Southeast Nebraska speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jan. 12, 2024
Our weekly round-up of letters published in the Lincoln Journal Star.
- Updated
Our state continues to hemorrhage our youth. For some reason they don’t find this state attractive. Our government tries so hard to make it that way.
When parents are unable to make decisions for their children, women are unable to make decisions concerning their own bodies, refusing federal subsidies to feed poor children, tax codes that favor the rich and burden the poor, laws that promote gun access which endangers our citizens, laws that criminalize the use of marijuana, refusing to support higher education and allow those who can afford private schools tax breaks, ignoring the will of the people by undermining petitions, allowing unscrupulous businesses to poison communities and threaten water supplies ...
- Updated
While Attorney General Hilgers has shown great skill at legislating on behalf of executive priorities, I prefer my elected representative — state senators — to do the lawmaking.
Hilgers has already successfully steered the Legislature away from its oversight mission by defanging inspectors general offices via his "non-binding" opinion on the offices' originating legislation. No law was changed, but the access to two executive-run agencies is now limited.
The new year is beginning, so it is time to turn the page. And, turning that new page should include a change in leadership in the 3rd Congressional District in Nebraska, i.e., replace Rep. Adrian Smith.
His vote not to expel George Santos, the disgraced congressperson from New York, is inexcusable. Smith’s reasoning (excuse) was that an expulsion vote sets a dangerous precedent.
Red Way’s mismanagement of funds was a disappointment. The innovation that the Lincoln Airport leadership has demonstrated is a success.
For many years Lincoln’s airport languished and felt like it was slowly fading. The leadership from Dave Haring and the elected officials on the Airport Authority has turned things around. They found a way forward in renovating the airport and creating more community spaces and engagement.
Thank you Patty Pansing Brooks for your poem ("The slight before Christmas," Dec. 29). What a clever way to shine the light on the dissimulation of that one line by Gov. Jim Pillen: "I don't believe in welfare."
The true hypocrisy is indeed the lack of empathy for innocent children while doling out "welfare" to the rich in the form of tax cuts.
Gov. Jim Pillen has proposed raising the sales tax by 2 cents, which would make Nebraska's sales tax the highest in the nation. Although the details have not been released, the governor's office suggests this would drop the property tax from the highest in the nation to 27th.
All that does is switch taxes from one class of taxpayers to another, not all of whom are even Nebraska farmers or ranchers. People of wealth own much property, while people of less wealth own very little property. And if they rent they get no break for property tax.
Dave Kirby in his Dec. 31 letter to the editor asks, "How many is enough?" referring to the immigration crisis and placing the blame for it on the Biden Administration.
I, too, ask how many is enough? How many criminal indictments does it take to render a former president unfit for elective office? How many provable lies are enough to disqualify a person for running for elective office? How many calls to violence and retribution inciting well-meaning and otherwise intelligent people to criminal acts and threats against public officials are enough to prove intent to subvert the United States Constitution?
I was born in Norfolk. I follow Nebraska closely. I live in Houston, Texas, home of strip clubs and oil business. So believe me when I say taxing petroleum products going through your state is more lucrative than taxing attendees to strip clubs or strip clubs themselves.
Here's an idea for Sen. Barry DeKay: Tax both. This strip club tax would have been a waste of Nebraskans' time and money.Â
Theater and concert ticket prices are out of control. The performing arts are almost exclusively for the rich.
As a young adult I could afford most concerts I wanted to attend. My first rock concert in 1977 featured three bands for $10. At US ’83 it was $37.50 for a three-day pass. That’s about $120 today — a bargain for three days and roughly three dozen bands.
American helped create NATO more than 70 years ago with the goal of preventing an attack from the Soviet Union/Russia. When the Russian attack came, the hammer fell on a country outside that alliance. Ukraine indeed took the entire brunt of the invasion, resisted, and turned the tide.
In so doing, Ukraine destroyed so much Russian equipment that a Russian attack on NATO is now highly improbable. With the blood of tens of thousands soldiers, Ukrainians defended every member of our alliance, making it far less likely that America would have to go to war in Europe.
Jim Pillen will go down in Nebraska history as the greatest governor ever, and he is just getting started.
His hog farms are the smell of success and the ag industry that makes this state run.
Gov. Jim Pillen's decision not to apply for federal funding for children's summer food programs is short-sighted in dealing with fiscal responsibility. It was estimated that to manage the $18 million in aid it would cost $300,000. That leaves more than $17 million that would be spent in our urban and rural communities.
That purchasing power would then be multiplied and spread across those communities. All residents would benefit. His supposed support of children and this decision suggest hypocrisy.
Gov. Jim Pillen's refusal to apply for more than $18 million in federal funds to help feed our less fortunate children only proves two things: 1) He's even worse of a governor than Jiminy Ricketts, and 2) he's not "pro-life" at all. He's just "pro-fetus."
Assuming he considers himself a Christian, he is, sadly, falling far short of what any actual Christian would do.
An article in the Dec. 26 issue of the Journal Star indicates that a primary focus in the 2024 session of the Nebraska Legislature will be to address the matter of workforce development.
A group formed by Gov. Jim Pillen identified four focus areas to address the problem of a shortage of workers in Nebraska. They were housing, child care, education and incentives.
More like this...
Our state continues to hemorrhage our youth. For some reason they don’t find this state attractive. Our government tries so hard to make it that way.
When parents are unable to make decisions for their children, women are unable to make decisions concerning their own bodies, refusing federal subsidies to feed poor children, tax codes that favor the rich and burden the poor, laws that promote gun access which endangers our citizens, laws that criminalize the use of marijuana, refusing to support higher education and allow those who can afford private schools tax breaks, ignoring the will of the people by undermining petitions, allowing unscrupulous businesses to poison communities and threaten water supplies ...
While Attorney General Hilgers has shown great skill at legislating on behalf of executive priorities, I prefer my elected representative — state senators — to do the lawmaking.
Hilgers has already successfully steered the Legislature away from its oversight mission by defanging inspectors general offices via his "non-binding" opinion on the offices' originating legislation. No law was changed, but the access to two executive-run agencies is now limited.
The new year is beginning, so it is time to turn the page. And, turning that new page should include a change in leadership in the 3rd Congressional District in Nebraska, i.e., replace Rep. Adrian Smith.
His vote not to expel George Santos, the disgraced congressperson from New York, is inexcusable. Smith’s reasoning (excuse) was that an expulsion vote sets a dangerous precedent.
Red Way’s mismanagement of funds was a disappointment. The innovation that the Lincoln Airport leadership has demonstrated is a success.
For many years Lincoln’s airport languished and felt like it was slowly fading. The leadership from Dave Haring and the elected officials on the Airport Authority has turned things around. They found a way forward in renovating the airport and creating more community spaces and engagement.
Thank you Patty Pansing Brooks for your poem ("The slight before Christmas," Dec. 29). What a clever way to shine the light on the dissimulation of that one line by Gov. Jim Pillen: "I don't believe in welfare."
The true hypocrisy is indeed the lack of empathy for innocent children while doling out "welfare" to the rich in the form of tax cuts.
Gov. Jim Pillen has proposed raising the sales tax by 2 cents, which would make Nebraska's sales tax the highest in the nation. Although the details have not been released, the governor's office suggests this would drop the property tax from the highest in the nation to 27th.
All that does is switch taxes from one class of taxpayers to another, not all of whom are even Nebraska farmers or ranchers. People of wealth own much property, while people of less wealth own very little property. And if they rent they get no break for property tax.
Dave Kirby in his Dec. 31 letter to the editor asks, "How many is enough?" referring to the immigration crisis and placing the blame for it on the Biden Administration.
I, too, ask how many is enough? How many criminal indictments does it take to render a former president unfit for elective office? How many provable lies are enough to disqualify a person for running for elective office? How many calls to violence and retribution inciting well-meaning and otherwise intelligent people to criminal acts and threats against public officials are enough to prove intent to subvert the United States Constitution?
I was born in Norfolk. I follow Nebraska closely. I live in Houston, Texas, home of strip clubs and oil business. So believe me when I say taxing petroleum products going through your state is more lucrative than taxing attendees to strip clubs or strip clubs themselves.
Here's an idea for Sen. Barry DeKay: Tax both. This strip club tax would have been a waste of Nebraskans' time and money.Â
Theater and concert ticket prices are out of control. The performing arts are almost exclusively for the rich.
As a young adult I could afford most concerts I wanted to attend. My first rock concert in 1977 featured three bands for $10. At US ’83 it was $37.50 for a three-day pass. That’s about $120 today — a bargain for three days and roughly three dozen bands.
American helped create NATO more than 70 years ago with the goal of preventing an attack from the Soviet Union/Russia. When the Russian attack came, the hammer fell on a country outside that alliance. Ukraine indeed took the entire brunt of the invasion, resisted, and turned the tide.
In so doing, Ukraine destroyed so much Russian equipment that a Russian attack on NATO is now highly improbable. With the blood of tens of thousands soldiers, Ukrainians defended every member of our alliance, making it far less likely that America would have to go to war in Europe.
Jim Pillen will go down in Nebraska history as the greatest governor ever, and he is just getting started.
His hog farms are the smell of success and the ag industry that makes this state run.
Gov. Jim Pillen's decision not to apply for federal funding for children's summer food programs is short-sighted in dealing with fiscal responsibility. It was estimated that to manage the $18 million in aid it would cost $300,000. That leaves more than $17 million that would be spent in our urban and rural communities.
That purchasing power would then be multiplied and spread across those communities. All residents would benefit. His supposed support of children and this decision suggest hypocrisy.
Gov. Jim Pillen's refusal to apply for more than $18 million in federal funds to help feed our less fortunate children only proves two things: 1) He's even worse of a governor than Jiminy Ricketts, and 2) he's not "pro-life" at all. He's just "pro-fetus."
Assuming he considers himself a Christian, he is, sadly, falling far short of what any actual Christian would do.
An article in the Dec. 26 issue of the Journal Star indicates that a primary focus in the 2024 session of the Nebraska Legislature will be to address the matter of workforce development.
A group formed by Gov. Jim Pillen identified four focus areas to address the problem of a shortage of workers in Nebraska. They were housing, child care, education and incentives.
More like this...
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