Speaker 5: When anybody does a budget, you bake in a percentage
18:40
Speaker 5: and have it predictable will be key. But on that
18:43
Speaker 5: one definitely, the if we can attract and retain more
18:47
Speaker 5: businesses here, large corporations, I think ninety thousand was a
18:52
Speaker 5: base salary for people to be part of that bill,
18:56
Speaker 5: for corporations to bring in people to get incentives, right,
18:59
Speaker 5: and I believe it is five million a year over
19:01
Speaker 5: ten years.
19:02
Speaker 2: Yes, there's a lot of populations with that. Yeah, it's
19:05
Speaker 2: not just handing out free money exactly.
19:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, right, because we all have to pay for that.
19:09
Speaker 5: So I think the business cases there, I think it's
19:12
Speaker 5: great and mirrors and increases expands on some other states
19:16
Speaker 5: of best success. And at the end of the day,
19:18
Speaker 5: you're right, we have the people and corporations can have
19:21
Speaker 5: a choice of where to relocate potentially or stay in Omaha,
19:25
Speaker 5: and I believe they should definitely stay in Omah.
19:27
Speaker 3: It's a great life and we're going to keep it.
19:28
Speaker 4: That on.
19:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with you too. So all right, as
19:31
Speaker 2: I said in the beginning, it's not up to me.
19:35
Speaker 2: It's up to the voters in LD twenty to vote
19:38
Speaker 2: for who they want to represent them. We've got You're
19:40
Speaker 2: a great candidate, and I think the one thing I
19:44
Speaker 2: really want to say.
19:45
Speaker 1: Is please just go out and vote. Oh my goodness.
19:48
Speaker 2: With the last mayoral city council election in Omaha, it
19:52
Speaker 2: was barely twenty eight percent, and I heard people say, well,
19:56
Speaker 2: I'm not going to vote in the primire. I'm going
19:58
Speaker 2: to wait to see who gets through. It's so important
20:00
Speaker 2: to vote in the primary too, because you're helping to
20:02
Speaker 2: decide who gets through. You don't want somebody that you
20:07
Speaker 2: would not want to vote for to get through the primary.
20:09
Speaker 2: So everybody needs to really really, these are so important
20:13
Speaker 2: to us in our everyday life. They need to get
20:15
Speaker 2: out and vote butt LD twenty. It's up to you
20:18
Speaker 2: who you're going to pick. If you want to tell
20:20
Speaker 2: the listeners right now why they should vote for you.
20:24
Speaker 5: I have a broad, diverse experience serving the military. I
20:27
Speaker 5: swore an oath to the Constitution of the US for
20:30
Speaker 5: thirty one years. I had the privilege to do that
20:32
Speaker 5: as an honor, and thank you the listeners in the
20:35
Speaker 5: country forgive me that opportunity. My experiences are different than
20:40
Speaker 5: the competition, but I chose that.
20:42
Speaker 3: I chose.
20:42
Speaker 5: I was fortunate to have those experiences serving the public
20:46
Speaker 5: sector at senior levels and also in privately publicly traded companies.
20:51
Speaker 5: I think I have different experiences and I believe in
20:54
Speaker 5: serving with honor and integrity and listening to others now
20:57
Speaker 5: more than ever. God gave us two years and one
20:59
Speaker 5: month for a reason. I will listen to others and
21:01
Speaker 5: work with anyone as long as it's respectful. But we're
21:04
Speaker 5: all focused on making and keeping it the good life
21:07
Speaker 5: and making it even better to their great life.
21:09
Speaker 1: Excellent.
21:10
Speaker 2: And what's the political Just lastly, what's the political makeup
21:13
Speaker 2: of your district?
21:14
Speaker 1: Democrat, Republican, Independent? Yes, not evenly? Is it about even?
21:18
Speaker 5: It's about even And I would like to dovetail on
21:21
Speaker 5: your comment about get out and vote in District twenty
21:24
Speaker 5: and I focused ulturately on my district, but I do
21:27
Speaker 5: believe in other districts across the Omaha this is a case.
21:30
Speaker 5: But in District twenty we have a significant amount and
21:32
Speaker 5: it's growing of independence. There's many reasons why. Division is
21:36
Speaker 5: probably the number one reason. Now you're door to door,
21:38
Speaker 5: people like I'm just the country.
21:40
Speaker 3: Everybody's divided. So i'mend I hear that too.
21:42
Speaker 5: There's a misnomer, I believe for some most voters are informed,
21:46
Speaker 5: but some that I knock on door to door say
21:48
Speaker 5: I'm an independent. I can't vote in your primer, my primer,
21:51
Speaker 5: but they can. Yes, they're just, and they are right
21:53
Speaker 5: that in the congressional that is true. But so I
21:56
Speaker 5: try to educate. Because you're you can.
21:57
Speaker 2: Ask for a Republican or Democrat ballot.
22:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that is the key. Please vote.
22:02
Speaker 5: I think I'm the right choice, and I do look
22:04
Speaker 5: forward to serving and I want to continue serving this
22:07
Speaker 5: great sale.
22:07
Speaker 2: And I will always say you do not have a
22:09
Speaker 2: right to complain if you do not go out there
22:12
Speaker 2: and vote. So, Chris, thanks so much for being here today.
22:14
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. And good luck. Thank you, all right, thank.
22:17
Speaker 2: You, hello, and we are back again. I want to
22:19
Speaker 2: thank Chris for being on the show. Guess what I
22:22
Speaker 2: did yesterday. This is my favorite day of the week.
22:24
Speaker 2: I got to watch Max.
22:26
Speaker 7: Oh, yes, my sixties.
22:28
Speaker 2: Wednesdays, I watched my six year old grandson, Max, and
22:30
Speaker 2: I always have a Max story. He's the most precocious
22:33
Speaker 2: child I think I've ever met, smart as can be,
22:36
Speaker 2: but always says these really funny things. But yesterday he
22:41
Speaker 2: says to me, Grandma, do you know that you can
22:45
Speaker 2: poke a sharp object in the balloon and it won't pop?
22:49
Speaker 2: And I went, no, I did not know that, and
22:51
Speaker 2: he said, well, let me show you. And so he
22:53
Speaker 2: goes and gets a balloon and he blows it up
22:55
Speaker 2: and he says, now I need a pin or a needle.
22:56
Speaker 2: And I'm like, uh oh, this kid's asking for a
22:59
Speaker 2: sharp object.
23:00
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble.
23:01
Speaker 2: So luckily he goes and gets some toothpicks. So he says,
23:05
Speaker 2: he shows me like he's doing some you know, classroom thing,
23:10
Speaker 2: and he says, now you hold the balloon like this,
23:12
Speaker 2: and you get the sharp object, which was a toothpick,
23:15
Speaker 2: and you poke it in this end where the little
23:17
Speaker 2: nott is, you know, and where there's a lot more
23:19
Speaker 2: lay times in there. And he pokes it in there
23:22
Speaker 2: and he says, as you can see, this is going
23:24
Speaker 2: through the balloon. And now you can see that the
23:27
Speaker 2: point is inside the balloon and the balloon has not
23:30
Speaker 2: popped and I said, act, that's that's amazing.
23:33
Speaker 1: I said, that's magic.
23:34
Speaker 2: And he looked at me and rolled his eyes and
23:35
Speaker 2: he goes, no, Grandma, it's science.
23:39
Speaker 7: Like I'm so stupid, not magic, science, not magic.
23:43
Speaker 1: It is science. He is so funny.
23:46
Speaker 2: But anyway, you know, the other day to you and
23:50
Speaker 2: Chris Baker doing the afternoon show, you were talking about
23:55
Speaker 2: something that brought something to my mind.
23:56
Speaker 1: I thought i'd bring up.
23:58
Speaker 2: I forgot the conversation, but you talking about being assaulted,
24:02
Speaker 2: and Chris was saying, have you ever been assaulted? And
24:04
Speaker 2: I've been assaulted. And there's verbal assaults and physical assaults,
24:08
Speaker 2: and you know, I got to tell you, being in
24:11
Speaker 2: mayor of Omaha, verbal assaults are common. And when people
24:16
Speaker 2: talk about running in for elections, being candidates running for
24:21
Speaker 2: political offices, you know, it is getting as we could
24:25
Speaker 2: see by watching the news, it's getting meaner and meaner
24:27
Speaker 2: all the time. And there are a lot of people
24:31
Speaker 2: that don't good people that don't want to run for
24:33
Speaker 2: political office anymore because there's some fear of what could happen,
24:38
Speaker 2: and we see it all over the country right now.
24:40
Speaker 2: But I just I have to tell you just one
24:43
Speaker 2: story and one is when I was first mayor. It
24:46
Speaker 2: was on a Saturday, and it was in the middle
24:49
Speaker 2: of a blizzard, and I needed to go to the
24:53
Speaker 2: grocery store. So I go to my favorite store in Omaha.
24:55
Speaker 2: I drive myself in the middle of a blizzard. Plus
24:57
Speaker 2: I wanted to see what the streets were like. And
24:59
Speaker 2: I I go into Target, my favorite store in Oaha. Target,
25:03
Speaker 2: and as soon as I got in the door, this guy,
25:06
Speaker 2: man big guy, looked at me. He came right over
25:09
Speaker 2: to me and got really close to me and he said,
25:13
Speaker 2: are you the mayor? And I wanted to say no,
25:16
Speaker 2: I just look like her, but I said I am.
25:19
Speaker 2: And then he gets really close and he uses his
25:22
Speaker 2: finger and with each word he pokes my chest. As
25:25
Speaker 2: he's talking, He's poken my chest and I'm going to
25:28
Speaker 2: bleep out my own, my own words that I know
25:31
Speaker 2: I can't see on the radio. But he says, you
25:33
Speaker 2: get the f out of here and go plow the
25:38
Speaker 2: g D snow U C.
25:41
Speaker 1: Word, you know, the C word, Yeah, the really bad word.
25:45
Speaker 2: And he's poking me while he's doing this, and I'm thinking,
25:49
Speaker 2: holy cow, buddy, I mean, this is what a lot
25:52
Speaker 2: of people do. Fa alls I wanted was milk and
25:55
Speaker 2: toilet paper. And this is what happens. But when you
25:58
Speaker 2: are a public figure, people recognize you. Honest to God,
26:02
Speaker 2: these things do happen.
26:03
Speaker 1: Now.
26:03
Speaker 2: Unfortunate for me, this was in the middle of a
26:06
Speaker 2: blizzard and there was hardly anybody in target, and I'm thinking.
26:09
Speaker 1: What am I going to do here?
26:10
Speaker 2: But it is it is something that I think is
26:14
Speaker 2: getting worse year after year after year. Another time I
26:17
Speaker 2: will bring up is when twenty twenty, when the George
26:20
Speaker 2: Floyd issue had just happened in Minnesota. In Omaha, we
26:25
Speaker 2: had the riots and the protests, and they were riots.
26:28
Speaker 2: Somebody always corrects me and says, they were not riots,
26:30
Speaker 2: they're protests. Well, when you start breaking the law and
26:33
Speaker 2: you start damaging property and hurting people.
26:35
Speaker 1: They are riots.
26:37
Speaker 2: But there was a big group that gathered under my
26:40
Speaker 2: window at City Hall in an area we call the plaza,
26:43
Speaker 2: and it's an area between City Hall and the Hall
26:46
Speaker 2: of Justice, and they gather it out there every day protesting,
26:49
Speaker 2: and I could see them. I would watch them every day,
26:51
Speaker 2: and I decided one day I'm going to go down
26:53
Speaker 2: there and talk to them. And my staff went, no,
26:55
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a good idea. But I said,
26:58
Speaker 2: come on, I'm doing it. And a couple of the
27:00
Speaker 2: cops that were in my office followed me down there,
27:02
Speaker 2: and I walked right out into that crowd and I said, okay,
27:05
Speaker 2: I'm out here to listen. And that crowd just got
27:08
Speaker 2: tighter and tighter and tighter around me until they were
27:12
Speaker 2: so tight to me I couldn't move. And then one
27:15
Speaker 2: guy came up and spit in my face, what yes,
27:18
Speaker 2: I mean? And in these things do happen, but it's like,
27:22
Speaker 2: why does this have to happen?
27:24
Speaker 1: And it is it's it's it's it's.
27:26
Speaker 2: Scary for some people to think that I'm going to
27:28
Speaker 2: put myself out for something like that. So I will
27:31
Speaker 2: say this, Thank god we do have people that we
27:35
Speaker 2: do have people that will run for political office. It
27:37
Speaker 2: is so important. And it doesn't mean that if you
27:40
Speaker 2: are from one party or another that that you don't
27:43
Speaker 2: support that you're an evil person. You just have different
27:46
Speaker 2: points of view, Like like Chris just said, his district
27:49
Speaker 2: is made up pretty evenly of Democrat, Republicans and independents,
27:53
Speaker 2: and he's a conservative Republican. You're not going to win
27:55
Speaker 2: the race by just getting Republican votes, So I think
27:58
Speaker 2: that's important to bring up. Oh my gosh, look who
28:01
Speaker 2: the cat just drug in? Chris Baker just walks in
28:03
Speaker 2: the studio with us, and he has a look on
28:05
Speaker 2: his face.
28:06
Speaker 3: I am very upset.
28:08
Speaker 6: Uh oh, put these whatever, Hi, Chris. The idea that
28:14
Speaker 6: somebody's poking you in the chest and calling you filthy
28:17
Speaker 6: names like that, it's infuriating. And I don't know why
28:21
Speaker 6: no man stood up, no matter how big this idiot
28:23
Speaker 6: was and stood up for you.
28:25
Speaker 2: Because it was in the middle of a blizzard, and
28:27
Speaker 2: I don't think anybody was shopping in Target but me.
28:30
Speaker 1: But nobody saw me. Usually they would I mean it
28:33
Speaker 1: was right inside the door there, well, and normally.
28:36
Speaker 3: They would listen.
28:37
Speaker 6: I'm not going to waste time on your very popular
28:41
Speaker 6: That is Trevor Thrasher's book. Oh they want you to
28:44
Speaker 6: go through it, and I want you to check that out.
28:47
Speaker 6: I will because that it infuriates me.
28:49
Speaker 2: This is called They gave me a book called The
28:51
Speaker 2: Everyday Defender Special Operation Principles for Modern Crime and Violence
28:56
Speaker 2: by Trevor Thrasher. It says green Beret? Yeah, was he
29:00
Speaker 2: a Green Beret? Okay, all right, No, he just put
29:03
Speaker 2: it on there because you thought it would look good marketing.
29:07
Speaker 2: I kind of figured that I was just saying that
29:09
Speaker 2: so the people listening would understand who this is funny
29:13
Speaker 2: funny man. Thank you, Chris Baker. Thank you Chris Baker.
29:19
Speaker 2: Thank you for dropping in and interrupting our show. No,
29:23
Speaker 2: that is fine. He's a great guy. I listened to
29:27
Speaker 2: you every afternoon. Boy was he spun up about the
29:29
Speaker 2: Southern Poverty Law Center yesterday too. But then I came
29:32
Speaker 2: home and I was watching it on National News. Holy cow,
29:35
Speaker 2: that's another story. But we could talk for days about that.
29:39
Speaker 2: But holy cow, that's that's developing as we speak.
29:43
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's gonna be very interesting to keep an eye
29:45
Speaker 7: on that. We're gonna go to the phone lines real
29:46
Speaker 7: quick for Sherry. Sherry. You are live here on news
29:49
Speaker 7: radio eleven ten kfab Hi Cherry, good morning, Hi.
29:54
Speaker 4: Good morning. I I'm calling not to argue with you.
29:57
Speaker 4: I'm calling to ask you about question that I'm too
30:01
Speaker 4: old to not know.
30:02
Speaker 7: After living in Omaha for seventy seven years.
30:05
Speaker 4: I'd like to know what they do with the wheel
30:08
Speaker 4: tax money. Oh yeah, where does that go? Budget?
30:12
Speaker 1: Yes? And I will explain that to you.
30:16
Speaker 2: But as I have said before, Sherry, and anybody can
30:20
Speaker 2: do this, I put the city budget online and you
30:23
Speaker 2: could go online and you could look at the city budget,
30:26
Speaker 2: every single page and you could follow where every city,
30:29
Speaker 2: where every dollar goes.
30:31
Speaker 1: The wheel tax.
30:33
Speaker 2: And I'm glad you brought this up, because it's something
30:35
Speaker 2: that people would talk to me about a lot, and
30:38
Speaker 2: they would always say the wheel tax was supposed to
30:40
Speaker 2: be temporary.
30:41
Speaker 1: It never was.
30:42
Speaker 2: The wheel tax was first imposed in the early nineteen
30:46
Speaker 2: hundreds and it was a dollar. Anybody that had a
30:50
Speaker 2: car that rode on the streets paid a dollar because,
30:53
Speaker 2: of course, the philosophy is is if you ride your
30:56
Speaker 2: cars on the street, you contribute to the wear and
30:58
Speaker 2: tear and the damage of the street. So it started
31:00
Speaker 2: out as a dollar, and as the years went on
31:04
Speaker 2: it went up gradually to today's present wheel tax is
31:08
Speaker 2: fifty dollars a year for a car. All of that money,
31:12
Speaker 2: every bit of that money, stays with in Omaha, and.
31:15
Speaker 1: It has to go to the streets and roads. That's
31:18
Speaker 1: where it goes.
31:19
Speaker 2: It can go nowhere else but to the streets and roads,
31:22
Speaker 2: and so that's where the wheel tax goes. And you
31:24
Speaker 2: could see what the actual revenue is for the wheel
31:27
Speaker 2: tax if you look at the budget, and you can
31:29
Speaker 2: also see that it goes basically back to the Public
31:32
Speaker 2: Works Department for all of the for roads.
31:36
Speaker 1: It does not go anywhere else.
31:37
Speaker 2: And people will say, well, we pay that wheel tax,
31:40
Speaker 2: but you know it goes to other areas and it
31:42
Speaker 2: doesn't go to the roads.
31:43
Speaker 1: It does.
31:44
Speaker 2: The thing with the roads, though, is they were so
31:46
Speaker 2: underfunded for so many years. They needed not just the
31:51
Speaker 2: money from the wheel tax and the money we get
31:53
Speaker 2: from the state, but they needed a big influx of money.
31:57
Speaker 2: And that's why we passed that two hundred million dollar
31:59
Speaker 2: bond issh in May of twenty twenty and then it
32:01
Speaker 2: was reauthorized in November twenty four. But that it just
32:05
Speaker 2: adds to the amount of money the wheel text that
32:08
Speaker 2: we have in Omaha to spend on our streets and roads.
32:12
Speaker 2: But it has to buy law stay for the streets
32:16
Speaker 2: and roads, and that is in law. That's an ordinance,
32:18
Speaker 2: and that's in law. But thank you for asking that,
32:21
Speaker 2: because something I really wanted to bring up. People will
32:24
Speaker 2: always bring up that the wheel tex was supposed to
32:27
Speaker 2: be temporary, just like they bring up the restaurant text
32:30
Speaker 2: was supposed to be temporary, and.
32:32
Speaker 1: Neither one were.
32:33
Speaker 2: And all the city ordinances are online too, and you
32:37
Speaker 2: could go online and you could read the ordinances and
32:40
Speaker 2: you could read, you know, basically when it was in
32:43
Speaker 2: first imposed and where the money goes.
32:46
Speaker 7: The unicameral gene. Is it time to end it? This
32:49
Speaker 7: is an email that I got in the inbox at
32:51
Speaker 7: kf comment at kfab dot com from Mark.
32:55
Speaker 2: Well, you know, if you're asking my opinion, I would say,
32:59
Speaker 2: since we are the only state in the entire country
33:03
Speaker 2: that has a unicameral, that there are reasons for that.
33:07
Speaker 2: And I think, you know, the whole thought, the whole
33:09
Speaker 2: premise behind having a unicameral originally was good, and that
33:13
Speaker 2: is you had one house, which is they call them
33:17
Speaker 2: senators one house and the people were the other house.
33:20
Speaker 2: And of course that sounds really, really good, but is
33:23
Speaker 2: it really that way? And it really doesn't seem to
33:26
Speaker 2: be that way. And I guess the real question is
33:30
Speaker 2: would it run better and would it be more beneficial
33:34
Speaker 2: to the citizens of the state of Nebraska and the
33:37
Speaker 2: taxpayers of the state of Nebraska if we would have
33:41
Speaker 2: do away with the unicameral and have two houses.
33:45
Speaker 1: You know, I don't know.
33:46
Speaker 2: I don't know if it would be turn out better
33:48
Speaker 2: in the long run, but it does seem like since
33:51
Speaker 2: we are the only state, there is definitely a reason
33:53
Speaker 2: why other states have adopted the two house legislature, and
33:57
Speaker 2: so that I believe would necessitate a constitutional change, but
34:02
Speaker 2: that happens, I mean, it would be a vote to
34:04
Speaker 2: the people to do that. It would be interesting to
34:07
Speaker 2: me to kind of pull people and see what they think.
34:10
Speaker 2: And you know, you can definitely pull people by putting
34:12
Speaker 2: it on a ballot too, So definitely, I have not
34:16
Speaker 2: heard much conversation about that at all, of course in
34:21
Speaker 2: the legislature because they're elected for four year terms there
34:24
Speaker 2: and they're like, hmm, we don't want to change this
34:26
Speaker 2: what we got going on here. But it would be
34:28
Speaker 2: a very interesting topic. I think that should be brought
34:30
Speaker 2: up in Disgusted.
34:32
Speaker 7: This email referenced Governor Pillen's comments in the Saturday edition
34:38
Speaker 7: of the Omaha World Herald regarding the unicameral just a
34:42
Speaker 7: pair of phrase needing to focus on quality of bills
34:46
Speaker 7: rather than quantity. Just how ineffective is the unit cameral
34:53
Speaker 7: or is it effective? And you kind of answer this already,
34:55
Speaker 7: but do you think it's time Nebraska join every other
34:58
Speaker 7: state with a two house structure.
34:59
Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of I think we just answered that.
35:02
Speaker 2: But you know, it's also supposed to be nonpartisan. Being
35:06
Speaker 2: one house, it's supposed to be nonpartisan. And as you
35:09
Speaker 2: all know that follow the legislature.
35:11
Speaker 1: It's anything but.
35:13
Speaker 2: I mean, you always know exactly how many Republicans and
35:16
Speaker 2: how many Democrats that are voting. And we you know,
35:20
Speaker 2: there's TV commercials now about the congressional district district too
35:25
Speaker 2: about if this candidate John Cavanaugh is elected for the
35:32
Speaker 2: district to congressional seat, then the governor is going to
35:37
Speaker 2: appoint another MAGA Republican. And so they're using this Democrat
35:42
Speaker 2: Republican thing all the time, and they're supposed to be
35:46
Speaker 2: a nonpartisan body, and so you know they're anything but,
35:50
Speaker 2: And so I would I would say that that should
35:54
Speaker 2: is something that should be examined. I will say this though.
35:58
Speaker 2: The other thing is is the salary that our legislators gets,
36:03
Speaker 2: and anytime it goes on a ballot for an increase,
36:07
Speaker 2: it's always turned down. And they don't do it for
36:11
Speaker 2: the money. Obviously they don't do it for the money.
36:13
Speaker 2: But twelve thousand dollars a year for the work that
36:17
Speaker 2: they are supposed to do. I mean really, I mean
36:21
Speaker 2: and and you know they meet in Lincoln, but they
36:23
Speaker 2: come from all over the state. And I know they
36:25
Speaker 2: get some stipends for travel and this and that. But
36:28
Speaker 2: I think, you know, you really got to examine that also.
36:32
Speaker 2: You need something that's a little bit more fair than
36:35
Speaker 2: twelve thousand dollars a year because they have a lot
36:39
Speaker 2: of responsibility and a lot of authority.
36:41
Speaker 7: Thank you for calling the show. Ed you are alive
36:44
Speaker 7: with jeene'st author here on KFAB.
36:47
Speaker 1: Good morning, Good morning, we're listening.
36:55
Speaker 4: Yes, Gene, this is I have a question regarding our streets.
36:59
Speaker 4: Every time in the city of Omoh puts in a
37:01
Speaker 4: new street and then they get all done, the man
37:04
Speaker 4: hole covers are always an answer to below the new surface.
37:08
Speaker 4: Why can't the city works get these man hole covers
37:11
Speaker 4: flush with a street? They just created new potholes all
37:14
Speaker 4: over the new streets.
37:15
Speaker 2: Now that that is part of a street construction project,
37:18
Speaker 2: that's always part of it. What you may see is
37:22
Speaker 2: bef They call it elevating the manhole covers. And after
37:26
Speaker 2: every road project they do that, they would they and
37:30
Speaker 2: you might have driven over them before they had a
37:32
Speaker 2: chance to do that. But that's actually part of the project.
37:35
Speaker 2: So when they do a street project, they're not they
37:40
Speaker 2: mill it down and then depending on whether asphalt or concrete,
37:43
Speaker 2: whether it's raised significantly or not. But part of that
37:47
Speaker 2: project is always raising those manhole covers. So eventually soon
37:51
Speaker 2: I mean right after they should be done. They should
37:53
Speaker 2: not be left that way. And once again I always
37:56
Speaker 2: say this, but if you if you have one that
37:59
Speaker 2: the street is complete and you notice it hasn't been elevated,
38:02
Speaker 2: you can certainly always call the Mayor's hotline at four
38:04
Speaker 2: four four or five five fivey five and report that one.
38:08
Speaker 2: But that is part of the project. And you know,
38:11
Speaker 2: the big street projects, the city bids them out, but
38:14
Speaker 2: the city isn't doing the work. I mean, you hire
38:17
Speaker 2: a company to come out, whether it's asphalt or whether
38:20
Speaker 2: it's concrete, a company comes out and does it. The
38:22
Speaker 2: street maintains the City of Omaha maintains the roads like
38:25
Speaker 2: they fill potholes and they plow snow, but they don't
38:29
Speaker 2: do those big road projects.
38:32
Speaker 7: This is an emailer from Ryan one hundred and ninety
38:35
Speaker 7: second to two hundred and fourth and fort are unpaved
38:39
Speaker 7: and gets washed out frequently. It's the main way to
38:41
Speaker 7: get to a new school, so it has used a lot.
38:43
Speaker 7: Do you have any knowledge of when it would be
38:46
Speaker 7: paved or who I could reach out to to get
38:48
Speaker 7: this figured out?
38:49
Speaker 2: Again, that's under the City of Omaha Public Works would
38:52
Speaker 2: have information on that area. That's pretty far out there.
38:57
Speaker 2: I'm not sure an in fort. I have to stop
39:00
Speaker 2: and think here. I can't say for absolute certain that
39:04
Speaker 2: all of that is in the City of Omaha, either
39:07
Speaker 2: from one hundred and ninety second to two hundred and
39:09
Speaker 2: fourth and fort I'm really not sure. So if part
39:15
Speaker 2: of it is not within the City of Omaha too,
39:17
Speaker 2: it's in Douglas County, and that work would have to
39:20
Speaker 2: be arranged between the City of Omaha and Douglas County.
39:23
Speaker 2: I don't know if that is on the list to
39:26
Speaker 2: be done anytime soon.
39:27
Speaker 4: You know.
39:28
Speaker 2: One area that I will say that just is interesting
39:31
Speaker 2: to me is Harrison, which is way south. But do
39:34
Speaker 2: you know when Harrison was being redone, the City of
39:37
Speaker 2: Omaha paid for the north half of Harrison and Douglas
39:41
Speaker 2: County had to pay for the south half of Harrison
39:44
Speaker 2: because Douglas County and Sarpy County divided right in the
39:48
Speaker 2: middle of Harrison. That's fair, right, I thought that was
39:50
Speaker 2: always interesting. So just to point out that if part
39:53
Speaker 2: of that area out to two hundred and fourth and
39:55
Speaker 2: fort is in Douglas County, that would have to be
39:58
Speaker 2: an agreement between the city and the county.
40:00
Speaker 7: I mean, my little brother and I used to split
40:01
Speaker 7: things all the time, except I was the older brother,
40:04
Speaker 7: so I got a little bit.
40:04
Speaker 2: More, I was going to say, And your little brother
40:06
Speaker 2: didn't like it either, I'm sure probably.
40:10
Speaker 7: This is the kfab comment line jeans author.
40:12
Speaker 1: Are we done already?
40:14
Speaker 7: Huh Fashoh? Wasn't it?
40:15
Speaker 1: Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?
40:17
Speaker 5: That?
40:18
Speaker 2: You know, we have a lot more calls from yesterday,
40:20
Speaker 2: a lot more things we wanted to get to, and
40:22
Speaker 2: we will try to get to it tomorrow. But thank
40:24
Speaker 2: you for spending this time with us today and thank.
40:27
Speaker 1: You for listening. I am Jean Stothart and this is
40:30
Speaker 1: eleven ten KFAB