What Omaha Mayor Stothert Should Do

Conservative Anger is Boiling

Matt Johnson of Right Cheer (http://rightcheer.com/) covered the speaking event of the River City of Republicans where Mayor “Mean Jean” Stothert spoke. You get to hear her side, now hear mine.

Many conservatives are becoming upset with her left-leaning spending which bribes the leftists and elites to support her. Here are my suggestions to the Mayor.

First, she should hold City government spending increases to three percent a year, not four. Stothert really needs to give more focus on this. A mild hiring freeze and delay in some expenses would make this possible. Also, the City should make better focus on grants and in-lieu taxes but there seems to be a bit of lag in doing so. However, over the last 20 years, government expenses have increased by over 300 percent. (Let me be fair, some of this is because of special funds the City has already accrued from investments and is now being spent.) For four years, the spending has been over a billion dollars.

Also, lower the property tax levy further. If Omaha is concerned about affordable housing, the City must make further efforts to reduce the property tax base. People cannot maintain their homes if the City property tax is high. A high property tax favors institutions which are exempt from the property tax such as hospitals, schools, and universities and results in a lack of funds for private development.

The City should create a priority for when TIF funding is applied, such as making more affordable housing. There is a need for TIF but I wish the City council had a predetermined goal as to why they grant a TIF. This does not need to be a hard rule, but the Mayor and Council should set some sense of priority as to what TIFs should be favored.

Stothert should work harder to secure Federal and State funding for the sewer separation project which is merely another form of property tax. Nebraska government has a lot of cash and Governor Pillen can help. More importantly, Congressman Bacon could improve his standing with Douglas County voters if he secured some sources of funding for the project. Republicans are very lucky that Democrats have not pushed and capitalized on this vulnerability among Republican leaders. I am stunned Tony Vargas did not use this against Bacon in the election.

Also, the City should increase the commercial wheel tax. While this tax increase may be unpopular, the fact remains commercial traffic benefits most from improved roads and benefited from the pandemic. I am not suggesting a dramatic increase but it should go up by at least $15 dollars.

Also, the City should increase the liquor license fee by the same percentage of government growth. Why? Because since Nebraska is going to adjust the minimum wage according to inflation, alcohol usage should adjust to the amount of government growth. The public should experience the growth of government if they are not going to object. At the very least, the fee should be adjusted according to inflation just as the minimum wage is.

Also, get the Crossroads dirt field developed or encourage citizens to occupy the area in tents and claim squatter rights! On this matter, Mayor Stothert is literally stuck in the mud. More pressure and results are needed to move this project forward but I think Stothert has given up any hope of moving this project forward.

As for the streetcar, Stothert needs to get private institutions to commit funds to the streetcar. Right now, this is not happening. The Mayor and former mayors do not understand. Development of one part of the City should not come at the expense of another part of the city. When you create a large TIF area, you create a wide and broad interest of bankers willing to provide loans because they can remove property taxes from the loans they provide. Mayors, like Stothert, will praise the Aksarben development but it ended up killing off Crossroads.

Here is how inept Nebraskans are about economics. Take the sparsest county of Nebraska and make it fundamentally illegal to tax anyone residing in such county. No income tax, no property tax, just sales tax. Nothing else! The County would be exempt from the minimum wage laws. Payroll taxes would be exempted by the state paying the cost. What do you think would happen to such county? It would thrive and explode with growth. Sir John Cowperthwaite proved the power of low taxation and minimal government intervention in the economy with the City of Hong Kong ((http://sir-john-cowperthwaite.com/) Yet, Nebraska ignores the power of free markets.