Opinion
Top Story
ALL THINGS NEBRASKA
Paul Hammel: To solve complicated issues like property taxes, it might help to change term limits
It’s been 26 years since Nebraskans voted to impose term limits on state senators.
But in November, voters have a chance to extend the state’s term limit — from two consecutive, four-year terms to three consecutive, four-year terms.
(Lawmakers can come back after being term limited and sitting out a four-year term. A handful have. The most famous case is Omaha State Sen. Ernie Chambers, who served 38 years in the Unicameral, was term limited in 2008, and then won election in 2012 and served eight more years.)
Paul Hammel
While term limits have allowed more people to serve, it’s also ended the service of some really smart legislators too soon. It has shifted power to the executive branch and to lobbyists, and also contributed to a harsher partisan divide in the one-house Unicameral.
The State Legislature deals with many complicated issues, like AI, data centers and even the death penalty.
The most complicated issue is taxation, especially concerning property taxes and how local, K-12 education is funded.
Do you raise state sales taxes so you can cut property taxes? How far can you cut state income taxes? (The state is discovering that the most recent cut probably went too far, and has contributed to huge deficits in state budgets.)
How exactly should local education be funded? More state aid? More local tax options?
Should lawmakers change the state aid formula? If you give more state aid, doesn’t that mean that there’s less local control, via local school boards, over whether you keep a local school?
Governors and several platoons of senators have grappled with the issue of property taxes for decades. And still we feel property taxes are way too high.
We’re often told that Nebraska’s formula for distributing state aid to local school districts is so complicated that “no one understands it.”
I’m not sure that’s completely true. A smart staffer in the depths of the State Department of Education understands it.
But to expect part-time, state senators to grasp how it works in a couple of years is probably a stretch. And then, once they understand it, to expect them to craft a solution, and sell it to their fellow state senators before they are term limited is probably a stretch, too.
I have little doubt that property taxes would be lower in the state if we allowed state senators to hang around for more than eight years. I keep thinking of former State Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly, a truly wise legislator, who ruled over the state’s tax system for years. He knew which levers could be pulled, and which ones couldn’t.
It takes time to understand complicated problems, develop solutions, and then sell them to fellow senators. It also takes time to develop trust among fellow representatives, and develop leaders.
If you cannot serve more than two consecutive, four-year terms it creates an ever churning cast of legislators, who have to start the education process anew and hope, before their clock strikes two terms, they can get something done.
Term limits have also helped to make “moderate” state senators an endangered species because there’s an open seat, at least, every eight years.
Our state legislative districts have been drawn so that most, if not all, are either “safe” Republican or “safe” Democrat districts. That makes it harder for a moderate candidate to win a primary election because fewer people vote in the primary and the ones who do, tend to be more partisan, from the right and left fringes of their parties.
Norfolk State Sen. Rob Dover, who introduced the change in term limits to three terms, also argues that Nebraska, because it has a one-house Unicameral, loses more institutional knowledge than states with a Senate and House.
In two-house states, he said, a term-limited senator could run for the House, and continue to serve, albeit in a different legislative body.
Polls consistently show that voters approve of term limits. “Throw the bums” out is a line we often hear.
But if you want solutions to complicated problems, you might want a legislative body that can gain more experience, and more knowledge.
Paul Hammel has covered the Nebraska state government and the state for decades. He is a retired senior reporter for the Nebraska Examiner and the former Capitol Bureau Chief for the Omaha World-Herald. A native of Ralston, Nebraska, he loves traveling and writing about the state.
Opinion
Top Story
POSITIVE VIBES FOR POSITIVE LIFE
Sarah Neben: Another in-house move
I wish I could make up my mind. So does my husband. Last January I had the brilliant idea of moving our primary bedroom upstairs (my bedroom was located up there when I was a teenager).
At the time I was overcome by a wave of nostalgia. There is a lot of square footage upstairs, and there would be room to have our bedroom, a sitting area, a possible third bathroom, and a large closet for our clothes.
Sarah Neben
We got our furniture and clothes moved and we got settled in. The cozy feeling of nostalgia was soon overwhelmed by the fact that it was HOT upstairs. It technically was the attic before it was transformed into living space by my parents in the late 1970s.
We put a mini-split heating/cooling unit in the bedroom area, and it did a fair job of keeping it cool, but I could still reach up above my head and feel the heat radiating down from the ceiling. The ceiling fan above our bed didn’t do much except move hot air around. I was suffering and not sleeping well at night.
Also, the proposed bathroom didn’t go far beyond the planning stage. We had purchased a vanity with a sink and a toilet, and both were unpacked but never hooked up. This presented a large problem. If you had to use the restroom you needed to navigate down a set of steep stairs to make it to your destination. This is too much information, but sometimes the trip proved to be too long, if you know what I mean. When I was younger this was never a problem, but it is a big one now.
I told Dan of my concerns and said I was sorry, but I thought we needed to move our bedroom back downstairs. Dan never says much but he gets a certain look in his eye when I know he would like to say, “I told you so.”
We discussed where we should put our bedroom, and we decided my parents' old bedroom on the south side of the house would be the best. It has a big closet, and it is just steps away from the bathroom. However, we already had a bedroom set in that room, and it was the old Victorian set that I managed to find online in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It is made of burled walnut, and it weighs a ton. The set has a dresser with a mirror, a washstand, an armoire, and a beautiful full-size bed.
We felt we shouldn't move that old set, so we left everything where it was and just moved our clothes and shoes downstairs.
This created another problem. It meant we left our king-size bed upstairs and would now be sleeping on a full-size bed again. Early in our marriage a double bed was all we had, so we didn’t think anything of it. But there is a huge difference in size. A king-size bed is around 76 inches wide and 80 inches long. A full-size bed measures 54 inches wide by 75 inches long.
We have been downstairs for a few weeks now, and I have been trying to make it work. But it’s the width of the bed that’s killing me. We share our bed with two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, and I have absolutely no room. The other night I tried to roll over and realized if I continued that course I would be on the floor. The dogs were comfortable, but I was not.
Dan seems to be able to sleep through anything, but I am not so lucky. I toss and turn and try to get comfortable while fighting for every inch of the covers that have been usurped by the dogs. I began to dream about that beautiful king-size bed that was still upstairs. We always had plenty of room.
How can I make this work? I wondered. There is no room for the king bed in my parents' old bedroom. What else could we do? I didn’t want to go back to the new addition located on the west side of the house as it is great for guests.
The only option was a room located on the north side of the house. This room used to be the old porch that was enclosed in the 1980s. One good thing about it is that it stays much cooler than other parts of the house. It sits on a crawlspace and it’s on the north side, so it always feels comfortable. In the winter it can get downright cold, which is fine for me. The cooler the better.
I got my trusty tape measure out the other day to make sure everything would fit and was gratified to see that it would. So, sometime this week, I hope to get the king bed and a dresser moved downstairs to this new space. I’m sure at this point Dan would like to bolt the furniture to the floor. One can’t blame him.
Opinion
Top Story
SUNNY SIDE UP
Susan Bennett: There’s always tomorrow
As I write this, today (Oct. 6) is the last day of our school’s fall break. Since our district runs a modified year-round school year, our breaks are a nice two weeks.
I’m contracted to work part of that break, but I also get several days off. I had a long “to do” list of things I was going to get done during this time off.
Susan Bennett
I got to most of them, but there were a few that just didn’t rank high enough on my “vacation priority list” to worry about. And since I am the “Queen of Procrastination,” guess when most of things that I actually did accomplish got done. That’s right-the last three days of the break.
It probably would have been the last two days of break, but the dwindling timeline gave me some motivation so that forced me to finally get moving.
The problem is that when I have the extra time, I fall into the “I can do it tomorrow” trap. I’m sure you know how that goes.
Why complete it today when I know I’ll have time tomorrow? Then suddenly it is tomorrow and you again push it off for another day.
Before you know it, all that time you had for completing all of these tasks is now gone. Unfortunately I do the same thing on weekends with most of the chores being completed between 5 p.m. and bedtime on Sunday.
And bedtime usually gets pushed back because I didn’t quite start early enough to get that last load of laundry dry and folded. It’s a vicious cycle.
Besides the lie I tell myself about completing things tomorrow, there are the other rabbit holes I fall into. Home improvement television — I’m sorry, but I’m addicted.
There needs to be a 12-step program for people like me that have a problem with this. Anything that has to do with home décor, landscaping or home organization, I’m into it. Tiny homes to mega mansions, I love it all.
Desert landscaping to mammoth home spas and pools, yep, I’m there. Before you know it, the sun has passed from east to west and the day is gone. I might have only moved out of my nest on the sofa for sustenance and bathroom breaks.
At least now technology allows you to pause the television. Remember when you had to run to accomplish either of those tasks during commercials while trying not to miss any of the show?
Then there’s social media. I know, I know! It’s the devil’s work! Yet still, I think to myself, “I believe I’ll quickly check Facebook to see what’s happening with my friends.”
What feels like five minutes can easily become thirty! How does that happen? I mean, I’m clearly no teenager. I’m an old lady and it can just suck you in before you know it.
Besides the social media there is always checking email, both home and work and that eats up time. Still I find ways to justify all this.
So once I decide that time is up and the tasks now must be completed, just like exercise, start with the worst first.
The worst on my list can change from week to week, but this time it was cleaning the bathrooms. Guess how long it took me. Twenty minutes! Twenty minutes to complete a task that I had put off for the better part of two weeks! Ugh. When will I ever learn?
So Oct. 7 it’s back to work for me. That’s probably a good thing. Even though I might be the “Queen of Procrastination,” there’s comfort in having a regular schedule.
Believe it or not, I seem to almost get more done with less time when I’m working. I guess that’s just another reason that eventually retiring is out of the question for me. Well, maybe I’ll get a handle on it by then.
There’s always hope and that’s what keeps life sunny side up.
