Governor touts legislative successes, shares views during O'Neill town hall meeting

Agriculture, broadband connectivity and tax savings were key topics addressed during Gov. Jim Pillen's town hall meeting, June 28, in O'Neill.

Pillen opened by telling the crowd of approximately 80 that his team strives to work for "all Nebraskans.

"I can't stand politics. I can't stand politicians," the governor said. "The privilege I had in the first six months, it is unbelievable how many incredible public servants we have serving the state of Nebraska."

One of Pillen's goals has been to bring business principles and practices to state government. He said it's been a "humbling experience" to build a team with business prowess.

One example is the development of a state broadband office.

"I think all of us agree we have to have internet connectivity across the state for all our homes, all our businesses, all of us in agriculture. It's critical we're connected for precision farming and agriculture practices and measurements," Pillen said.

On June 27, Pillen announced the appointment of Spalding native Patrick Haggerty, as the state's broadband director.

Pillen shared a "report card" of what's taken place during his first six months in office. According to the governor, work began nearly a year ago, during campaign season, when the Pillen campaign promoted others running for legislative seats.

"If we don't get 33 good conservative votes, it ties your hands a lot," Pillen said.

Last summer, Pillen learned the state "had bushel baskets and bushel baskets and bushel baskets" of incoming revenue. Once he won the election, his goal was to present a zero-growth budget to legislators.

"We ended up with 1.3% more than the previous year. Most had to do with protecting us," Pillen said, noting that the Nebraska State Patrol and engineering needs in the transportation department were in need of additional funding.

Pillen said his administration developed two tenets: Kids are the future of the state and they cannot be left behind and the state's tax policy is not competitive.

"We took all that money and invested it so we would change how we fund education. Then, we'd take that money and make sure we can sustain and cut taxes."

The governor said he was appalled when he discovered the state's seniors were paying taxes on social security benefits.

"That ends in 2024," Pillen said, adding that the tax rate will lower from 6.8% to 3.99% by 2027.

School funding will also be affected.

"That's where we created the billion dollar education future fund and we're $250 million a year into it," Pillen said. "Because of attitudinal change, we were able to get foundation aid - $1,500 for every student."

Community colleges will also see changes in funding. Currently, property taxes have been utilized to fund community colleges.

"Our belief is the state should be doing that," Pillen said.

The challenge, according to the governor, is to have all people in the state to come together to promote and rebuild a strong middle class.

That can happen by getting kids interested in technical fields, according to Pillen.

Pillen wrapped up talk about the legislative session noting that 35 bills covering approximately 200 issues were signed into law.

"You can be rest assured the people's work was done and be rest assured I'm sending thank-you cards to the two filibusterers because they helped the conservative cause," Pillen said.

Pillen responded to questions raised by audience members. His responses, in full, are included by topic.

Abortion

"It was a privilege to sign the transgender and pro-life to get down to 12 weeks. It's not what we wanted, 12 weeks is better than 20. I can assure you, from my seat, if the discussion was 12 weeks and it's never another conversation ... we just have to win a couple more elections and we're going to end abortion in Nebraska. If there's anything I get done as your governor, it's that. If anybody wants to fight, and doesn't believe that, we had a hell of a fight."

Inheritance tax

"Who's in favor of estate tax? Raise your hand. I'll ask the question in all 93 counties. None of us believe in double taxation. That's why it's appalling we're taxing social security income tax. I'm not finding anybody that's in favor of inheritance tax except our friends and neighbors we elect to run our county government. Money from inheritance tax goes to county government. I'm a believer county government needs to do what we're doing at the state level - cut government significantly. Having public servants understand business practices and we're working at it every day. I think it's all our opportunities to say, 'Counties, you can do things differently.' A simple example - used to be a lot of families who grew up in our rural communities grew up in town. If we're not driving on county roads, why do we keep putting so much gravel on them? Do we need roads every mile? Maybe we can close a bunch of roads. Do we need townships in the counties that have supervisors? Those kinds of things, it's time for us to start doing this in the next session. I'm a believer to put that one on the list and end inheritance tax."

Revenue windfall

"All the money came into the department of revenue through sales tax, income tax, because the economy has been vibrant and there's a lot of cash flowing through our economy because the federal government printed a ton of dough. So that's why it was so critical that our legislature was courageous to say no because, guess what? All our neighbors have been overtaxed. If we'd said, 'Hey, we're doing,' we'd gone broke. If it were something we were doing really special, but we've all been a benefactor because of the extra money that came from the federal government and it came in the form of revenue. That's why we've invested it in tax cuts and transformational tax change in school funding so it doesn't vaporize in thin air. We have something tangible we can do. We go from being 49th in state funding to the mid 20s and in tax policy, we go from being 30 or 32 to 15 in income tax. We start competing and keep people here.

Lack of trust in Washington

"I had the greatest dad on the face of the earth. I could tell a ton of dad stories and some of them may not be totally appropriate. He was a great philosopher. One of the things he said to us was, 'Boys, there's tension in the neighborhood and old Joe over there, he sees things differently. We need to let Joe be. It won't matter.'

"Dad was right, we've got to get along, we've got to be respectful, but he was wrong when he said it doesn't matter. Guess what? To hell with Washington. Let's worry about Holt County. Let's worry about Nebraska. If we don't have the courage to respectfully debate in our own communities and we keep staying quiet, then all the noise that's out there from what I call the vocal one-tenth of one percent of the far-right crazies and the far-left crazies, start infiltrating. I get so sick of people saying the world is going to hell in a hand basket. I haven't listened to the news in two and one-half years. I get to people here that's the greatest place in the world. Why listen to that crap? All it does is have an attitudinal effect on us. We just need to be sure we stand up and fight for the American dream, make sure our kids are educated the way we want to, make sure our communities hold each other accountable and we inspire each other to do awesome stuff. My epiphany in this whole process is we're just good people. The bad news is we're Christian, quiet, conservative, pragmatic Nebraskans and we have to stop being quiet. We all have to get in the game. We have to do more than work hard and raise our families. Our voice has to be heard. If we all just get in the game, we can make sure our communities are viable."

Child Care costs

"All communities across the state, we have a great need for people to work, housing and child care. My solution is simple. We, as business owners and farmers and ranchers, need to come together to say I can help. Wouldn't it be awesome if 10 businesses went together and said that moms and dads who work in our business, 'You're going to work in child care X hours a week and those hours are going to be part of the deal.' Why are we going to do that? We should be doing everything we can to make sure we're taking care of kids while moms and dads are working and we have to be creative in the solution. The communities that figure it out, the peers we work with, you certainly trust. We're going to pay you working, it's part of child care, it's part of the solution. It may be a silly idea, but I think it's one that may work.

Stopping outsourced manufacturing from China

"One thing we've learned with Sen. Bostar, about getting all - actually there's a telecommunications provider in this neck of the woods that came in - and just telling the way it is, lied through his teeth. I can handle a lie, but if somebody totally gives me a bill of goods, about how long it will take to get Chinese equipment off towers. We have to realize Chinese people are good, Chinese government is bad news. They want to steal everything under the sun from us and it's a major, major issue for national security.

It's really important we recognize China is a significant threat. They're a threat with cheap equipment on our towers, threat with stuff that we buy. We shouldn't be doing business. A lot of us have been wondering what the heck's going on. Opportunities for becoming more self-sufficient are critical to our economy and national security so we're going to have to help."

Eco-terrorism

"We have a tremendous Air National Guard. We have a lot of intel from Nebraska State Troopers. Another piece would be part of the technology, whether it's the University of Nebraska technology system helping us. Cybersecurity is very important. We have to be able to do our interconnectivity here, that's important. Think about driving tractors using technology. Would you rather have that technology via ground cable or pulling it out of the sky? Think about how vulnerable we are with satellite technology. These folks are doing an infinite number of hacks in our system so we have to build a very secure system. That's why the broadband office, so we have everything in the ground and getting to us.

I've had conversations with the new broadband director. Our goal is to get it done in the next four to five years. We have to have rural providers who can grow their teams. I'm a pig guy, not a technology guy, but we've got to get it done as quickly as possible."

Trade missions

"Every country in the world is an important market for Nebraska agriculture. We're doing Vietnam in July and South Korea and Japan in September and something else on the docket. It's really important. We have to defend agriculture. I had a call from President Biden's homeland security advisor and during our conversation on the phone, I asked him what are the five things important for you. We talked about things the administration works on. I told him maybe food security could be the sixth item. Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, we feed the world and save the planet. It seems the federal government has no grasp of what an impact it has on food security. He suggested he and Secretary Vilsack and I get together and talk. I think we fight like heck, we keep communicating and try to influence. We have to have the ability to market to the world."