Nebraska

Slama pitches Colorado’s ‘Taxpayer Bill of Rights’ for Nebraska • Nebraska Examiner

Published

3 months ago

August 3, 2024

Slama pitches Colorado’s ‘Taxpayer Bill of Rights’ for Nebraska • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, who has criticized Gov. Jim Pillen’s property tax relief plan for costing many Nebraskans more while he benefits, touted her own proposal Saturday.

Slama’s 16-piece package of proposed constitutional amendments largely mirrors Colorado’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), with hard limits on state, local and school taxing and spending.

She split up the proposal to avoid running afoul of the Nebraska Supreme Court and the state constitutional rule that restricts certain new laws to a single subject.

Her proposal to let Nebraskans adopt a TABOR-style initiative at the ballot box this fall was heard Saturday by the Revenue Committee.

Slama described her proposal as a long-term fix for rising taxes linked to increased spending by local, school and state governments. She said it would let voters apply the brakes.

“This approach is unique in that it empowers the people,” she said. “It empowers the people to decide what their tax rate should be, what government should be spending money on.”

What Slama’s amendments would do

Essentially, her amendments would cap spending and taxing authority by every level of government unless overridden by a vote of the people. It would also let constituents sue the government to enforce the caps.

It would require a public vote to issue major government debt or bonding and would require a baseline rainy day fund of 3%.

Slama said her proposal, as an example, would likely prevent any future project like the City of Omaha’s modern streetcar project without voter approval.

Nobody but Slama testified in support of the idea, but State Sens. Brad von Gillern and Kathleen Kauth, both of Omaha, who sit on the Revenue Committee asked questions that seemed to express interest in the idea.

Both nibbled around how Slama’s proposal might be more lasting than others because it would be part of the constitution and not a state law that lawmakers could more easily change.

Both seemed to buy into Slama’s idea that her proposal would pair well with any short-term fix for property taxes the Legislature might adopt during Pillen’s special session.

“By any measure this is wildly popular in Colorado,” von Gillern said at one point in the hearing. “It’s hard to say the people shouldn’t have a voice in their tax policy.”

Slama, asked whether additional lawsuits could cost taxpayers more, said they wouldn’t because most would stop wayward tax increases with court injunctions.

Critics question damage caps could do

State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln and a pair of testifiers from Colorado, encouraged to testify by OpenSky Policy Institute, emphasized the potential damage to school and local funding.

Dungan questioned what role the passage of TABOR played in Colorado ranking near the bottom nationally in teacher pay and in school funding per pupil.

Representatives from the Nebraska Association of County Officials and the League of Nebraska Municipalities warned about the risks to hiring and retaining public employees.

Jon Cannon, executive director of NACO, and Lynn Rex, executive director of the League of Nebraska Municipalities, pointed to the declining condition of Colorado’s roads and said Nebraskans wouldn’t accept such poor road conditions.

League of Nebraska Municipalities Executive Director Lynn Rex testifies to the Revenue Committee on Saturday. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

Former Colorado state Rep. Brad Young and Denver-based economist Chris Stiffler said many local governments and school districts have opted out of TABOR, after public votes, because of the funding crunches it caused. (Nebraska’s version, as written, would limit the authority of local governments and schools to opt out.)

Young, who wrote a book about TABOR’s negative effects, said setting the cap for government spending growth at inflation plus population growth didn’t let local governments keep pace with their needs.

He said shrinking government relative to the economy means that the state and its local partners couldn’t pay competitive wages to teachers, health care workers or college and university employees.

“Population plus inflation does not keep up with the economy, and as a result, you end up with a constant shrinking of the government,” Young said.

Government costs don’t follow CPI, expert says

Stiffler said tying the government’s ability to purchase what it needs to the consumer price index leaves governments too little flexibility.

Governments “buy” roads, teachers and health care, he said, all of which have seen costs rise faster than the types of goods in the consumer price index. He said tying caps to a producer price index might work better.

State Sen. Brad von Gillern (left) and State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan (right) speak during a Revenue Committee hearing on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024. (Aaron Sanderford/Nebraska Examiner)

He said some states tie spending caps to personal income growth. But he said starting teachers in Colorado now earn less than a Starbucks manager and the state is losing talent.

Some districts shortened the school week to four days during a recent round of state budget cuts that sliced $1 billion out of school funding, Stiffler said.

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha said Colorado’s schools consistently rank well in test scores and academic offerings.

She said higher school spending doesn’t always equate with outcomes, and she said Colorado isn’t struggling to attract new residents or visitors.

Colorado has grown from about 3.5 million in 1992, when TABOR passed, to 5.8 million in 2024, based on Census estimates.

“I know this is a slightly unique approach, but it brings a unique flavor to the debate,” Slama said. “Nebraskans work hard for their money, and they deserve a direct say in how it is spent.”

Nebraska voters rejected a TABOR-style state spending lid in 2006.

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Nebraska

Why the UAW's Shawn Fain Is So Excited About Nebraska Independent Dan Osborn

Published

5 hours ago

November 2, 2024

Press Room

Why the UAW's Shawn Fain Is So Excited About Nebraska Independent Dan Osborn

Politics

/
November 2, 2024

The union leader says that electing a genuinely working-class senator like Osborn could upend all of American politics.

Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn speaks during his campaign stop at the Handlebend coffeshop in O’Neill, Neb., on Monday, October 14, 2024.

(Bill Clark / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The US Senate, which was historically described as “the most exclusive club in the world,” is frequently decried these days as “a millionaire’s club,” where the interests of working Americans are neglected in order to meet the demands of billionaire campaign donors and Wall Street insiders. The senators who bow to the billionaire class come from both parties. Indeed, while Democrats are more likely than Republicans to support unions and proposals for minimum wage hikes, many Democrats have joined with Republicans to advance trade policies that have shuttered tens of thousands of factories, and more than a few shy away from populist calls to “tax the rich”—perhaps because so many are, themselves, wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most Americans.

But what if the Senate had a member who rejected party ties and simply represented workers? What if that senator was a machinist who had served as a union leader and led an epic strike against corporate greed?

“I think it would be huge, and I think it would send notice to both parties that they better get on board with working-class people,” United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told me recently. As the November 5 election approaches, Fain is pouring his energy into electing just such a candidate. In October, the labor leader, who rose to national prominence as the leader of last year’s successful UAW strike against the nation’s three major vehicle manufacturers, traveled to Nebraska to stump in union halls for independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn.

An industrial mechanic by trade who worked for the better part of two decades at the sprawling Kellogg’s plant in Omaha, Osborn served as president of Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union Local 50G. In 2021, he and members of the local walked off the job in a 77-day strike against a two-wage tier system, as well as a host of other issues. The strike drew national attention and made Osborn something of a local hero—especially among working people who were fed up with corporate greed. Fired by Kellogg’s, Osborn became a boiler maintenance worker and joined Steamfitters and Plumbers Local 464 in Omaha.

This year, he is also the highest-profile independent candidate for the Senate—an outsider who is stirring things up in a suddenly competitive red-state contest.

“I haven’t always been political,” explained Osborn, when I followed his campaign in Nebraska earlier this year. He said he didn’t think a lot about campaigns and elections “until corporate greed came knocking on my door when I was president of BCTGM Local 50G.”

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“During Covid, we were working seven days a week, 12 hours a day,” Osborn said. “At one point in time, 50 percent of our workforce was forced to quarantine and/or [was] sick, but we kept the plants running at full capacity. (Kellogg’s) made record profits that year — they went from $19 billion to $21 billion. The CEO gave himself a $2 million raise. The board enriched themselves, the stockholders enriched themselves, [but] at the same swipe of the pen, after they gave themselves a raise, they tried to take from their workers, so we went out on strike.”

Osborn and the union secured a contract after 77 days on the picket line. But Osborn said, “The experience really opened my eyes… It changed who I was and how I saw my world.”

What he saw was a political class that too frequently failed workers, and a US senator from Nebraska, Republican Deb Fischer, with a long record of opposing worker rights and doing the bidding of Wall Street. Osborn could have run as a Democrat, or as a Republican primary challenger to Fischer. But he decided to campaign as an independent because that’s where his political instincts are. “I’m not going to change who I am,” he says. “I have to stay true to myself. If I don’t do that, then why am I doing this?”

What he’s doing instead is running a grassroots campaign that, as he put it, says “Washington, D.C., is broken, and we need somebody to fix it.” Partisans aren’t likely to do the job, he argues, “because they just have to get in line. I don’t want to get in line with anybody. I’ve never been good at that.”

Osborn tells crowds gathered in union halls and community centers that he wants to go to the Senate as a champion for stronger unions, higher wages, trade policies that favor workers and their communities, a better deal for working farmers and a pushback against corporate greed that will lead to “closing loopholes used by multi-nationals to avoid paying taxes.” That populist message has attracted Democrats and at least some Republicans. Both Bernie Sanders supporters and Donald Trump fans now show up at Osborn’s events. And he has been climbing in the polls. A late October survey for The New York Times put Fisher at 48 and Osborn at 46.

For observers of the brutal battle for control of the US Senate, which Democrats and their allies now hold by a narrow 51-49 margin, the prospect that Nebraska—a very red state that is all but certain to vote for Trump— might oust a Republican senator is big news. As Politico noted Friday, “If Dan Osborn, a populist independent, wins an upset victory in the Senate race here, it will be a humiliating blow to Republicans.” With Democrats all but certain to lose a seat in West Virginia, and in serious danger of losing one in Montana, Osborn could end up being the only senator standing in the way of a Republican majority. But the candidate, who is both pro-choice and a critic of at least some Democratic approaches to budgeting, says he’s not in a hurry to join the caucus of either party.

That makes a lot of political insiders nervous. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is not helping Osborn because the committee’s head, Michigan Senator Gary Peters, says the Nebraskan is “not a Democrat.” But Fain has no qualms about campaigning for Osborn. He views the Nebraska campaign as one of the most exciting political developments of 2024.

“Working-class people are what makes this country move, and what makes the world move. So we need to start electing people that come from those ranks, that understand what it means to live paycheck to paycheck, or to not have money at the end of the week, or to not have adequate health care or retirement security,” says the UAW leader. “The majority of Americans are living that. So, if we’re going to change things in this country, we have to elect people at all levels of government that understand those issues and are going to fight for those things.”

What delights Fain in particular is the prospect of sending a mechanic to fix what’s broken in Washington. “He’s a working-class person. That’s what this is all about,” the UAW president says. “It’s ironic that, over the years, because of this capitalist system, you always hear people talking about how, ‘Oh, this (candidate) is a businessperson.’ We’re always electing business people, and we see where that puts us. It puts us in a system of government where everything’s for sale, and where working-class people are left behind.”

So, argues Fain, why not elect a former union leader?

“When you are a union leader at a local level, national level, whatever it is, you are answering to people. You are representing a membership,” he says. “It’s no different from a congressperson, who is representing constituents. It’s the same thing, the same concept. Running a local union or a national union, you have so much money to work with, you have a budget. You manage people. You have to know the business end of those things. So, obviously, there are a lot of similarities. But, to me, the difference is that, when you’re a union leader, your fight is about bringing justice to working-class people and having decent wages, having health care, having retirement security, and getting more of your time for yourself – so that you don’t have to work all your time to live.”

That, says Fain, is exactly the sort of experience that’s needed in the Senate.

Can we count on you?

In the coming election, the fate of our democracy and fundamental civil rights are on the ballot. The conservative architects of Project 2025 are scheming to institutionalize Donald Trump’s authoritarian vision across all levels of government if he should win.

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John Nichols

John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation. He has written, cowritten, or edited over a dozen books on topics ranging from histories of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyses of US and global media systems. His latest, cowritten with Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism.

Nebraska high school football playoff scores, Nov. 1

Published

16 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Press Room

Nebraska high school football playoff scores, Nov. 1

Millard North vs. Lincoln Southeast football

Nate Johnson, Channel 8

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Here are the results of the Nebraska high school football playoff games on Friday night.

Featured

Chadron 42, Lincoln Christian 18

Malcolm 42, Mitchell 12

Class D-1

Lourdes Central Catholic 34, Dundy County Stratton 30

Summerland 46, South Loup 0

Class D-2

Archangels Catholic 38, Twin Loup 0

Wynot 22, Hitchcock County 14

Central Valley 72, St. Mary’s 26

Sandhills/Thedford 76, Axtell 26

Overton 32, High Plains Community 20

Class D-6

Diller-Odell 54, Leyton 26

Garden County 50, Southwest 23

Hay Springs 72, Sioux County 36

Red Cloud 82, Potter-Dix 28

Stuart 41, Hampton 6

Sumner-Eddyville-Miller 54, Wauneta Palisade 30

Check back later as more scores are added.

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Nebraska

Nebraska Football Preview: UCLA

Published

1 day ago

November 1, 2024

Press Room

With their backs against the wall and the crumbling reality of a successful 2024 season starting to unravel, the Nebraska Cornhuskers football team stepped up, pushing No. 4 Ohio State to the brink with a stingy defense and a hunger to create a shocker in the college football world.

Unfortunately, the Huskers’ morning matchup against the Buckeyes ended in a 21-17 loss with a game-sealing interception of freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola with 1:16 left near midfield. However, the impression was felt and Nebraska created momentum going into a four-game stretch that will come to define its season with either disappointment or playing in the postseason.

Here’s all you need to know as the Huskers battle for bowl eligibility.

How to Follow Along

• Matchup: Nebraska (5-3, 2-3 B1G) vs UCLA (2-5, 1-4 B1G)
• Line: Nebraska (-6.5), 40.5 O/U (BetMGM)
• Where: Memorial Stadium, Lincoln, NE
• Time: 2:30 p.m. CDT
• TV: Big Ten Network
• Broadcast Crew: Guy Haberman (PxP), Yogi Roth (Color) & Rhett Lewis (Sideline)
• Radio: Huskers Radio Network and Affiliates

UCLA Head Football Coach DeShaun Foster.

Sep 21, 2024; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA; UCLA Bruins head coach DeShaun Foster looks on during the first half against the LSU Tigers at Tiger Stadium. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

UCLA Scout

Head Coach: DeShaun Foster | 1st season | 2-5 UCLA Record | Former Bruin RB who’s second all-time with 44 touchdowns and third on the all-time rushing list with 3,194 yards.

2023 Record: 8-5 (4-5 Pac-12, T-7th) | One Consensus All-American | Pac-12 Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year | One All-Pac-12 First Team selection, Two All-Pac-12 Second Team selections, Six All-Pac-12 Honorable Mentions | 35-22 win over Boise State in LA Bowl.

All-Time Series: Nebraska leads 7-6 (2015 Foster Farms Bowl last meeting, 37-29 NU).

Fun Fact: There are plenty of connections between this Husker coaching staff and UCLA. Head coach Matt Rhule was an assistant with the Bruins in 2001 when Bruin head coach DeShaun Foster was a senior. Plus, NU defensive coordinator Tony White was teammates with Foster for three seasons from 1998 to 2000.

Outlook: UCLA was put into a tough position with the departure of former head coach Chip Kelly, who took his offensive mind to Columbus to become the offensive coordinator for his former quarterback Ryan Day at Ohio State. Kelly did a decent job with the Bruins, collecting at least eight wins in his final three seasons, but the vibe and connection between Kelly and the program wasn’t there. Reportedly, boosters weren’t thrilled with his approach and the embracement of NIL was lackluster.

To bridge that gap to boosters and fans, the UCLA administration hired one of their own in running backs coach DeShaun Foster, who is one of the school’s top tailbacks in history and brings a more youthful energy to the program. The first-year coach sought experience in his coaching staff and did so in hiring Eric Bieniemy as the OC and Associate Head Coach. Bieniemy made his name known with Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs as its offensive coordinator.

Oct 19, 2024; Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; UCLA Bruins tight end Moliki Matavao (88) gains yards after catch as Rutgers Scarlet Knights defensive back Desmond Igbinosun (4) during the second half at SHI Stadium. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

And despite Foster’s background, the Bruins have leaned into the passing game behind returning starter Ethan Garbers, who’s passed for 1,484 yards this season, but that’s with more interceptions (9) than touchdowns (8). The passing game is 60th in the country with 237.6 yards per game, which is respectable, but everything else falls short. UCLA is last in the Big Ten and 133rd in the country with 64.6 rushing yards per game, and that’s not even mentioning that the Blackshirts are one of the top rushing defenses in the nation, allowing only 98 yards per game which ranks 12th in the country.

Returning back TJ Harden rushed for over 800 yards last season while sharing the backfield with future NFL running back Carson Steele, but the junior only has 180 yards on 62 carries this season with only one score. Although, he’s been effective in the passing game with a team-leading 26 receptions and 238 yards. Second-year Oregon transfer tight end Moliki Matavao has been Garbers’ safety blanket with a team-high 251 yards on 20 receptions.

Redshirt junior linebacker Carson Schwesinger is the leader of the Bruins defense with 72 tackles on the season, which is 32 more than second-place Kain Medrano with 40. Schwesinger’s tackle tally is third-highest in the conference while also contributing 6.5 tackles for loss and a pair of sacks. UCLA has sorely missed the contributions of NFL first-round draft pick Laiatu Latu who recorded more sacks (13.0) last season than the Bruins have right now (10.0) as a team. That figure is last in the league while UCLA is 16th in the conference in interceptions with four.

Sitting at 2-5, it’s hard to envision the Bruins knocking off a Husker team hungry and desperate to earn its first bowl berth since 2016. Ultimately, the team who has better production passing the ball should come out on top, and that should favor Nebraska and Dylan Raiola, despite the downturn in performance since entering conference play. Malcolm Hartzog being ruled out for Saturday and Tommi Hill still being gimpy hurts NU, but one of the key storylines this season has been the emergence of depth in the secondary and that will be tested this week. There’s a good reason why Nebraska is the favorite. If the Huskers don’t psych themselves out, and play like they did against No. 4 Ohio State last week, Nebraska will enjoy the postseason for the first time in eight seasons.

MORE: Female Nebraska Husker Athletes, Led by Jordy Bahl, Featured in Political Ad

MORE: Big Ten Football Game of the Week: No. 3 Penn State vs. No. 4 Ohio State

MORE: SMQ Invades California for Nebraska’s UCLA/USC Takedowns!

MORE: Husker Dan Ponders If Nebraska Football Will Get Bowl Eligible Against UCLA

MORE: McMaster’s Big Ten Football Power Rankings After Week 9

Stay up to date on all things Huskers by bookmarking Nebraska Cornhuskers On SI, subscribing to HuskerMax on YouTube, and visiting HuskerMax.com daily.

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