Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike

Transcript

Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Gene Stothard. Peyton Hilock, my producer who's
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  Speaker 1: rocking out over there on the soundboard, is with us
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  Speaker 1: here today to good morning, Good morning, Jean, how are you.
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  Speaker 1: And we're in the countdown one week from tomorrow, one
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  Speaker 1: week Peyton will be a married man, but we will
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  Speaker 1: talk about that later. But thank you all for being
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  Speaker 1: with us today, and we want to hear from you.
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  Speaker 1: That's what this show is all about. We want to
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  Speaker 1: get your feedback. We want to hear your comments, concerns, questions, complaints,
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  Speaker 1: anything goes with us. We won't back away from anything,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's city, state, national, or the world. And of
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  Speaker 1: course we will always have some great guests and you
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  Speaker 1: will hear plenty of opinions from me too. But it
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  Speaker 1: is your chance to speak up and sound off. You
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  Speaker 1: can send your emails to comment at kfab dot com
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  Speaker 1: or you can call us at four two five five
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  Speaker 1: eight eleven ten. We are so happy that you are
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  Speaker 1: with us today. And today we have a great guest.
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  Speaker 1: We have Mayor Rusty Hike from Mayor of Bellevue. Good morning,
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  Speaker 1: good morning, Gene.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on here. It's always great to
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  Speaker 2: talk about it absolutely.
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  Speaker 1: And there's all these commercials going on out there now
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  Speaker 1: about Bellevue with your voice. There's a lot of exciting things.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, recently I had the mayor of Ralston on,
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  Speaker 1: I had Don Grocer on, I had the new mayor
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  Speaker 1: Council Bluffs, Jill Shudeck, and I thought, my goodness, we
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  Speaker 1: need to get Rusty Hike on here, Rusty Hike. You
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  Speaker 1: have been the mayor of Bellevue since twenty eighteen, correct, correct? Okay?
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  Speaker 1: And before that it was Rita Sanders. I remember working
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  Speaker 1: with Rita Sanders, who then went on I think she
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  Speaker 1: was mayor since she's mayor before I was, I think, yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: And she went on to be a state legislator. In
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  Speaker 1: your real life, you are a real estate broker.
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  Speaker 2: Forty four years of a real estate broker, and.
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  Speaker 1: You own your own company. I do, okay, And let's
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  Speaker 1: so now you love being mayor.
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  Speaker 2: I love being mayor. I love representing mysel.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I love being mayor too because I love to
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  Speaker 1: see good things happening. Did that gives you the greatest joy?
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  Speaker 1: You know? I'll ask you this, what does give you
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  Speaker 1: the greatest joy? Because when people would ask me, I
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  Speaker 1: would say. You know, it's really not the big things.
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  Speaker 1: It's not the skyscrapers or the street car or whatever.
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  Speaker 1: It's when people can call you because it's so local.
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  Speaker 1: You are the local mayor and you can do something
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  Speaker 1: that makes their life that day better, whether it's getting
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  Speaker 1: their trash picked up, or fixing a hole in the
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  Speaker 1: street or helping with a noisy neighbor. What gives you
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  Speaker 1: the greatest joy?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are great things, like you said, especially in
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  Speaker 2: a smaller community. We're sixty five thousands, so we're not
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  Speaker 2: that small, but we're a little smaller.
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  Speaker 1: And we'll compared to five hundred thousand in Omaha, it's smaller.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, but like you said, somebody calls me, I can
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  Speaker 2: take care of it pretty much immediately.
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  Speaker 1: So, and everybody knows you. You go into the grocery store,
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  Speaker 1: you go to the gas station. I'm sure everywhere you go.
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  Speaker 1: It's high mayor.
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  Speaker 2: My wife doesn't usually let me go with her because
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  Speaker 2: it takes too long to get through the grocery store.
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  Speaker 1: That's right, I know how that can be. And you're
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  Speaker 1: married to Joanna who's a teacher. Correct, is she still teaching?
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  Speaker 2: She is one more year so she gets to retire.
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  Speaker 1: After this year and she teaches in Bellevue.
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  Speaker 2: Correct Bellevue seventh Grade, that Lewis and Clark Middle School.
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  Speaker 1: Now did you say this already? Are you born and
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  Speaker 1: raised in Bellevue?
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  Speaker 2: Yep, I'm actually a fourth generation from Bellevue's Okay, well
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  Speaker 2: back in the eighteen eighties time frame.
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  Speaker 1: Family, Yeah, a long time. And Bellevue is Nebraska's is
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  Speaker 1: this debatable oldest city? When I read about Bellevue, some
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  Speaker 1: people say second oldest, some say it is the oldest.
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  Speaker 1: What's the truth?
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  Speaker 2: I say it's the oldest.
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  Speaker 1: It's the oldest.
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  Speaker 2: I think we've proved that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't that amazing Bellevue. I've bet a lot of
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  Speaker 1: our listeners didn't know that that Bellevue, Nebraska is the
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  Speaker 1: oldest city in the state of Nebraska. And Bellevue the
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  Speaker 1: word is French four beautiful view, beautiful view, I know,
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  Speaker 1: isn't that? Isn't that great? And I really didn't even
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  Speaker 1: know that population about sixty five thousand with the twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty census. And I know this mayor hike because every
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  Speaker 1: time we would have a snowstorm in over a decade
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  Speaker 1: when I was mayor, I would get people and say,
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  Speaker 1: why can't you do like Bellevue does. They always get
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  Speaker 1: their streets cleaned right away. And I would say, Bellevue
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  Speaker 1: has I know this, maybe you don't even know this.
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  Speaker 1: You have five hundred and seventy lane miles a road,
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  Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy Let me repeat that. Omaha has
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  Speaker 1: over five thousand. It's a little bit bigger job in Omah.
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  Speaker 1: But you guys obviously do a good job plow on
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  Speaker 1: your roads. We do.
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  Speaker 2: We're really proud of our Streets department. They do a
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  Speaker 2: great job. They get right out on it. We have
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  Speaker 2: a lot of hills and they get out on the
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  Speaker 2: hills and get those done. But we also have a
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  Speaker 2: you know, the off air force bases there, so we
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  Speaker 2: have to make sure those roads are clear just so
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  Speaker 2: our military person can get to base.
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  Speaker 1: And oh we're going to get to that. We can't
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  Speaker 1: forget the bases down there in Bellevue. But talk about
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  Speaker 1: there is so much growth going on south. I mean
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  Speaker 1: Highway thirty four to seventy five quarter in there, old
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  Speaker 1: town Bellvue, lots of new housing and we're going to
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  Speaker 1: get to this water park. But just talk about the
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  Speaker 1: growth in Bellevue, a bit.
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  Speaker 2: The growth is kind of spurred on. We had the
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  Speaker 2: Kennedy Freeway built, I think it was in nineteen eighty nine,
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  Speaker 2: which you know, made a good traffic corridor through town.
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  Speaker 2: We're just trying to attract the people to stop and
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  Speaker 2: pull off on those interchanges. But Highway thirty four is
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  Speaker 2: the going to be the southern beltway to the Omaha
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  Speaker 2: metro area. It's going to extend out Platfe Road and
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  Speaker 2: connect up to one hundred and ninety second. Eventually started
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  Speaker 2: that first project from Highway seventy five to forty second Street,
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  Speaker 2: so that's being graded now. We got the bridge built
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  Speaker 2: back in two thousand and ten timeframe, thank goodness, over
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  Speaker 2: twenty nine so that was a that was that was wonderful.
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  Speaker 1: A big accomplishment and needed.
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  Speaker 2: It was a twenty year project and actually I was
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  Speaker 2: on the county board when when that happened, and I
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  Speaker 2: was able to help get the funding to finish that project.
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  Speaker 2: So that's that's really paying off.
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  Speaker 1: You love seeing when these things that you've been working
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  Speaker 1: on so long are completed.
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  Speaker 2: They take a long time. My dad was a mission
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  Speaker 2: in the seventies and Plattmu Road didn't even go through
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  Speaker 2: to Fort Crook Road or Highway seventy five back in
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  Speaker 2: the seventies. So he got that project done. So I
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  Speaker 2: just feel like I'm continuing that down the road and
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  Speaker 2: getting the job done.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, generations talk about Old Town Bellvue.
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  Speaker 2: So old Town Bellevue, you know, when the interstate came,
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  Speaker 2: it kind of pulled all that business off out of
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  Speaker 2: the old town and off Fort Crook Road, put them
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  Speaker 2: on those interchanges. So we have a lot of people
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  Speaker 2: down there that are kind of underserved. So that's a
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  Speaker 2: really big deal to us. We want to get Old
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  Speaker 2: Town Bellvue revitalized. We did just get the opportunity zone
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  Speaker 2: approved that the state national through the national process, but
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  Speaker 2: Governor Pillon gave us one of those opportunity zones and
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  Speaker 2: that's really going to help kick off our old town development.
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  Speaker 2: We're going through and retreet scaping everything right now, putting
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  Speaker 2: a new utilities making it more pedestrian friendly, diagonal adding
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  Speaker 2: parking by diagonal parketing, raising the intersections, some new landscaping
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  Speaker 2: in so and we've got a project. I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to announce it yet, but I think we're going to
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  Speaker 2: have a big project to announce here shortly.
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  Speaker 1: Oh good. You could announce it on this show if
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  Speaker 1: you want that, you know, talk about explain to the
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  Speaker 1: listeners what the opportunity zone means. There were twenty eight
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  Speaker 1: that were just announced that we're awarded in the state
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  Speaker 1: of Nebraska by the governor. Explain what the opportunity zone
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  Speaker 1: is and what advantage that is for you.
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  Speaker 2: So, I guess, simply put, it really gets the investors' attention.
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  Speaker 2: So if somebody's got a pot of money, and we're
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  Speaker 2: talking millions of dollars that investors have out there, it
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  Speaker 2: gives them an opportunity to come down invest in that
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  Speaker 2: opportunity zone. Anything they build, they can rebuild something, they
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  Speaker 2: can start from scratch, they can remove buildings or houses,
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  Speaker 2: whatever they can put together. And what that does is
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  Speaker 2: if they hold onto that property for ten years, when
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  Speaker 2: they sell that property after ten years, that's all capital
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  Speaker 2: gains free money that they're earning. So it's a very
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  Speaker 2: good incentive.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a good incentive because in the past, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the one thing that people complained about a lot in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Nebraska as far as development, where there
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  Speaker 1: weren't many incentives.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, not a lot of tools to work with. We've
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  Speaker 2: got tiff but this is a really good one.
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  Speaker 1: And you use tiff in Bellevue too, don't we do.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we got a lot of room for more TEFF projects,
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  Speaker 2: but we do utilize that one and it's paying off.
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  Speaker 1: So we talked about the growth going south, thirty four
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  Speaker 1: to seventy five, Cape Park Corridor, Fort Crook Road, Cornhusker Corridor.
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  Speaker 1: Those are all a lots going on in those different
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  Speaker 1: areas that I think people recognize those names.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot going on. Bellevue is actually I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we're sixty five thousand people, which actually were bigger than
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  Speaker 2: Council Blufs, so a lot of people don't realize that.
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  Speaker 2: So we are kind of spread out. We have several
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  Speaker 2: different pods in the area. The base sits right in
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  Speaker 2: the middle of our town, so we have to maneuver
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  Speaker 2: around that. But we've got a really good plan going
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  Speaker 2: forward and our team's worked on that and they've done
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  Speaker 2: a great job, and I see a great future for.
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  Speaker 1: Bellvy Absolutely, mayor Rusty Hike May Bellevue is with us today.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Bellevue Bay Indoor Water Park. When I
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  Speaker 1: read about the details of this, I was amazed. Let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about it. This is a massive indoor water park.
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  Speaker 1: It's for anybody with kids that have traveled down to
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  Speaker 1: Great ones Wolfledge, Great Wolfledge. This puts it to shame.
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  Speaker 2: It's a half times the size of Great Wolfldge.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about it. Because when I was reading the details
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  Speaker 1: and then I looked at some renderings, this is going
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  Speaker 1: to be fantastic for the state, for the entire state.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, this is a regional attraction for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Talk about this. It's how many square feet, it's indoor,
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  Speaker 1: it has a retractable roof. Talk about it. It's under
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  Speaker 1: construction correct, Yep.
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  Speaker 2: They have all the framing up. They're putting all the
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  Speaker 2: polycarbonate glass on now, so it's really looking pretty impressive.
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  Speaker 2: But it's one hundred and fifteen thousand square feet indoors.
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  Speaker 2: It's a fully covered year round. It's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a it's going to be the fourth largest in the
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  Speaker 2: country indoor water park.
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  Speaker 1: That's what I read. That is amazing. Just think about this, folks,
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  Speaker 1: the fourth largest indoor water park in the country in Bellevue.
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  Speaker 2: Yep. And the exciting part is we talked Mattel into
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  Speaker 2: branding it for us, so it's now it's not only
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  Speaker 2: a regional attraction, but it's going to be a true
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  Speaker 2: national attraction.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that a little bit because I did
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  Speaker 1: read that that you have a partnership with Mattel. So
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  Speaker 1: what does that mean. Are we going to see Barbie
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  Speaker 1: Dolls and what what are we going to see there?
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  Speaker 2: Well? October first, we're going to unveil all that Mattel
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  Speaker 2: brandings what it means. Okay, but you are going to
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  Speaker 2: see the hot wheel colors on the slides, You're going
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  Speaker 2: to have Barbie Doll cabanas for the along the pools.
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  Speaker 2: You're going to help I like it a lot of
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  Speaker 2: different things. We have a hotel that's going to be
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  Speaker 2: themed after Mattel as well, so you'll have the themed
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  Speaker 2: rooms in one of the hotels.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that'll be cool.
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  Speaker 2: So we have two hotels going up there.
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  Speaker 1: Kids, well love it. I was going to ask you
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  Speaker 1: how many hotel to total to going up with it? Yep,
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  Speaker 1: Because like Great Wolf Lodge, people are going to travel
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  Speaker 1: to be here and that's going to cause an explosion
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  Speaker 1: of development. I am certain around that area, such as
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  Speaker 1: bars and restaurants and retail housing.
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  Speaker 2: All the above. So that's what makes it all work.
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  Speaker 2: We've got the Good Life Transformational Act that's helping us
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  Speaker 2: pay for all this, the Good Life District Life District YEP.
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  Speaker 2: So that's one of five that was offered in the
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: state and we received one of them. And so all
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: that money that the half the sales tax will come
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  Speaker 2: back to payoff infrastructure and bonds for buildings. So that's
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  Speaker 2: just incredible.
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  Speaker 1: Mayor Rescue hike from Bellevue is with us. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to explain that a little bit further because that Good
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  Speaker 1: Life District, when you said half the sales tax, it
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  Speaker 1: is the new sales tax that occurs because of the development.
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  Speaker 1: So the state sales tax is five and a half percent,
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  Speaker 1: and the new sales tax because of all the development
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  Speaker 1: around there. Basically, the City of Bellevue gets to keep
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  Speaker 1: half of the new which would be two point seventy five,
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  Speaker 1: and then half of the new goes back to the state.
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  Speaker 1: So it's a win win for both.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because this is a brand new canvas down there.
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  Speaker 2: There's nothing there, so it's all brand new tax. It's
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  Speaker 2: all income for the state, for the city, for the county.
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  Speaker 2: Just it's going to help our whole it's going to
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  Speaker 2: help our own state.
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  Speaker 1: And can you describe how big that Good Life district is.
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  Speaker 1: There's going to be geographic boundaries.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, ours is about four hundred and thirty ish acres
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  Speaker 2: all together.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, and back with the water park itself.
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  Speaker 1: It said it has a retractable roof. What does that mean? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: so open it up in the summer.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, So Open Air out of Canada is building our
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  Speaker 2: retractable roof. So just like the football domes that some
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: of the roofs retract, but the panels come back and
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: it opens it up. So it's going to be eighty
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  Speaker 2: five degrees year round. So if it's around that temperature,
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  Speaker 2: open the roof up.
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  Speaker 1: And that sounds good to me. And it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be what you would describe as an entertainment district then
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: around that area, correct, Yes, So are you looking at
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  Speaker 1: a casino and are you looking at a potential race track?
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  Speaker 2: We've been working with an an investor or resident of
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  Speaker 2: the city and he's got a business in the city,
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  Speaker 2: so he's been working on getting a racetrack casino in
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  Speaker 2: there for about five years. Still have to get it
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  Speaker 2: through the Racing Commission, but we've got a great partner
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  Speaker 2: now and it's going to be one that I think
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  Speaker 2: the state is going to want. Here, it's a three
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  Speaker 2: hundred and fifty million dollar investment, and hopefully we can
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  Speaker 2: get that put together. They have another piece of ground
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  Speaker 2: that's it's not in the directly close to the park,
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  Speaker 2: but we're trying to get them to move into that
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  Speaker 2: park area. Is the goal, just so we can direct
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  Speaker 2: traffic and they can feed off each other, Okay, and
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  Speaker 2: it'll make a true entertainment district.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when you three hundred and fifty million dollar investment,
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  Speaker 1: is that the cost of the indoor water park or
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  Speaker 1: is that the.
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  Speaker 2: That's the racetrack, that casino alone.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, okay, I'm sure you can. But the cost of
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  Speaker 1: the indoor water park.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, when you figure out the infrastructure and water park,
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: you know, it's probably I'm gonna throw a number out there.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know exactly yet, but you're approaching hundred million
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: dollars something hundred million altogether.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And so your capital stack to build this, I mean,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: you have this partnership with Mattel, you have the the
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: revenue from the Good Life District park.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the park itself has a revenue, and that's okay,
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  Speaker 2: positive okay, because we're expecting six to seven hundred thousand
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  Speaker 2: people a year comes from the park. Obviously, have the
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: sales tax be in returned. And I believe we're putting
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  Speaker 2: on a three quarter percent occupation tax on top of
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  Speaker 2: the district okay.
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  Speaker 1: And that occupation tax is basically hooked onto your sales
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  Speaker 1: tax that people will pay when they are in this district.
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  Speaker 1: So they have a choice. If you say I don't
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  Speaker 1: want my sales tax going up, you have a choice.
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  Speaker 1: But that really helps that development. But this will be
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  Speaker 1: owned and operated by the City of Bellevue, am I correct.
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  Speaker 2: It's owned by the City of Bellevue, and American Resorts
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  Speaker 2: Management is the one we contracted to do the management.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: We don't want to manage a water parks.
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  Speaker 1: And you know that that reminds me of our with Mecca,
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  Speaker 1: with our arena, convention center and with a ballpark and
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  Speaker 1: with a riverfront parks. You know, they were built with
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a partnership. Money was coming in from different sources, a
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: lot of private money too, and city money. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: we had we thought the city is not able to
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  Speaker 1: manage something at the level that we want it managed.
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  Speaker 1: I mean the number of employees that we would have
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  Speaker 1: to hire even to manage the arena convention center, but
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  Speaker 1: we don't know a lot about getting talent in here
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  Speaker 1: and all of this other So with a facility like
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: you are building, it really makes sense to have somebody
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: else really operated for the city of Bellevue.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and we picked a company that has several of
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: them around the country and they're all successful parks and
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: they just do a great job. They're the ones that
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: are introduced us to Mattel, so they're bringing things that
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: we wouldn't necessarily have contact with. They're also bringing some
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: other things to the part to the entertainment district, which
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: that'll be for future announcements. But we're working on several products.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: So there was no bond issue that you had to
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: put on a mallet.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It is a bond issue, not on the boult though,
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: it's not. It's sales tax bonds.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: So okay, okay, And when can we expect this to open?
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: So about a year from now, maybe a little bit longer.
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty seven, then okay, it will in twenty twenty seven.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: You think it will be open?
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Holy kesh, is that is that is great? So
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: I'm going to move on. This is Mayor Rusty Hike
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: from Bellevue. Let's talk about off at the base, and
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: let's talk about what is coming up the Air and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Space show that twenty twenty six Defenders of Freedom. Is
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: it going to be extra special this year because of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the two hundred and fift.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a great show. They've got the
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: F thirty five demonstration team there, which is an incredible plane,
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: and they're going to showcase that they're going to do
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: the They're going to bring back the Torah Torah Torah,
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: which is the bombing raids and the will actually drop
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: it look like explosions.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Oh my.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: Shopping by so very entertaining. A lot of static displays,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: so you can see just about every plane that's in
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: the military sitting on the base. A lot of other
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: aerobatic shows and a lot of things going on.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, we have to say when it is.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: This is Saturday, August eighth, yep. And then it's Sunday
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: August ninth too. You know, I was telling Mayor Hike
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: before we went on the air I was down there,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: not last year, but the year before. I was at
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: the air show, and it is amazing if you have
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: never been. Although there's a gazillion people, it is amazing.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: When those thunderbirds fly. I mean the rumble is so
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: loud you can feel it in your body. I mean
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: you could feel it in your chest. The rumble of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: the and they fly solo and they are so talented
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: is kind of hold your breath when they're up in
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the air. It's just amazing. Well, the thunderbirds, the demonstration
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: squadron of the Thunderbirds. Also, that's the United States Air Force.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Are they going to.
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: Actually the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels will not be
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: there this show. No really, Yeah, which was a little
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: bit disappointing to us. But given the fact that the
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: country celebrate in two hundred and fifty years, they're busy,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: very busy.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I could see that.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: But we have a great show. Regardless.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: It always is talk about the parking. When I was there,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: the parking was an issue. First of all, the day
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I was there was one hundred and eighty degrees out
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: I believe, but they weren't allowing parking on the base,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: so people had to park elsewhere and take shuttles in.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: And people were complaining because they were waiting hours in
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: line to get a shuttle. Explain what the difference with
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: parking will be this year.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And we had a hot day last at the
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: last show, and it was pretty miserable. But the base
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: hired a company to Mountain show them how they could
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: get everybody on base to park. So everybody's gonna be
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: able to drive on base. If you go to Defenders
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: of Freedom Airshow dot Com, you can register for tickets.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: They'll give you a ticket and it's free. So you
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: do have to have a pass when you when you
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: drive on the base.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: That is good to know.
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Repeat that again, Defenders of Freedom Airshow dot Com.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Okay, and that's how you can get your pass. But
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: the airshow itself is free.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Air show is free. The path, the past, the park
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: is free. It just gets you access to the base
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: that day.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Is it. Can they get more info on a web page?
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Yep, that same same web page, same web page.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: Okay, So it's Saturday, August eighth, that's next Saturday, Sunday,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: August ninth. Gates open at what time?
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: The gates open at eight thirty, demonstrations start about eleven
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: and I believe they close at four.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Okay, And so that's both days. They'll be doing demonstrations
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: from eleven to four.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: There's also a on the on the website you can
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: get special seating if you want to get buy cushion money,
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: but if you want to get tickets for a tent
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: or a table for they do offer some premium seating
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: out there.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: And it is nice because it is it can be
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: hot and you're writing the sun for a long period time.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: But they do have a lot of food trucks and things.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: You could get drinks, you could get food. There's a
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: lot of things that you could do. There are planes
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: that are sitting there that you can get close to
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and look.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: At, absolutely touch them, walk through. Yeah. Yeah, they've got
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: they've got recruiters out there, so if you want to
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: join the military, sign up there too. So there's a
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: lot of ven there's a lot of opportunities.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, my husband Kevin is a pilot. I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: mean he's a pilot of a single engine.
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: Sure, he's been a.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Pilot for about thirty years. Is this is something that
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: he just does for fun. But I mean people that
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: are really interested in flight and people that are pilots,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: they're just mesmerized to go out there and see these
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: big boys sitting there on the tarmac.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my father in law was a single engine plane
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: two and he was always fascinated by it.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, I've got to clear my throat all right, Peyton,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: did you hit the cough button? I hate coughing in
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: people's ears, and I do it. I always tell people
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: I have allergies, and I do this every day until
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: eleven o'clock till I go off the air, and then
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I'm fine the rest of the day. Sorry for coffining.
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: It's not me.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: No, it's not you. I'm not allergic to you. Mayor
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Rusty Hike is here, talk about There is a parade
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: in Bellevue too, tell us about that.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: So the following weekend we have the Bellvue Arrows to
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: Aerospace Day Parade, long standing tradition put on the Kuwanas.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: So that's a fun filled day down to Washington Park.
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: After the parade, they've got foam, party, venders, pancake man's there,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: a lot to do and then if you want, you
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: can go down and see our New American Heroes part too.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: That's worth discussion as well.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And that's the next weekend. I was thinking that the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: parade was this coming weekend.
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: No preade is following the air show, so it.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Is on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday, it's a following Saturday.
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Saturday ten am is a parade in Bellevue too. Man,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: you're busy. You have all sorts of stuff going on.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: There's a lot to do in Bellevue.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: Yes, there is town. We just have a few minutes left. Mayor,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: resty kayk is here just town. Let's let's do a
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: little mayor talk. Now, what is your your number one
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: priority in Bellevue? Now? As mayor, you know, the number
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: one issue that people complain about in the state of
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Nebraska and in Omaha are higher property taxes. Taxes are
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: too high. Tell me what your biggest challenges are in Bellevue.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: So my biggest challenge, and this is the one that
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: I'm I'm all about, is making our city sustainable and
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: making sure that future generations will not have to pay
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: these high taxes. So, just for instance, our entertainment district
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: all fully developed out. If that works the way the
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: models show it could work, there's even a chance that
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: you can totally eliminate property tax in the city.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: So for the revenue that it's going to bring in.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: For the revenue it's going to bring in. So this
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: is all planned out. It's a vision that myself and
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: the administration all share, and we're making great strides to
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: at least reduce it to more affordable.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: What is your property tax in Bellevue? Did you take
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: advantage of the local option?
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: Bellevue does not have the local options?
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're five and a half percent.
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: Then well we have it's one and a half percent,
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: but the additional half percent we do not collect. So
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: most of the cities around us.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, but the state tax is five and a half.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, five and a half for the state. The city
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: collects one and a half. Okay, but we still have
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: an option. We could go another half. Yes, so we've
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: never done.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: That, okay. So yeah, state law is that you have
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: the by a vote of the council, you have your
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: five and a half that goes to the state. You
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: could have a local option. All other cities in the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: state of Nebraska can go up to two, except Omaha cannot.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: State laws as cities of a metropolitan class are limited
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: at one and a half. All the other cities can
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: go up to two. Learned something there, you go because
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Omaha sales tax in is at seven percent because of
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: the five and a half goes to the state. We have
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: one and a half local option. But that's all we
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: can go. We can't go any higher than that. Isn't
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: that interesting?
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: It is very interesting. I mean, I think once all
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: this development takes place and we're starting to get all
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: the entertainment venues in and more retail, that Bellevy really
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: should consider adding that half percent because that's that's going
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: to help the property taxes.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: It absolutely will. And the thing of it is is
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: that people I always used to remind people, is that
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: not that when the sales tax goes up you have
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: that local option, A big percentage of that sales tax
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: is spent by people that don't live in Bellvie.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Correct, So yeah, you're having somebody else pay for your
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: streets and your public safe right.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: And when you have an entertainment district district like you're
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: going to have, you will have a lot of alt
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: town people eating in your restaurants, going shopping, going to
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: the facilities that you have down there, and they are
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: paying this extra local option sales text that then you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: in turn get to keep and really help the city
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: of Bellevue, So it makes a lot of sense talk
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: about and then we've got to take a break, but
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: talk about safety in Bellevue. It's a safe city.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Very safe city. We actually brought on a new police
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: chief about five years ago. It's been there a little
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: over five years. Our crime well, first of all, our
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: police staff, it's fully staffed, which is hard to do
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: in the state of Nebraska. It certainly is and they
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: love working here. And our crime is down overall a
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: little over forty percent in the last five years.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: That's really amazing. What's your total budgeted police department staff?
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to have the budget on the police department.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Our total budget, not budget, but number, oh.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: One hundred and fifteen.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: You have one hundred and fifteen officers, okay, and just
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: as a comparison, Omaha has nine hundred and six, so
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you could tell, I mean there's a big difference. And
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: then your fire department also is full time fire.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Full time and I think we're around eighty eight on that.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, all right, Well, Mayor Rusty Hike from Bellevue, thank
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you so much. So much going on in Bellevue. But
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: we talked about the new water park, the air show
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: is starting this weekend. If you need any more information,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: tell people once again the website that they could go.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: To Defenders of Freedom Airshow dot com.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Okay, and if you want to go, you need to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: do that to get a pass to get on the
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: base to park.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: All right, goodness sakes here, I am coughing like crazy. Sorry,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: but thank you so much for being here today. I
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: really appreciate it, and I hope people take advantage of
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: what's going on down there. Go to your parade, and
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: I can't wait to see when that water park opens.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: That is going to be pretty pretty amazing. You have
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: a lot to be proud of for the city of Bellevue.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: We'll invite you down.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I can't wait. And you know what, I was going
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: to try to get to talking about how we worked
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: with each other when the flood happened. Boy, I just
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: got to bring it up. When the flood did happened
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: in Bellevue. You lost a lot of facilities, a lot
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of homes, didn't you.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the base was devastating. Yes, So that was
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: my baptism when I first became mayor.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: So I think if I remember, it was a twenty
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: nineteen flood I think it destroyed over two hundred homes
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: in Bellevue, so.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: Three hundred within the city and then another three hundred
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: on the outside.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: And that's what we have to deal with. But thank
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: you so much. Mayor Rusty Hike from Bellevue is on today,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: and thank you for being here. And have a good
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: time with all that's going on down there too. Can't
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: wait to see.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: It all right for the time you bet here on
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: a Friday, the kfab comment line with your host of
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: the show, Gene Stothard. My name is Peyton Highlock, and
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: here we are, Gene. If you want to comment, have
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: any questions or concerns for us, give us a call
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: for zero two five five eight eleven ten or comment
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: at kfab dot com. Thank you again to Bellevue mayor
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: Rusty Hike for joining us this morning. Gene, you're kind
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: of making your way around these local communities Omaha suburbs,
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: you could say, just finding mayors and breaking down some
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: good conversation.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Well, Big Kfab with fifty thousand watts is heard all
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: over Nebraska, not just in Omaha. And although you know
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: it seems like on this show we talk so much
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: about Omaha and Omaha politics. A lot of other communities
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: do get this radio station and listen to it, and so,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I worked with all of these other mayors
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: when of course when I was mayor, and it's really
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: fun to see what is going on in these areas
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: surrounding Omaha, because when there's growth for surrounding Omaha, it's
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: good for Omaha and it's good for the state of Nebraska.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: So it's really exciting to hear all that is going on.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: So I wanted to again thank Mayor Rusty Hike. We
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: had the teamsters in here yesterday. We've had an assortment
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: of different guests, but you know, I want to go
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: back and just say a few more words. I did
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: this at the very end of the show yesterday. But
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: I did bring up something that was posted on to
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Palell's Facebook the other day because we spent some time
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: this week and some of the guests our listeners called
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: in and said, why do candidates promise all these things
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and never have any intention to deliver. But the one
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: that really caught my eye that came up just a
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: few days ago was posted on Denise Pal's Facebook and
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: it said rising cost orhurting Nebraska families Denise pal is
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: champing solutions to lower energy cost and move our economy forward.
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: Now again, this is a woman who started out with
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: her first commercial of identifying as a pod mom, and
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: now she is champiing solutions to lower energy cost and
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: move our economy forward. But never does it say what
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: she is doing to achieve that and to achieve those solutions.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And yesterday I did spend some time looking at the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: comments on her Facebook, and they were very, very critical,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: just like what I'm saying, And then they all disappeared,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: all the negative comments were all deleted, and it just
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: still is up there saying she is champiing all of
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: these things. Well, then in the newspaper today, on the
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: front page of the Omaha World Herald, it says below
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the fold, but it says Powell leads fundraising in Nebraska
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: congressional district too, and it talks about how the quarter
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: is ending and that Harding has more cash on hand,
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: but she leads in the fundraising, and it talks about
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: where her money is coming from, and a lot of
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: her money is not coming from Nebraska. It is coming
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: from other states, and as we know, it speculated other countries.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: So pay attention to these races. It goes into detail
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: in the World Herald today about the different quarters of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the campaign and fundraising. People have asked me a lot
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: of times, what does that make any difference? What is
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: fundraising make any difference? You know, we want to know
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: what these people are going to do if they're elected.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what you should be doing, is saying what
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: are you going to do if you are elected? But
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: the fundraising helps you get your message out, and the
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: fundraising pays for all of these TV commercials that are
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: trying to, unfortunately mislead the voters into thinking that they're
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: going to be solving every problem in the United States,
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: including every problem here in wherever they're running, and that
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: their opponent is somebody that's bad and evil, and that's
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: where they're using a lot of this money, and it's
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: really a shame. TV cost a lot of money, and
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: when you buy a lot of ads on TV, and
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the closer it gets to the election date, it gets
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: more expensive. Radio cost a lot of money. What you
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: do on you know, online, and what you do with
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: social media cost a lot of money. And these these great,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I mean huge amounts of money that these candidates are
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: raising are really and the multiples of millions are really
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: going to make a difference because they're going to either
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: get their message out and tell you what they're going
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: to do, or they're going to try to mislead you.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: And so it's good to pay attention to how much
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: money they are raising and where their money is coming.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Geen, And that's a really good point because we
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: had a fraud investigator Brad on the Chris Baker Show
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: yesterday who was who was really Brad who was really
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: breaking down the finances of outside money not just in
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: the Nebraska Omaha but also the United States even across
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: the world. And he made a really interesting point and
• 32:46
  Speaker 3: he said, you know, there's nothing illegal about having outside
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: money or or fundraising.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: But the thing.
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: Is is the amount of money that the Democrats are
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: getting for their campaign and other parts of the elected
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: process that is not coming from the community inside of Omaha.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: It's not the donations from Omaha citizens or Nebraska citizens.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: It's coming from way way way, big money makers, billionaires
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: across the country.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Absolutory is and that's we what we have said on
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: this show many times, do we in Nebraska, do we
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: in congressional district too. Are we in Omaha do we
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: need a lot of people from out rich, wealthy people,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: organizations from out of state telling us who we need
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to elect for our representatives. You know, you talked about
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: these these NGOs and non governmental organizations, and brad On
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: on The Baker's Show yesterday was saying, now, what what
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: they're doing. It's it's not illegal, but is this is
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: this what we want and is this how we want
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: our elections to be run? You know? One of the
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: things of the many that Denise Powell has offered and
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: again I have offered for her to come on this
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: show and we would talk about all these things. Still crickets, nothing,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: no response, nothing. And when you're a candidate, boy, I'm
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: telling you, you jump at the opportunity or you should
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: at any free media that you can get to get
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: out there and say what you want to do and
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: get your message out there. No, they don't want to
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: come on this show. I think it's very very interesting,
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: or do they want to come on The Baker Show?
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: But out of state, very wealthy people, some out of
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: country people are putting money in these campaigns. And brad
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: yesterday pointed out that this is what Denise Powell has
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: done in the past. She knows the system, she knows money,
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: She's seen it all. She's been, she's been in the
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: in the in the spider web of it all. She's
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: very well informed about all of that stuff, all of
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: it and this is all that that's kind of, you know,
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: behind the scenes worked she has done. But then suddenly
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: she is the leader in OMAHAF for everything and the
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: champion for everything. But never have I heard what she
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: is going to do. So Denise Poull campaigned, if you're listening,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: we still would love to have you on this show.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Like I said, in any campaign, you don't turn down
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: any offer for free media. I you know, you should
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: be out there doing town halls and forums and everything else.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: But this is really important because this is this is
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: what is happening all over the country, and you know,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: we are getting socialists nominated, winning primaries and getting elected.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: And I can tell you instance after instance after instance
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: where socialism doesn't work. I mean, it just doesn't work.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: And I think we've got to keep that in mind
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: of what has happened to the country right now.
• 35:55
  Speaker 3: News Radio eleven to ten KFAB. My name is Peyton Highlock.
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: Sidecar for Geene Stouthart here on the kfab Comment Line.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I've never heard you call yourself that. Well, you're not
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a sidekick, not at all. Peyton, Okay, you're very important.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: You are a very important part of this show. I
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: got a few callers here.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: We've been talking a little bit about Denise Powell here,
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: wrapping up this show after Mayor Rusty Hike joined us
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: this morning. You can find this episode of the kfab
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: Comment Line on the podcast page kfab dot com or
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a quick phone call here. This is Jim.
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, Jim for calling for zero two five, five,
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: eight eleven ten. You are live with Jeene Stouthert. You're
• 36:35
  Speaker 3: on kfab.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: Okay, how's the average person that wants to run for
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: office supposed.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: To compete against Pete Ricketts. It's had a spoon in
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: his mouth the whole time. He's got Dad's money that
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: he I mean, it's just it's it's it's ludicrous. Well,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: there there are. I mean, Dan Osborne's running against Pete
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Ricketts now, and Dan Osborne has just as many ads
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: out there as Pete Ricketts does, and he's raising money
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: you know, the thing of it is with Pete Ricketts
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: is and people always bring this up. You know, he
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: has a wealthy billionaire dad. Joe Ricketts built he was
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: built the first online trading company, Tdameritrade in the world.
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: That was Joe Ricketts. And he started out from pretty
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: humble beginnings. That's capitalism, that's success. I don't, you know,
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: criticize anybody for being successful. They worked for it. And
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the other thing is is the money from the Ricketts family.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: I mean the the headquarters and everything. I mean that's
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: Omaha money. This is money coming into Omaha. If you say,
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: his dad is very, very rich. But there has been many,
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: many times that Pete Ricketts has run for office that
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: he had a very competitive opponent. In fact, he ran
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: for Senate. I forgot that the year it was and
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: he lost. I mean, it doesn't guarantee that if you
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: have tons and tons of money that you are automatically
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: going to get elected. But raising money helps you get
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: your message out, whether it's a negative or positive. But
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: you know, people are have talked a lot about that
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: and about Pete Ricketts and his family. But again, you know,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Pete Workats worked for Tedameritory too, his dad isn't one
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: of those that just you know, gives his kids tons
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: and tons of money.
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: They work for it, and it's Nebraska money. They stayed here,
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: they had success, and they decided to build and flourish
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: it here.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: And I cannot Nebraska. I cannot criticize anybody for building
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: a business, for having the the you know, the insight
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: and the the vision to create a business that employs
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: thousands and thousands of people gives them a good life,
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: and then criticize those people for being successful because TD Ameritrade.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, they have tons of employees that that is
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: their livelihood working for that company. So it's not a
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: bad thing that people are successful.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: And you've talked about this plenty of times too, Gene.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: When it comes to running in an election and being
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: a candidate, you gotta raise money. You gotta have money.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: You got to have money to get your message out.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: And you know, there is a lot of people that
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: will say, well, you know, I would like to run
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: for mayor of Omaha, but nobody knows who I am.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Any good campaign will get your name recognition from zero
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: to ninety nine percent. If you can get your face
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: and your name out there, you can you know, so
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: you can be very competitive in a race. But it
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: doesn't it doesn't make a whole lot of difference how
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: much personal money that you have. It really doesn't, because
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: if you have people that will you have a good message,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: you have people that will come out and support you,
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: they will give you money. You know, when I was
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: raising money, I mean, people would give me five and
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: ten dollars. I mean, but that all adds up because
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: that's all they can afford. I had one guy, I
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: think it was back in twenty seventeen that would come.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: All he could afford was once a month he would
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: bring in to my campaign office a rolla stamps and
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: I thought that was so cool because he said, I
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: just want to help you, but this is all I
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: can afford right now. And I mean you will take
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: You will raise money from a dollar to five dollars
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: to ten dollars, but let me tell you, it all
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: adds up, and it's all important. The thing that we
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: have to watch for is this money coming from out
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: of state dark money. And one of the things Denise
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: Powell promised is to get rid of the dark money
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: and campaigns, and she's taken it. More than that. I
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: can see of anybody. Gene stamps are kind of expensive.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I but a roll of stamps and that's what this
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: guy did and I thought, wow he was That was
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: really cool. But anyway, you know, we have a lot
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: to talk about with these campaigns coming up, but a
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: lot to talk about with city budgets too, and about
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: the taxes that you are paying. I want you guys
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: to really really think about the city budget that was
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: just proposed by the mayor, the twenty twenty seven budget.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: There is going to be a public hearing on August eleventh,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: and you have to please be there to listen and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to comment about it, because once again, this is almost
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: a seven percent increase in the city budget. And there
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: was a great Midland Voices editorial in the newspaper just
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: the other day on May twenty or July twenty eighth
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: that Ian Swanson wrote, and we're going to talk about
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: it on Monday, but the headline is city faces property
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: tax catastrophe if relief isn't delivered and Mayor you is
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: promised a flat property tax. Well that means flat. What
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: that means is it's not gonna go down. We have
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: all of this additional revenue coming in from sales tax
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: and property tax. But we're gonna spend it. We're not
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: gonna lower your levee and so we're gonna talk about
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: that on Monday. But that is it for us today.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: Guess what I'm doing tonight, Peyton, I'm going to the
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Rose Theater to see my eight year old grandson in
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: SpongeBob the Music All and what is he? What is
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: he gonna play? He is a shark and he wears
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: a dorsal fin All nice. That's gonna be great. But
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: we're gonna do that tonight. Hope you all have a
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: great weekend. That's it for us today. Thank you for
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: spending this hour with us and listening. We'd love for
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: you to join us again on Monday. I am Jean
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Stouther and this is eleven ten kfab