By Senator Tom Brewer
When the Nebraska Legislature adjourns today we will have completed fourteen legislative days of this special session. In my eight years in the legislature, I’ve listened to many thousands of hours of tax debates on the chamber floor. I’ve watched a lot of great bills over the years fall short by just a few votes. I really hope we can finally end this deadlock.
I read somewhere if you do something ten thousand times, you will be a master at it. I know for a fact that all the political and legislative talent, experience, and skill needed to pass meaningful property tax relief for Nebraskans is on the floor of the legislature in my 49 colleagues. There are incredibly talented and intelligent senators in this body on both sides of the isle. They know the only thing that is actually stopping us from passing something is a lack of political will.
For my entire life I have watched property taxes treat Western Nebraska as if they were the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. The people might not be dead, but they are just as gone. I have watched one town after another dry up and blow away in Western Nebraska. I heard a senator say we have moved from debating plan B to plan C. I am happy to stay here until we are debating plan Z because property taxes are destroying a Nebraska way of life in my district.
I think the best part of the debate so far has been about values and principles. Several senators have spoken about what Government should never tax. In my district, the very first Nebraska value we have is “Individual Freedom.” The price people must pay to have that foundational American right is “Self-Reliance.” My district has multiple generations of Nebraskans that live their lives every day asking virtually nothing from any echelon of local or State government. When summertime comes, the rancher on the Rural Fire Department parks the grassfire truck nearby. In the winter, the county will park the road grader near a ranch so they can clear miles of snow off the roads themselves. All my constituents have ever asked me for is to please stop raising their property taxes and taking so much of their money they can’t afford to live.
Even though there is a lot of disagreement and some hard feelings over votes, I think the body is close to a solution. I encourage my colleagues to consider the other options that have been discussed. I remain optimistic because I know everything we need to deliver real property tax reductions for every Nebraskan is in our legislature right now. I refuse to believe my fellow senators will except failing the people of Nebraska on something this important.
The Legislature’s Chaplin reminded me that the book of Ephesians, chapter four, applies to the legislature now more than ever. [29] Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. I hope my colleagues can move forward with a spirit of grace towards one another. The people of Nebraska are counting on them.
Please contact my office with any comments, questions, or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.