| NTF Issue Paper: Nelson1-3 - February 2000NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM - ISSUE PAPER:
BEN
NELSON'S RECORD
Ben Nelson can't be trusted to keep his word. Websters Dictionary: Main Entry: 1PLEDGEPronunciation: 'plej Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, security, from Middle French plege, from Late Latin plebium, from (assumed) Late Latin plebere to pledge, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German pflegan to take care of -- more at PLIGHT Date: 14th century 1 a : a binding promise or agreement to do or forbear b (1) : a promise to join a fraternity, sorority, or secret society (2) : a person who has so promised Main Entry: 1CONTRACT Pronunciation: 'kän-"trakt Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, from Latin contractus, from contrahere to draw together, make a contract, reduce in size, from com- + trahere to draw Date: 14th century 1 a : a binding agreement between two or more persons or parties; especially : one legally enforceable b : a business arrangement for the supply of goods or services at a fixed price <make parts on contract> c : the act of marriage or an agreement to marry. Main Entry: 3 LIEFunction: verb Inflected Form(s): lied; ly·ing /'lI-i[ng]/ Etymology: Middle English, from Old English lEogan; akin to Old High German liogan to lie, Old Church Slavonic lugati Date: before 12th century intransitive senses 1 : to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive 2 : to create a false or misleading impression transitive senses : to bring about by telling lies <lied his way out of trouble> synonyms LIE, PREVARICATE, EQUIVOCATE, PALTER, FIB mean to tell an untruth. LIE is the blunt term, imputing dishonesty <lied about where he had been>. PREVARICATE softens the bluntness of LIE by implying quibbling or confusing the issue <during the hearings the witness did his best to prevaricate>. EQUIVOCATE implies using words having more than one sense so as to seem to say one thing but intend another <equivocated endlessly in an attempt to mislead her inquisitors>. PALTER implies making unreliable statements of fact or intention or insincere promises <a swindler paltering with his investors>. FIB applies to a telling of a trivial untruth <fibbed about the price of the new suit>. BEN'S BROKEN PLEDGE TO NEBRASKA In 1994, during his 2nd bid for Governor, Ben Nelson made a "pledge to the citizens of Nebraska". He promptly broke his word a little over a year after he won the election. NTF believes that Ben promised voters anything to win the Kerrey US Senate seat, only to break his promises after his election. NEBRASKA FOOLED YET AGAIN !
Ben and Bill have a lot in common. They both say one thing and do another.
Research and documentation for this issue paper done by Mr. Doug Kagan. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission for its use by Taxwatchers, Inc., Dawes CountyTaxpayers, Cherry County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network. 2-98 C |
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Nelson1 - February 2000NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM - ISSUE PAPER:
GOVERNOR NELSON WATCH I - 1997 SESSION A project of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom THE TAX SITUATION Monies collected in tax surpluses lie in state coffers, a tantalizer for Gov. Nelson and state senators to spend it all. State business leaders attempt to lure people to fill jobs and lure businesses here, with hundreds of transferred employees, by making our state tax structure competitive with other states. Nebraskans from all walks of life, urban and rural, cry for a deep, permanent tax cut and tax reform. So far, all we see from the Nelson Administration is a measly, temporary, income tax cut and a property tax cut that evaporates after revaluations of property. THE NELSON PLAN Gov. Nelson in the 1997 session, trying to divert attention from the mirage of his property tax relief, has urged a permanent 7% cut in state income taxes but has insufficient state senator votes to pass it. 28 senators have agreed to co-sponsor his LB 1028, which would make permanent his current 5% cut and increase the personal income tax exemption credit. Big deal! This cut will only take the bite out of wage and salary inflation for the last several years. The second leg on his wobbly "3-legged stool" is his phony 2.5% lid on spending increases by local government taxing authorities. LB 989, cheered on by all 8 members of the Revenue Committee, none of whom are fiscal conservatives, ignores that inflation climbed this last year by only 1.7%, so the extra .8% would give high taxers lots of wiggle room to bloat their budgets. For school districts, the lid would include only general fund expenditures, excepting special educa- tion, bond issues, and building funds. Also, 3/4ths of the membership of a taxing entity could override this lid, and many taxing entities are loaded with liberals, so overrides would happen frequently. Taxing authorities could exceed this lid by 4% to create sinking funds (slush funds) or fund capital improvements. Entities could use carryover, unused budget funds for future years, more slush funds. A mere 5% of legal voters in a taxing authority district could petition a county clerk to hold a special election to override a lid by a specific amount and percentage, a petitioning number far smaller than the number of signers needed for other petition drives. The county clerk would hold the election within 15 days after receipt of such petitions, hardly allowing sufficient time for opposing taxpayers to mobilize an anti-override campaign. School districts testified in favor of LB 989, a clear alarm signal to taxpayers. The third Nelson "leg," LB 1142, would limit the valuation hike on property to 15% in any 1 year and require that an increase above that become phased in, using 15% per year increments until reaching the full amount. Translated, home- owners, businesses, farmers, and ranchers would face lesser doses of castor oil property tax hikes. What Nelson and his state tax commissioner fail to admit is that it was their idea to force up valuation of ALL property to 92-100% of market value for tax purposes, bringing local governments their largest windfall in property tax receipts! No constitutional authority will tell you that our state constitution demands that property must pay taxes at full assessed/market value. The governor and the legislature could decide to set rates at 50% or 75% of market value. Average property tax levies dropped by 3.93% in 1996, but total valuations increased by 7.43%, wiping out savings for Nebraskans. In the Omaha metropolitan area, homeowners received from 2.5% to 7.1% reduction in overall property tax rates in 1997. However, Douglas County overall property valuations increased 9.2%. Sarpy County residential property valuations rose an average of 5.7%! Taxpayers are sufficiently sophisticated to realize that, though tax rates fell, total tax bills increased. Those receiving 1998 property tax bills hit the roofs of their overtaxed homes and businesses! CONCLUSION The Nelson 3-legged tax reform stool is too wobbly to withstand scrutiny. We taxpayers receiving this tax treatment should equate ourselves to a fire hydrant in the middle of a canine exercise yard. The Nelson tax and spending cuts only worsened the situation for taxpayer pocket books. THE SOLUTION Limit property taxation and state and local spending to offer actual tax relief and require a popular vote on future tax increases at the state level, in order to stop the elderly from having to sell their homes and stop the outflow of young professionals to other states with lower taxes. Set a stable, lower tax rate to the value of a home, business, farm, or ranch when purchased and place a cap on future property tax hikes. Property owners then will have certainty about their tax burden as they buy a home and can predict their tax burden into the future. Property taxes still will remain a stable source of revenue, showing annual growth. Research and documentation for this issue paper done by Mr. Doug Kagan. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission for its use by United We Stand-NE, Citizens for Local Control, Nebraska Libertarians, and other groups in the Freedom Network. 2-98 C |
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Issue Paper: Nelson2 - February 2000NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM - ISSUE PAPER:
GOVERNOR NELSON WATCH II - 1997 SESSION A project of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom WELFARE: THE SITUATION The 1997 Unicameral boasted of its legislation to reform the welfare system, as the federal government had cut welfare subsidies to states. Actually, state senators not only merely sliced around the edges of the bloated welfare fat state in Nebraska and added a tepid work requirement but also exempted many spongers from the cuts and added bonus benefits like additional child care subsidies. Now, Gov. Nelson wants to mimic President Clinton by allowing more Nebraskans than ever to flock onto the welfare rolls through more medical and insurance subsidies. While we working people will pay more for our future health care and insurance premiums, Nelson wants us to help pay subsidies to his endearing welfare constituents.THE NELSON PLAN Gov. Nelson has embarked on a scheme, LB 1063, to vacuum in $76.5 million more fed tax dollars to reimburse state costs that will pay for socialist health insurance for about 24,000 welfare and poor children. Our generous governor will expand the NE Medicaid program to all children under 19, whose families earn 185% of the fed poverty level or less. This subsidy would aid all kids in families having annual incomes of up to $29,688 and pregnant women, another incentive to breed illegitimate children. Such generous benefits surely will convince families to dump their private insurance for a more attractive package subsidized by the State. Some employers will drop family coverage from their insurance packages, theorizing that employees will obtain coverage for kids from the State. There-fore, State government unfairly will compete with private insurers. Nebraska must contribute 25% of the cost, $5.5 million annually, to receive the federal 75%, but if more federal welfare cutbacks ensue, state taxpayers must pay the difference. LB 1070 would establish the NE Health Infrastructure Trust Fund bureaucracy. $25 million would fund the state matching share for children health insurance. CONCLUSION The Nelson scheme reeks of raw socialism, adding incentives for people to become less industrious and allow the State to take care of them, while hard-working folks must not only pay their own way but redistribute their wealth to others deemed "needy" by our governor. THE SOLUTION We must urge our state senators to loosen strangling regulations and controls on private insurance companies, so that private enterprise can apply its principles to offer a wider variety of health and medical insurance policies to all Nebraskans, regardless of their income status. Research and documentation for this issue paper done by Mr. Doug Kagan. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission for its use by United We Stand-NE, Citizens for Local Control, Nebraska Libertarians, and other groups in the Freedom Network. 2-98 C |
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Issue Paper: Nelson3 - February 2000NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM - ISSUE PAPER:
GOVERNOR NELSON WATCH III - 1998 SESSION A project of Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom Gov. Nelson did not veto the following tax bill: LB 989: Coordsen. To limit spending growth in local taxing authorities in FY 98-99 to 2.5%, though the rate of inflation probably will set lower. Local taxing authorities by 3/4 vote could exceed the limitation by 1%, and a majority of voters could exceed the limitation by additional percentages. Taxing authorities could carry over from 1 yr. to the next unused budget authority, allowing them to spend wildly in future years. The lid would cover only restricted funds, which include revenue from local property taxes, sales taxes, and state aid. For school districts, the lid would cover general funds except those for special ed. For community colleges, allowable growth would base on the percentage growth in property valuation, which rises continually. Taxing authorities could exceed the lid by up to 4% to create a sinking fund for equipment purchases and capital improvements. The Legislature could adjust upward the base limitation in later fiscal years. The Legislature did not limit growth in property valuations, so taxing authorities continually will gain a windfall. Educrats favored this bill. PASSED Gov. Nelson did not veto the following spending bills: LB 404: Dw. Pedersen. To add 2 district judges and 1 county judge to the 4th Judicial District, Douglas County, 1 county judge to the 2nd Judicial District, and 1 juvenile judge to the Lancaster County Court, costing $348,490 next fiscal year, $493,230 the next fiscal year, and $640,467 in FY 2000-01. With their high salaries, existing judges can work full 8 hr. days. PASSED LB 497: Will. To give Omaha Public School teachers yearly cost of living increases of 3% or the percentage increase in the CPI, beginning in 2000, and hike the percentage factor in determining monthly formula retirement annuities. PASSED LB 532: Robak. To give cost of living adjustments of 3% or the cumulative change in the Consumer Price Index to eligible school employee, judicial, and state patrol retirement plans. Annually, the Public Employee Retirement Board will determine which beneficiaries or retirees are eligible. PASSED LB 656: Beutler. To appropriate $100,000 in FY 98-99, $50,000 in FY 99-00, and $25,000 in FY 00-01 to an unneeded Niobrara River Management Council bureaucracy for planning and management of the river corridor. PASSED LB 799: Crosby. To create a $5 million endowment fund for arts and humanities grants. The unneeded NE Arts Council will receive 70% of the money to distribute; the unneeded NE Humanities Council will receive 30%. Private donors can support state arts, and state taxpayers should not replace fed cuts in arts funding. PASSED LB 822: Robinson. To enhance retirement benefits for all public school employees, who could retire at 55 or older if having served at least 30 years, thus increasing obligations from the School Retirement Fund by $341.7 million and decreasing future assets by $75.1 million. This bill will encourage employees to retire earlier than they should and burden future taxpayers with the cost of this cushy retirement program. Excellent, veteran teachers will retire at the peaks of their careers. Contemporary people can work longer, and lowering the retirement age creates unfairness between public and private employees. The NSEA-supported bill will require increases in school district contributions to the retirement fund. The Public Employees Retirement Board will have a tripled workload that requires 2 more staff to handle new applications. PASSED LB 924: Hillman. To establish a 9-member bureaucratic, unneeded NE Information Technology Commission composed of 3 councils, with a salaried director, to oversee the process of managing state technology needs and projects. To create a Chief Information Officer, appointed by the Governor, to recommend policies and guidelines. Two funds each will receive $250,000 annually to offer grants to state agencies and local governments. Part of the money will pay welfare recipients to work for the state for 3 yrs., taking away jobs from others. The bill will cost $1.86 million in FY 98-99, $1.38 million in FY 99-00, and $1.38 million in FY 00-01. The NE Educational Telecommunications Comm. will get 8 additional employees to support a tech review panel. LB 924 will cause centralized control of state technology efforts, which private enterprises better could coordinate without taxpayer money. PASSED LB 1053: Willhoft. To make the NE Rural Development Commission of 21 appointed members a separate state commission to foster economic development initiatives in rural areas, though the commission has performed well under an existing dept. Economic development should originate on the local level, and this bill reverses the effort to control size and cost of governments. PASSED LB 1063: Beutler. To extend Medicaid coverage to all kids 19 or younger and pregnant women, about 24,000, whose parent income is 185% of the federal poverty level or lower, $19,632 for a family of 2, and $29,688 for a family of 4. Children seeking Medicaid would become presumed eligible during application processing. Eligibility periods become remewable every 12 months, though parental income may have increased. Cost is $25 million annually. Personal costs for families who provide insurance for their kids through the Comprehensive Health Insurance Program (CHIP) would drop by half. Schools and hospitals will have to distribute information about coverage to students and families of newborns. Taxpayers will fund public service announcements, posters, videos for doctor offices, and a toll-free number. Information will become available in foreign languages, so that illegal aliens can register for the program. The Unicameral should have studied private insurance options instead of forcing more families to become dependent upon government. This Medicaid expansion includes able-bodied adults, giving free health care to those moving off welfare but not help to others earning the same income from employment. Consumers and employers will drop private insurance coverage and flock to the cheaper Medicaid package at taxpayer expense, socialist health care. Employers will drop family coverage from insurance benefits, theorizing that employees can obtain coverage from the state. PASSED LB 1070: Wesely. To appropriate $25 million for LB 1063 and $500,000 to fund Indian health services. Some of the money supposedly will come from a tobacco settlement stemming from settlement of a class action suit against tobacco companies, who have now stymied such extortion and refuse to pay outrageous settlements. PASSED LB 1108: Kristensen. To provide deficit appropriations for state government expenses, more taxpayer money to reward agencies that went over budget. PASSED LB 1158: D. Pederson. To allow all reps to the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Law to obtain reimbursement for expenses, though it is not vital that our state belong to this conference. PASSED LB 1173: Raikes. To spend $5 million to build an unneeded Center for Excellence in Electronics, an entity that private enterprise could handle, to conduct training in applied electronics technology and evaluate and test equipment, and operated by SE Community College in Lincoln. The center would not earn a profit until its 4th year. High-tech companies could have products tested at private laboratories. PASSED LB 1191: Crosby. To raise state employee contributions for retirement and increase the cost of the plan for the state by about $3.5 million annually. The legislature will pass a deficit appropriation bill next session to fund the increase. PASSED LB 1228: Bohlke. To force the State Board of Education to begin a mandatory statewide public school testing program for 3 grades, beginning in 2000-01. The testing program would evaluate if students have gained skills and knowledge to meet or exceed state academic standards, measure progress of students towards meeting state academic standards, costing $25,000 next fiscal year and $1. 7 million in each of the next 2 fiscal years. To fund mentors for every first year teacher. Quality ed incentive payments of $50-$100 per student would go to schools that adopt state academic standards over local standards, that have alternative programs for students who should be expelled, that have a decrease in local district annual dropout rate from the prior year or the maintenance of a dropout rate of 4% or lower, thus offering incentives to keep in school students who would prefer to leave, or at least 40% of its student qualifying as poor for purposes of calculating state aid. The Dept. of Ed would receive about $1.4 million to choose or develop the tests. The NSEA endorsed this bill. Another case of suffocating local control and throwing taxpayer money into a bottomless pit while not raising the quality of education. PASSED LB 1229: Bohlke. To spend $6 million to educate high-ability learners this next fiscal year and every following fiscal year raise the spending by percentage growth in these students plus basic allowable growth rate of 3%, another entitlement. Each school district would have to provide funds equal to or greater than half the state matching funds, burdening local property taxpayers. Forcing every school district to provide gifted education is an unfunded mandate. For districts that already provide high-ability classes, the bill will offer loads of gravy. OPS spends about $900,000 on its gifted and talented program for only 8,760 students, so it will gain ability to spend much more. Many high-ability pupils live in districts that can hardly provide for basic education because of the property tax lid and cuts in state equalization aid for these schools, so LB 1229 $$ will not go to all talented students. PASSED Gov. Nelson did not veto the following criminal-coddling bill: LB 1266: Wesely. To prohibit the death penalty for anyone deemed mentally retarded, the Ernie Chambers priority bill. Attorneys for a killer sentenced to death may request laying aside of the sentence for reasons of mental retardation, a means to delay implementation of the death penalty. After a judge rules that evidence of diminished intelligence is insufficient to preclude the death penalty, such evidence still could enter at the sentencing hearing, the convicted arguing that such evidence should offer mitigating significance. All killers sentenced to death before the effective date of this bill could move in district court that their death sentences become replaced with a life imprisonment sentence because of mental retardation. A judge would grant a hearing and make a determination on the motion. Convicted killers will use this legislation to stall their deserved executions, costing taxpayers $53,000 annually in legal costs plus additional court proceedings and added expenses for counties. Nebraska never has executed mentally retarded people, and the law already has many safeguards that prevent the unfair execution of the retarded. Retarded people can tell right from wrong; such is not a matter of IQ. The leftist Nebraskans Against the Death Penalty and Nebraskans for Peace testified in favor of this bill. PASSED Research and documentation for this issue paper done by Mr. Doug Kagan. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission for its use by United We Stand-NE, Citizens for Local Control, Nebraska Libertarians, and other groups in the Freedom Network. 2-98 C |
| NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM WANTS SPECIAL SESSION TO ADDRESS PETITION Article from Lincoln Journal-Star June 11, 1994 SENATOR CAP DIERKS of Ewing wants a special legislative session to reduce the number of signatures needed to put initiatives on the ballot. Without a special session, it will be "Virtually impossible to petition anything until 1998," said Jerry Stewart of Newport, who has talked to DIERKS about the idea and supports it. Without a special session, the soonest scheduled election at which voters could be asked to approve lowering the number of petition signatures required is 1996. Any changes approved then would be too late for petition drives that year, delaying their effect until 1998, Stewart said.Under Nebraska law, if 33 of the 49 members of the legislature agree, the governor has to call a special session. GOV. BEN NELSON has resisted calls for a special session on a variety of topics, saying lack of consensus could make a special session a waste of money. The effort follows a May 13 Nebraska Supreme Court decision that resulted in raising the number of signatures needed to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. |
NTF Issue Paper: Nelson4. 3-00.NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS for FREEDOM
BACKGROUND Remember from your childhood the story of Pinocchio, the wooden puppet whose nose grew longer every time he told a fib? Nebraska has seen its own version of Pinocchio in our former Gov. Ben Nelson, who, in his campaign for Senate, trumpets himself as a fiscal conservative while serving as the highest elected official of our state. He boasts about cutting our taxes and state spending during his tenure as governor from 1990-98. The record speaks otherwise. The following analysis should offer Nebraska voters many reasons to not vote for . . . Benocchio!TAXES UNDER GOV. NELSON
NELSON RAISED PROPERTY TAXES Property taxes for Nebraskans spiraled by 29.5% under Nelson. In 1995, his state tax commissioner, M. Berri Balka, interpreted our state constitution to read that all residential property must have a valuation of from 92% to 100% of market value. Though no one could find words in our constitution to support this interpretation, Gov. Nelson concurred, as did a majority of our state senators, who wrote it into statute law in 1995 via LB 137. Since this change, total revaluation of urban and rural property has increased by large percentages all over the state. SPENDING UNDER GOV. NELSON Spending on general government services rose 53% during his 8-year tenure. Spending on public education skyrocketed a whopping 119%! Spending on health and welfare services climbed a huge 116%! In 1990, NE expenditures on food stamps were $56.35 million; in 1996, the figure stood at $77.95 million. In 1990, NE expenditures on welfare medical aid stood at $291.91 million; in 1996, the figure totaled $645.1 million. Total state expenditures zoomed by 74% during the Nelson years. CONCLUSION Gov. Nelson had two 4-year terms to comprehensively reform our state tax and spending systems but failed miserably to pass meaningful legislation to lower our major state taxes and cut the general fund budget. If elected senator, he will continue to aggrieve the plight of overburdened NE taxpayers. Research and documentation for this issue paper done by Mr. Doug Kagan and Mr. Bruce R. Simon. This material copyrighted by Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom, with express prior permission granted for its use by Taxwatchers, Inc., Dawes County Taxpayers, Cherry County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax Freedom Network. 3-00 C |
