Omaha Needs Change

Stothert Could Lose. Should Lose?

Update 2: Omaha offers more TIFs, mostly for apartments (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2024/04/30/omaha-officials-last-year-gave-green-light-to-23-projects-that-represent-129m-in-tif-loans/).

Update: The Metro Board is now the Regional Metropolitan Transit Board of Omaha, and will have an elected board, and candidates are on the ballot this election. However, I suspect this will be more cosmetic instead of effective.

I am still trying to figure out why Mayor Jean Stothert is running for Mayor again. Let alone, why are so many Republicans and conservatives tolerating it without any concerns? (Staring glances at Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom) Omaha is in need of serious reforms.

Stothert will proclaim she has lowered the property tax levy, but the City keeps taking in more property taxes, year after year, and is not reducing spending. This shows in the budgets (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-why-property-taxes and https://finance.cityofomaha.org/).

The City loves the high property taxes because they gain power to barter with developers over TIF, Tax Incremental Financing. This happens so often it drew the attention of State Senators (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/03/nebraskas-biggest-city-reports-record-year-for-tif-an-incentive-under-scrutiny-by-some-lawmakers/).

But what started to cause me concerns is the Douglas County’s hiring of retired Omaha Police Deputy Chief Greg Gonzalez (https://www.wowt.com/2024/03/27/911-users-board-concerned-over-hiring-new-douglas-county-deputy-director/). What the first responders are doing to Gonzalez in forcing cancellation of meetings amounts to a coup d’etat and it must be ended now. Erosion of public trust in the 911 system must not be tolerated. Yet, Stothert appears all too happy to support the coup d’etat. You can bet Democrats could label Stothert and Sheriff Aaron Hanson, both Republicans, as “insurrectionists” as the objections to Gonzalez are too petty, lack merit, and sound partisan.

Hanson, a Republican, and Greg Gonzalez, a Democrat, ran against each other for the office of Douglas County Sheriff. Perhaps there is political animosity coming from Hanson, but I have other concerns with Hanson challenging Gonzalez. Hanson has at times said things which suggest he has an exaggerated sense of danger. This is possibly a sign of mild post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his work on the Omaha Police Gang Unit. Such stressful jobs can cause people to need some counseling to relieve stress, and to have a more realistic approach to life. Hanson should reflect on this matter.

But back to Stothert. She, as Mayor, appoints members of the Omaha Housing Authority, OHA. The OHA is a very large slum lord (https://www.wowt.com/2024/04/19/omaha-housing-authority-under-fire-again-underwood-tower-residents/). In fact, trying to find details as to what is going on can get you arrested ( https://www.ketv.com/article/omaha-police-remove-man-for-entering-underwood-tower-to-inspect/60552340). If you merely want to contact the OHA board members to complain, good luck! They have no contact form or email address for individual board members on their website (https://ohauthority.org/about-oha/board-of-commissioners/). In fact, none of the board members are assigned to represent any particular area of Omaha. Dare I ask if any of these board members went through a background check before being appointed? This board should be elected by district, not appointed. It is the only way to reform OHA.

There is another agency, a taxing agency, which suffers from the exact same problem. The Omaha Metro Transit board (https://www.ometro.com/board-of-directors/). They are not elected but are appointed by the Omaha Mayor. But my solution to this is not democracy, but abolition. People pay property taxes for this transportation but the Omaha Metro Transit keeps giving away rides for free (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/briefs/metro-offers-free-bus-rides-on-election-day/ and https://www.ketv.com/article/omaha-metro-transit-offers-free-rides-students-help-ease-into-school/44787163 and https://www.wowt.com/2024/04/20/omahas-metro-transit-celebrates-nebraska-public-transit-week/). At the same time, the bus service barely services anything west of 72 Street. Do not let their map fool you. Westside High School students simply cannot find a Metro bus to take them to school. Such gross abuse of property taxpayers should not be tolerated. Get rid of the Metro board. Let the free market find a solution such as Uber. Let the needs for public transportation be recast and only when such need is evident, create a new transit authority. At the very least, have state law changed to ban the Metro from giving free rides.

The Omaha Housing Authority and the Omaha Metro Transit need to change, but Stothert is not going to do it. The people of Omaha must. Yet, the people of Omaha are still throwing spears at each other, instead of seeking reform. Welcome to Omaha!