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Nebraska Farmers Union |
1305
Plum Street • Lincoln, NE 68502 Contact
John Hansen Office: 402-476-8815, Fax: 402-476-8859, Cell: 402-580-8815 |
Nebraska Farmers Union Board Opposes Spending Lid
The NEFU Board listed five main reasons for their opposition:
1. The spending lid will cause a dramatic increase in property taxes to offset reductions in state aid to education and local governmental subdivisions.
2. The proposed spending lid as it is written, will disproportionately impact rural communities because it is tied to population growth and inflation. The majority of rural communities are losing population and increasing in poverty.
3. The inflation rate in the spending lid may reflect the cost of what consumers buy, but it does not reflect the cost of what government buys, especially for education, health care, nursing home care, and fire protection. Rural schools, hospitals, nursing homes, rural fire departments, and counties will bear the brunt of the cuts. That means either services to rural people will go down dramatically, or property taxes will go up, or likely both.
4. This language does not belong in the Nebraska Constitution. It ties the hands of our Governor and our state senators to do the job we elect them to do, which is to use their best judgment to manage and control spending while meeting basic needs and services, including education, fire protection, health care, food assistance, and nursing home care. Nebraska already has a balanced budget requirement.
5. This ballot issue is sponsored by Americans for Limited Government, an extremist national organization that brags about “its” petition drive in Nebraska. They are tied to the Club for Growth, another extremist group that opposes all farm programs and ethanol incentives. Instead of relying on volunteers, and a few paid circulators at the end of the process, they hire petition circulators, and have no real volunteer base in Nebraska.
John Hansen, President of Nebraska Farmers Union said, “As citizens, we must not allow our citizen initiative process to be highjacked and misused by an out of state extremist group. Their inflexible, unworkable, and extremist language does not belong in our state Constitution. This spending lid will cause already too high property taxes to go even faster, and hurt our rural citizens and communities. This proposed Constitutional Amendment will not fix what is wrong. Instead, it will tie the hands of our elected officials to do the job we elect them to do. Voters and citizens should oppose this proposed Constitutional Amendment.”
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www.nebraskafarmersunion.org