Reflections on Current Issues

There is just so much out there to comment on that our unpaid staff just can't deal with everything in detail.   So here is our brief consensus on some of those issues:

• Our applause goes to Mike Groene of North Platte for the effort he and others have started to roll back the numbers of signatures required on statewide petitions.  Requiring 115,000 signatures to put a issue before the voters is unrealistic.   It used to be 49,000 signatures until the Nebraska Supreme Court looked at the unintended consequences of legislation at that time that prompted the change.   In a single house state, the voice of the people should be heard without overcoming onerous hurdles.

• Despite the opposition by most of Nebraska's county boards, it's time to eliminate the inheritance tax.   Nebraska is one of the few states in the country that still punish the dead and their families who've already paid taxes on assets.  Governor Heineman is right to want to end this.   A phase in over five years could end this archaic tax and give counties time to adjust.

• Good riddance to the failure of Lake Lautenbaugh (formerly Lake Daub) to advance.   Yes, it would have been nice to have our own Lake of the Ozarks near Omaha, but the money to study it would have been wasted because there is no way it could have overcome the environmental and financing challenges it would have faced.   This might have been a good idea in 1958.   It might have been doable in 1935.   It isn't today.

• Warren Buffett should quit whining about the 'undue' publicity his secretary is getting.   HE IS THE CAUSE OF THAT.   He has made her the poster girl for his guilt-driven need to pay more taxes.   Maybe if 47 million Americans who pay no taxes and in many cases get someone else's money back (Unearned Income Tax Credit) paid a little and had some ownership in their government his secretary's taxes could be reduced along with everyone else's.

• We've opined on it before, but it's time for Senator Fischer's LB 745 bill on occupation taxes to be passed.   The egregious misuse of such needs to be stopped--Can you say Jim Suttle's 2.5% restaurant sales, oops, occupation tax?  It's time to let citizen vote on new occupation taxes.