Gov. Jim Pillen spoke on farm and ranch issues, property taxes, new bills and state celebrations during a monthly talk show with the Nebraska Broadcaster’s Association on Monday.
Hosted on Lincoln’s KLIN News Talk Radio, the monthly show allows Nebraskans to call in and ask the Governor questions.
Many callers asked about property tax valuations and potential relief. Pillen said lowering property tax remains a top priority for him, and rising taxes due to high county valuations were “unacceptable.”
“The reality is – as valuations go up and no levies are changed – it's just a printing press for local government,” Pillen said. “I think each of us get frustrated when we get something from government that then hides behind state statutes. We've made progress – but it’s obviously not satisfactory. We have to have transformative relief.”
As the University of Nebraska Board of Regents prepares to debate a tuition increase on Thursday, Pillen said there were opportunities to find “efficiencies” in the system.
“We have to run government like a business, and higher education falls into that wheelhouse,” Pillen said.
He said he was not “for cutting programs,” but rather consolidating programs and balancing the student-to-teacher ratio.
“I think most Nebraskans see it like I do, that if education is changing and evolving, I think we have an opportunity to really focus on who we are as Nebraska,” Pillen said. “We could really grow, but we can't try to be everything for all people.”
Between land buying, wildfires and data privacy, the Governor also fielded questions about farm and ranch life.
Pillen approved LB525 in April, a first-of-its-kind bill that protects agricultural data.
“I think it's really, really important that Nebraska farmers, producers, ranchers – that they own their data, because everybody's got data in the technology cloud,” he said. “That means that other people that might have a different agenda just don't have access to our data, so that we can either extract value from that data or make sure that – whatever is going on on our land – it's ours, and we can decide.”
Pillen also recently signed a new bill aiming to protect consumers from spiking energy costs due to data centers. It would allow data center companies to build private power generators instead of utilizing the public power grid.
“Private companies build [power sources]. We – as a rate payer – have no responsibility. Public power has no responsibility for it,” Pillen said.
One caller raised concerns about outside interests purchasing Nebraska land. While Pillen noted the top groups and individuals buying Nebraska land were all paying taxes, he said he prefers to keep ownership local.
“We have about 46 million acres, and the good news today would be 95% of that is owned by Nebraska and family farmers and ranchers,” Pillen said. “We don't want publicly traded companies owning our land. We want to do business with our neighbors, we need to be owned by stakeholders, and we may have to start thinking about how we do that a little bit differently.”
He suggested farmers and ranchers could collaborate to buy land up for sale in their communities.
Pillen also publicly announced plans to visit the South Fork Fire near Harrison tomorrow in the northwestern Panhandle. He said about 600 volunteer, state and National Guard personnel have responded to the disaster with “all hands on deck,” and the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a grant for assistance.
“It's about as dry as Mars,” he said. “That part of the state needs rain, and it just hasn't had any.”
The South Fork Fire has burned nearly 39,000 acres, but it is now more than half contained.
Pillen’s administration has also requested producer assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and an emergency declaration from President Donald Trump to cover recovery and relief costs for the March wildfires.
“That would help with roads, that would help with ecosystem recovery and help with reimbursing our fire departments as well,” he said.
Policy aside, Pillen focused on celebrations the College World Series.
“Let's brag about how every young boy that from the time he puts a mitt on and starts throwing a baseball, his dream is not to be in the majors – his dream is to go to Omaha,” Pillen said.