Nebraska
Gov. Pillen pushes back against legislative criticism of his property tax approach • Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen pushed back Thursday against recent legislative criticism of his approach and process for pursuing his favored property tax relief proposals.
In a statement, the governor thanked state senators he said have worked hard to find ways to deliver the “transformative property tax relief” he and others have sought.
He applauded them for resisting pressure from groups protecting sales tax exemptions on various items from the proposals he supports.
“These senators, who represent all political stripes and all corners of our state, are doing right by their constituents by engaging in tough negotiations, good faith exchanges of ideas, and collaboration with their colleagues to forge a compromise that will work for Nebraska,” Pillen said.
Calls tactics obstructionist
He criticized “a small minority” of senators who called him out Wednesday on the floor of the Legislature. It’s a group likely to filibuster the Pillen-favored bill, which most vote-counters say is still short of the needed 33 votes.
Pillen said those senators should “end their obstructionist rhetoric, stop their time-wasting tactics, and engage with their colleagues to craft a bipartisan consensus solution.”
Pillen said Nebraskans who want property tax relief are “watching carefully” and will hold senators accountable, hinting that those who fail to act will pay at the ballot box.
He also condemned “baseless personal attacks” alleging that he and his hog operation based in Columbus would benefit significantly from the tax relief he supports.
He repeated his stance that Nebraskans want a broader sales tax base, a cap on government spending and lower property taxes. He acknowledged that the plan continues to change.
“I know that any plan passed by the Legislature will be a hard-fought compromise and that it will not include every provision I believe in and am fighting for…,” Pillen said. “Doing nothing is not an acceptable option for Nebraskans.”
Some senators disagree with his funding sources
State Sen. Danielle Conrad of Lincoln and several others vented their frustrations Wednesday about the ways Pillen and others in his camp had handled the special session and his favored proposals.
Anger at Gov. Jim Pillen’s property-tax push spills into legislative debate
After the governor’s statement Thursday, she said she welcomed his right of free speech and said she would not be “bullied or silenced in my good faith efforts to represent my district.”
She and others who criticized Pillen for including only certain senators in early planning for tax proposals said they cannot justify raising sales taxes on everyday items that people need.
Conrad and George Dungan of Lincoln; Megan Hunt, John Cavanaugh, Jen Day and Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha; and Carol Blood of Bellevue questioned the governor’s approach from the floor.
Conrad said she would keep fighting against Pillen’s “misguided tax plan that would hurt working families, seniors, local businesses and our schools to benefit large wealthy landowners.”
She said average Nebraskans should not pay more. And she pushed to include other revenue options, such as gambling and legalizing marijuana, in any package to offset costs.
“I have enjoyed working with the governor on many issues,” Conrad said. “We simply have a principled disagreement about how to pay for our mutual goal of property tax relief.”
Hunt shared Pillen’s statement in a tweet Thursday and wrote, “Governor Pillen is calling upon all of us to stop being mean.” State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar called him “King Jimmy.”
“King Jimmy is very angry senators are fighting his scheme to raise taxes on working Nebraskans. We should be expanding homestead exemptions, freezing valuations and capping spending, but those ideas are being ignored,” she tweeted.
“Pillen doesn’t profit enough from those,” Slama tweeted.
Linehan says property tax ‘war’ is not easily won
One of the lawmakers working closest with the governor, State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha, echoed his defenders on the legislative floor on Wednesday.
She credited Pillen for being “willing to put everything on the table and take every political hit there is out there.” She pointed to “a bunch of senators” saying he’s the problem.
Linehan’s Revenue Committee postponed a couple of attempts at holding an executive session Thursday to vote out the committee’s new version of Legislative Bill 9, the latest vehicle for its tax proposals.
The eight-member committee was supposed to meet Thursday morning and early afternoon to vote out an amended LB 9, but significant technical changes needed to be made to a draft amendment.
That included clarifying how the state would capture the local slice of sales taxes from new items covered by the state sales tax and specifying how the state would revamp school funding.
Linehan’s group was waiting on fixes that several senators on her committee and beyond have sought from a draft amendment Wednesday evening. In total, more than 120 motions and 80 floor amendments have already been filed that will likely prevent changes on the floor.
Linehan said she understands “raw politics” and the fight ahead. She said her side needs to know that “battle is just battle” and that they have “to win the war.”
“That’s why it’s got to be perfect,” Linehan said of the bill’s language. “We won’t even get to an amendment that changes a comma that’s in the wrong place.”
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LINCOLN, Neb. — One month ago, on the heels of a breakthrough performance by Emmett Johnson against UCLA, Nebraska launched a Heisman Trophy push for the junior running back.
Johnson enjoyed the limelight. Fans flocked to see him during an appearance in downtown Lincoln and at the high school championship games inside Memorial Stadium. He traveled home to Minneapolis during the Huskers’ bye week and visited his high school, Academy of Holy Angels. He had stopped in previously, but this trip was different.
“It was like a celebrity came to the school,” Holy Angels coach Jim Gunderson said.
In the final two games of the regular season with Nebraska, Johnson rushed for 320 yards, but the Huskers lost them in ugly fashion against Penn State and Iowa to cap a 7-5 regular season. As fast as the Heisman campaign began, it was over — but worthwhile, nonetheless.
Johnson ran this season in part so that running backs at Nebraska who follow him can fly. He leaves Nebraska with a sterling legacy.
On Wednesday, Johnson became the first Nebraska player to receive first-team All-America mentions since linebacker Lavonte David in 2011 — and the fourth running back in the past 70 years, matching Mike Rozier (1982 and ’83), Jarvis Redwine (1980) and Jeff Kinney (1971). His final year ranks among the top five in school history by a running back. Stack it alongside Rozier’s 1983 Heisman season, Lawrence Phillips in 1994, Ahman Green in 1997 and Ameer Abdullah in 2013.
Nebraska coach Matt Rhule and his staff aim to use Johnson’s success to help bring backs to Lincoln who can finish what he started.
“It’s very much not in vogue anymore not to wait your turn,” Rhule said. “Sometimes, it’s like, ‘I’ll just go here and do this, just go there.’ But guys like Emmett had chances. And they stayed. And he deserves everything that he’s getting.”
Johnson was named the Big Ten running back of the year, a first at Nebraska. Last Friday, he declared for the 2026 NFL Draft, foregoing his final season of eligibility and the Dec. 31 Las Vegas Bowl.
High praise for the B1G’s top back@Emmett21Johnson pic.twitter.com/g7EhpUE2EP
— Nebraska Football (@HuskerFootball) December 11, 2025
What separated Johnson this year?
• His 1,130 yards in Big Ten play were the most by a Power 4 back in conference play. He stands alone with 1995 Heisman winner Eddie George as the only Big Ten players to total 1,100 rushing yards and 300 receiving yards in one season of league play.
• Johnson led the nation by accounting for 40.8 percent of his team’s total yards.
• He was the fourth FBS player since 2017 to average 120 yards rushing and 30 yards receiving.
• His 1,821 yards from scrimmage and 1,451 rushing ranked second and third, respectively, in the FBS.
In form true to his roots, Johnson proved wrong skeptics who believed he could not handle 20 carries per game in Big Ten play.
Does everyone realize how freaking good Emmett Johnson is for @HuskerFootball ? Dude is a straight balla. Quick, decisive, tough, great as a receiver. One of the most underrated RB’s in the Country!
— David Pollack (@davidpollack47) November 28, 2025
“He has always had that chip to prove people wrong and be great,” Gunderson said. “This is how he envisioned it going, and he wasn’t going to be denied.”
Four years ago, on a Sunday in mid-December, less than a week before the signing period opened, Johnson accepted a Nebraska scholarship offer. Ron Brown extended it.
A month earlier, Scott Frost, the Nebraska coach from 2018 to 2022, fired four offensive assistants. Brown, with 24 years of experience as a Nebraska assistant under three head coaches, was elevated late in that season from offensive analyst to running backs coach. He reviewed tape of Johnson, who scored 42 touchdowns and rushed for 2,500 yards at Holy Angels in 2021.
And Brown wondered why no big school had snatched up Johnson.
“I was perplexed,” Brown said. “Because when I saw Emmett play, I thought, ‘This guy is special.’”
Brown had recruited Abdullah from high school in Alabama to Nebraska in 2011. And Brown coached Abdullah in his back-to-back 1,600-yard seasons as a junior and senior before an NFL career that continues this year in its 11th season. In Johnson, Brown saw some of Abdullah’s vision, change of direction, endurance and ability to recover.
Brown quizzed Gunderson, the Holy Angels coach, about Johnson.
“I probably threw 100 questions at him,” Brown said, “looking for something that might be a little bit off, something that I had missed.”
Nothing.
“Coach Brown could just see the intangibles,” Gunderson said, “the stuff that isn’t measured. He saw the potential and the kind of kid who was going to work and who believed in himself.”
Johnson started six games as a redshirt freshman in 2023. He started five in 2024 and found his rhythm in the Nebraska offense when Dana Holgorsen arrived as coordinator last season. In December 2024, Johnson considered entering the transfer portal.
Holgorsen’s commitment helped get him to stay.
“ I think he just wanted to know that somebody had a plan for him,” Gunderson said.
The plan was never to leave Nebraska early. Johnson simply wanted the chance to receive a heavy workload.
He got 32 offensive touches against Cincinnati in the 2025 opener, 24 against Michigan, 23 against Maryland and 29 against Northwestern. In November, after quarterback Dylan Raiola was injured, Johnson stacked three games with 31 opportunities apiece and a 27-touch effort against Penn State.
“This dude really did what he said he was going to do,” Nebraska tight end Luke Lindenmeyer said.
His reliability never came into question.
“I’m so proud of Emmett, man,” senior cornerback Ceyair Wright said. “I think his success is a product of who he is as a person, how he treats people and the work that he puts in.”
Emmett Johnson shouldered a heavy load late in the season, garnering 27-plus touches in each of his final five games for Nebraska. (Harry How / Getty Images)
His humility and care for others rate as Johnson’s most admirable trait. Johnson said he wanted to share credit with his teammates for the accomplishments of this season. He rushed for 177 yards in the first half against Iowa and 217 for the game. But he stressed in the aftermath that he felt badly for older teammates who played their final games in Lincoln on Black Friday.
Turns out, he was among them. Johnson takes pride, he said, in building a new reputation for Nebraska running backs — more than a decade after Abdullah departed, three decades after Green and 42 years after Rozier’s Heisman.
“It matters a lot,” Johnson said, “because Nebraska is a special place. I want to be able to have recruits look at this place and know it’s special. It is special. I’m blessed to be the one doing that and helping. It’s bigger than just football.
“There are a lot of great humans here. That’s what I want to help push.”
Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy 2027 defensive lineman Jayden Travers announced his commitment to Nebraska on Wednesday evening during the broadcast of the Overtime National Championship game.
The Panthers are playing Draper (Utah) Corner Canyon.
The 6-foot-4, 260-pound Travers becomes commit No. 7 for Matt Rhule and the Huskers in the 2027 class, adding to a haul the Rivals Industry already ranked No. 5 nationally early in the cycle.
Nebraska offered Travers in May and he got a chance to visit Lincoln during the fall. He spoke about his decision prior to kickoff with Rivals.
“The culture there is amazing for football,” Travers said. “The coaching. They really care about your well-being. I like the defensive front they run. It’s somewhere I can play and develop at.”
The Rivals Industry tabs Travers as the nation’s No. 56 defensive lineman.
“He is from an extremely tough neighborhood in Baltimore and he has worked his butt of to be in this position for change. very dedicated to the sport and natural leader,” St. Frances head coach Messay Hailemariam said.
Hailemariam likes the decision for Travers as well.
“He felt great about the coaches and his chance at being developed for Sundays,” Hailemariam said before talking about what stands out about about him as a player. “Extremely strong and can use his hands extremely well.”
Other offers for Travers included Michigan, Miami, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, South Carolina and Syracuse.
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