Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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The most important principle of communism is the abolition of private property. When Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto back in 1847 they declared the first principle of communism to be the “abolition of land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.” Today we are seeing this principle being implemented in a very large way. On January 27, 2021 President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14008, which is known as the Tackling the Climate Change Crisis at Hom...
By now many of you have heard about the new sex education standards being proposed to the Nebraska Department of Education. These new standards would teach children as young as five years-old about gender identity and same gender families. These new standards are not the result of any piece of legislation in the Unicameral. Instead, the 60 page draft of proposed changes to the State’s health education curriculum came from a team of so called “education experts,” otherwise known as LGBTQ activist...
The second amendment to the United States Constitution says, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” That this right cannot be infringed upon means that no government entity may pass legislation encroaching upon this right, yet that is precisely what so many in the anti-gun lobby want legislators to do. Today there is an all-out assault on our most basic fundamental rights, especially thos...
If it is true that every cowboy sings a sad, sad song, then in Nebraska they all sing the same sad song about protesting their property valuation. Protesting property values in Nebraska is like turning a lump of coal into a diamond. If you squeeze the same lump of coal in your hand all the days of your life, all you will end up with is a dirty hand, and if you protest your property valuation every year, all you will end up with is a pile of filing fee receipts. Getting a decision on a property...
Every bill introduced in the Nebraska Legislature gets a fiscal note attached to it. Fiscal notes are usually boring and not much fun to read. Fiscal notes are usually written by budgetary experts working for relevant state agencies and are supposed to explain what kind of fiscal impact the bill would have on the State budget. Usually, fiscal notes are carefully calculated and accurately tell state legislators how much money a bill would cost to the State once it becomes a law. However, fiscal...
The Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee recently conducted a hearing on LB562, my bill to relocate the headquarters for the Game and Parks Commission to the City of Sidney. Relocating the Game and Parks Commission to Sidney has proven to be a good idea. The hearing on this bill went very well. The City of Sidney was well represented at the hearing and presented a very compelling case for moving the headquarters to Sidney. Mayor, Roger Galloway, Vice Mayor, Bob Olson, and City C...
One bill that I will support this year is LB364, which creates the Opportunity Scholarships Act. Under this Act individual and corporate taxpayers would qualify for a non-refundable tax credit on the income tax returns that is equal to the amount that the taxpayer contributes to a scholarship-granting organization. However, taxpayers would be limited to an amount up to 50 percent of their state income tax liability. Those organizations providing scholarships would become certified by the...
Nebraska’s tax system is completely broken. Nebraska is the worst state in the nation for the inheritance tax, the seventh worst state for property taxes and only Wisconsin beats Nebraska in terms of the number of farm and ranch bankruptcies. By now, many property owners have figured out that last year’s big property tax relief bill, LB1107, was nothing more than a slight decrease in the amount that property taxes increased this year, and this is how things will continue to be unless we ove...
I will introduce a bill to move the headquarters of the Game and Parks Department to the City of Sidney. Currently, state law mandates that the headquarters for the Game and Parks Department be in the City of Lincoln. I would like to change that. So today I would like to explain why I believe this move is good for Nebraska. First, there are no state parks located in the City of Lincoln, just as there are no state parks located in the City of Sidney. So, proximity to state parks has never been...
The 107th Legislative Session has now begun. I will continue to serve on the Appropriations Committee, and strive to bring common sense to how we spend your money. This year I will be introducing a total of 12 bills, and today I would like to tell you about a few of them that I consider to be very important for our state. Ever since I came to Lincoln four years ago to serve as a State Senator my number one priority has been to lower property taxes. Since this time very little has been done to...
Christmas is our nation’s first federal holiday. Christmas was first declared as a national holiday back in 1789. Since this time there has been an unbroken history of official acknowledgement of the holiday by all three branches of our federal government. So, when the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island was sued for displaying a nativity scene, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Lynch v. Donelly (1985) that the Constitution does not require a complete separation of church and state. I...
We are finally getting some good news about the coronavirus. The number of hospitalizations in Nebraska declined last week and both Moderna and Pfizer are beginning to send out vaccinations. Because those working in the medical field, those in nursing homes, and high risk individuals will be the first to receive these vaccinations, the rest of us will have to wait. So now is a good time to remind the public about what can be done at home to treat the symptoms of the coronavirus. The American...
As you may know, for the past several weeks I have been delineating the ten rights of the Nebraska Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which I plan to include in legislation for the consumption tax in January. Today I will complete the Nebraska Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights by explaining the tenth right. The tenth right in the Nebraska Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights says, “The State of Nebraska shall live within its revenue means in the same way that a citizen lives within his or her revenue means.” This fina...
As you may know, for the past several weeks I have been telling my readers about the Nebraska Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. This Bill of Rights will be included in legislation for the consumption tax that I plan to introduce in the Nebraska Legislature in January. This week I will highlight the ninth right contained in the Nebraska Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. The ninth right says, “The State of Nebraska shall never impose or collect a tax on services or materials used to manufacture products, inclu...
Thursday is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time for us to reflect on the many ways that God has blessed us throughout the year. While the year 2020 has been particularly hard on many of us due to COVID-19, the economy, and the wildfires, just to name a few, God has blessed us nevertheless. Our Founding Fathers understood the need to return thanksgiving to God, especially when things were not going so well. For instance, during the days of the Revolutionary War when we were losing more battles...
Today (Wednesday) is Veterans Day. Our forefathers risked their lives in order to preserve our constitutional republic as well as the freedoms contained in our American Constitution. These principles of liberty are worth defending and they are worth dying for. Remember to thank a veteran today for preserving our American way of life. Unfortunately, our great American way of life is still being threatened today. I am a Constitutionalist. Constitutionalism is the political philosophy that...
Over the course of the past several weeks I have been outlining the Nebraska Taxpayer Bill of Rights which will appear in Legislation I plan to introduce in January for a consumption tax. The consumption tax will replace the State income tax, property tax, State sales tax, and inheritance tax. It is the best solution to Nebraska’s tax problems. The right that I will talk about this week pertains to the Nebraska Department of Revenue. This right of the people states that “The Nebraska Department...
The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights that I will begin outlining today will be included in legislation I will introduce in January for the consumption tax. The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights consists of ten rights or protections which ought to be afforded every taxpayer in the State of Nebraska. The first right in the Taxpayer Bill of Rights states, “The citizens of Nebraska are entitled to a fair tax system, one which favors neither the poor nor the rich, neither rural dwellers nor urban dwellers, neith...
Just before noon on Thursday, August 27th, a fire was observed in northern Banner County near the Hubbard gap road. Due to extremely dry conditions, it expanded rapidly. The fire started on the Terry Brown ranch and moved west. The fire burned a significant portion of the Brown ranch. A fence repair fund for the Brown’s has been established at Z M Lumber Company in Scottsbluff. All donations are deeply appreciated. The Banner County Commissioners signed an emergency declaration, asking the G...
The Nebraska Legislature has now adjourned for the year. I have now completed my fourth session in the Legislature. This was the first time since I have been elected that we completed the full session. In previous years we adjourned three or four days early. Perhaps we should have adjourned early again this year as well, except for the passage of the bill to ban dismemberment abortions. That bill passed on the last day of the session. Concerning dismemberment abortion, I can’t believe anyone w...
We are now in the home stretch in the Legislative Session with only 3 days remaining to complete the 60 days requirement. Last week there was a compromise bill brought to the floor (LB 1107) that dealt with property tax relief, tax incentives for businesses, and a $300 million contribution to a new hospital for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. This bill has been promoted as the Great Compromise. The bill combines three pieces of legislation, regardless of previous opposition to each...
It's time to reopen Nebraska's schools. Children need to learn, so it is time for them to go back to school next month. Gov. Ricketts agrees. On Friday he said we can reopen the schools and manage the coronavirus at the same time, and I agree. Opening up the schools can be done safely. Matthew Blomstead, Nebraska's Education Commissioner, released a 25 page document last Friday explaining how we can open up our schools safely. The document includes recommendations to school districts for...
According to the Preamble to the United States Constitution, in order for the people of the United States of America to create a more perfect union, “justice” must be firmly established as well as “domestic tranquility”. In order to accomplish these goals, laws must be passed which promote the “general welfare” and secure “the Blessings of Liberty.” Laws become useless unless they are enforced. The police are our chief law enforcement officials who enforce these laws. Today our police departme...
Why do we celebrate the 4th of July? July 4, 1776 was the day we declared our independence from Great Britain. The document which contained that declaration was the Declaration of Independence, which was approved by Congress on July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence represents our core beliefs as Americans. It is a guidepost for what it means to be a citizen of the United States of America. The concepts contained in the Declaration of Independence unite us as Americans. The Declaration...
Before we officially enter into the summer months, let’s give Nebraska’s agricultural economy a check-up, so is time to take an honest look at how Nebraska’s agricultural economy is really doing this year. Last week the Farm Bureau’s chief economist, Jay Remke, released his own assessment of how Nebraska’s agricultural economy is doing. According to Remke, the outlook is not good. Remke warned that Nebraska’s farms and ranches stand in danger of losing 3.7 billion dollars this year. The primary...
