Property Tax Ignorance
LB 170 Failure
The bill was a good bill. The Nebraska Farm Bureau advocated for it, and were rightly upset with it being defeated (https://www.nefb.org/05/20/2025/statement-by-mark-mchargue-president-regarding-legislatures-failure-to-advance-property-tax-relief-measure-lb-170/). It was suppose to be a Big Beautiful Bill (https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/05/14/lawmakers-unveil-nebraskas-one-big-beautiful-bill-aimed-at-property-tax-relief/). Yet, Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom were unaware of the bill and took no position on it.
Conservatives, tax reformers and others are poorly organized and do not communicate well with each. I wish this would change. But the real challenge is the idiocy of conservative senators who proclaim: we just need to cut spending and other senators calling for minor adjustments in the existing tax code. They fail to understand the property tax system and sales tax system have been broken by lobbyists who only cared for their own interests and not Nebraskans as a whole.
Corporations focus on income tax, but the property tax and sales taxes have so many exemptions, these taxes are far higher than they need to be. Omaha has plenty of hospitals, dormitories and museums exempt from the property tax system. The result is high and unjust taxation forcing families to leave. Yet, Nebraska drivers do not even pay for the roads (https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-road-taxes-funding/). Perhaps this explains the brain drain and potholes in one essay.
You would think by now, the local news media would have some interest in interviewing me on these topics. I have over 340 subscribers and over 800 followers on the Substack app and have posted over 500 articles. People like me who advocate for a better future will always be attacked by the status quo and those who think in the past. They believe “if it is not broken, do not fix it” but if there is an obviously better path, best to break it and look for the better option is what I say.
I suspect no one wants to interview me because I simply do not fit in any nice tight narrative they want to sell. However, the choice to ignore me as the media is doing is blatant censorship. They really do not want to hear a contrarian opinion of any significance. Perhaps I am wrong. Ask your local media providers.