For a man who keeps saying the government spends too much money, Governor Pillen is sure to spend a lot of it on this special session.  A special session that will have our State Senators spinning their wheels and wasting their time. 

The governor held a press conference where he said that his plan will receive bi partisan support in the Unicameral without a “shadow of a doubt.” 

Those words had barely left his lips when Mayor Stothert, a member of his own party, cast the first doubtful shadow. She sent out a press release saying that the governor’s plan was short on details and what details were presented didn’t look good for Omaha. 

I’m paraphrasing the mayor’s comments of course, but similar thoughts were presented by LaVista Mayor Doug Kindig. The League of Nebraska Municipalities sent a letter opposing parts of the plan. The Douglas County Commissioners chair worries services will have to be curtailed. Conservative think tank, The Platte Institute, was a little nicer when they said they hoped other alternatives would be discussed during the session. 

Generally speaking, this bi partisan support Governor Pillen was talking about was getting very little support from from this part of the state. 

In a recent column I pointed out how the Governor had avoided us during his tour across Nebraska.  I also pointed out that he was poised to make a lot of money with all the property Pillen Family Farms owns. 

During his press conference our governor was asked about the windfall a property tax break would give him.  He answered that if he wanted to get rich, he certainly wouldn’t have run for governor.  Then he quickly moved on to another question. 

I would suggest that if you wanted to get rich, or should I say richer, you most certainly would want to be governor so you could lower the property tax that would put millions in your pocket over the years. 

When Pete Ricketts first ran for Governor in 2014 I had him on my radio program and I asked him if after all those years of being a Chief Operating Officer of his father’s company, where he got to call the shots, he could work with the Unicameral.  Dealing with the Nebraska Unicameral is much different than dealing with a Board of Directors in his family’s business.  He said he could. Yet if he could do such a good job working with them, why did he veto so many of their bills?  And why did the Unicameral override many of those vetoes?

I might have asked Pillen a similar question during the campaign if his people hadn’t blocked me from asking him any questions at all.  It’s becoming more and more evident that Jim Pillen doesn’t play well with others. 

He should have had Mayor Stothert on board before calling the special session.  He should have worked with eastern Nebraska senators, to get their input before calling the session.  

In other words, he should have had all his ducks in a row beforehand so the special session would be short and sweet. It sure doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

I’ll bet Don Bacon is hoping that this long-shot attempt at property tax reform will drag on and keep Tony Vargas occupied and off the campaign trail for a while. 

Just to be clear, I support property tax reductions.  I doubt there is a person in Nebraska that doesn’t. I’ll readily admit that I’m not smart enough to have a workable solution to get that done. I’ll also readily admit that any solution isn’t going to please everyone.  They have to get the money from somewhere, so who’s going to end up paying it?  However this works out, there will be winners and losers. 

This plan is too vague. It has too little support. And I predict it will be a total waste of time and money the state shouldn’t have to spend. 

Even if the governor and the Unicameral can come to terms during the summer it will be years before the plan is fully implemented.  I don’t see the harm in waiting until January and the longer session to get the job done.  We are only talking about delaying the cuts a few months. 

I guess when you own as much property as Jim Pillen does a few months can add up to a lot of money.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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