Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pleasure to welcome Jim Vocal back to the program from
the Platt Institute. We have heard a lot, Jim in
this legislative session about Nebraska budget deficit or budget gap
growing a little bit now apparently, and you're not happy
with what you're hearing out of the legislature.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, we've got a three hundred million dollar gap, and
there are certainly choices on the table, and some of
them are not great. And I want to walk your
listeners through this first and foremost policy makers must manage
against over correcting and panicking. The principles for finalizing this
budget is to avoid any missteps that would worsen our
competitive tax position.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So here's what.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Number one you should look at to close that gap.
State spending must be brought down in line with the
slow revenue. You got to look at cuts, and if
those cuts can't fill that gap, and if this thing
looks like it's a cyclical situation, look at the cash reserves.
What we shouldn't do is tax our way out of this.
There's discussion. There's a bill that's still stuck in Revenue
Committee to pausing come tax cuts from twenty twenty three.
(01:04):
Those were desperately needed to make us somewhat regionally competitive.
And the other two things that are on the table
that aren't great. Policy number one is increasing the tobacco tax,
which is unreliable revenue, and expanding the sales tax base,
and expanding the sales tax base on services that are
currently exempt from sales tax, which you've advocated. It is
(01:24):
and it's an appropriate way to fund rate reductions. Tax
rate reductions, but lawmakers should not leverage a sales tax
expansion to fill a gap that's caused by overspending.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, the goob wanted to cut university spending that has
instead been increased a little bit. We've got tax receipts
projections down right.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
March numbers are below projection.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So when the April, when the forecasting board meets in April,
that could bring these numbers down even further. And we
don't know any the federal changes might happen too.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Right, and they are required to balance the budget. So
where would you suggest the spending cuts come from.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, we've got a five and a half billion dollar budget, Geary,
I don't have necessarily specifics to bring to the table today,
but three hundred million out of five point five billion
dollar budget I think should be doable. When family experience
from families experience their revenues declining, they have to look
first at cutting their expenses. As I said before, if
you can't find those cuts, then you could leverage temporarily
(02:25):
the cast reserves that sit between seven and eight hundred
million dollars right now.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, that seems to never be used. It's nice to
have it, I guess. But if you have it, that's
there for a reason.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well it's been brought down slightly, but that's what it's
there for. But we can't tax our way out of
this budget gap. The priority needs to be looking at
state spending, making sure that we have fiscal discipline and
we don't worsen our tax competitiveness because guess what other
states around us. Let's use Iowa as an example, they
continue to look at lowering their income taxes. Since two thousand,
(02:58):
they have lowered their income tax rate more than any
other state in the entire country. So we have to
remain regionally competitive. We have to keep our promises with
those twenty twenty three income tax cuts. We need to
prioritize fiscal discipline.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, you know we were talking earlier about law enforcement
and corrections and all of that. I think and have
for a while. We've got, if not the worst, the
second worst overcrowding issue in America. And so if we
need to build new facilities, let's build them. Well, that
costs a lot of money. Well they did, he approved
(03:34):
it two years ago. New prison. I don't know that
that's even going to be enough. So where does the
Plant Institute come down on that? And that kind of
spending if it's necessary for the safety and security.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Of Nebraska, So that needs to be prioritized. But if
you look at you've got to look at state spending
that is not mandated by the federal governments.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You've got to look at other areas.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
This is a I know, three hundred million sounds pretty big,
but in a five point five billion dollar budget, it's doable.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
You have three bills K through twelve, Education, the university,
and medicaid.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So pick which one you want to cut. That's bottom line.
That's it.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Everything else is little tiny. I mean, it's literally chewing
around the edges. If you say, well let's go after
general services, well that's the lawnmowing at the state capitol. Okay, Well,
let's go after you know the State Department of Personnel.
It's tiny. Those are the three bills here. Do we
have anything like I thought I heard the GUP talking
(04:33):
about doing a DOUGH a state version of the Department
of Government Efficiency. We have anything like that going on?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We don't, Gary, but other states have now implemented a
statewide dough department, and we're watching that carefully.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
At the Platinum student.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's certainly something that should be on the radar of Nebraskans.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Regardless, we always.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Should be looking at ways to trim the budget in
times where revenues are coming down and we can't tax
our way out of this problem.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Nebraska's woefully uncompetitive on property taxes. We just made a
decent move on on income taxes, and we're sending the
wrong message to Nebraska taxpayers across the state if we
prioritize raising taxes versus cutting spending.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Dave Navide talked about this fifteen years ago. Performance audits
for every single department down there, including the appropriation for
the University of Nebraska, which is seven.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Hundred million dollars a year or something like that.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
I don't know what the number is, but if we
don't commit to performance audits and then act on it. Yeah, okay,
you know dojes saved two hundred million dollars in a week.
But if they don't act on them in legislation, what
difference does it make? And that's what necessary. Well, that's
what it is here. You could go through and I
think he did this his first year. He had didn't
(05:50):
he have that firm from Utah come in.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
He did it last year and they found two hundred
million that actually funded the increase in the property tax
credits in the last special session last summer.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
But we also got to be careful on that.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Subsidizing local property tax problems and local spending by the
state also should be avoided in these times by by
increasing those efforts.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
You're gonna run for legislature, ever.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I don't think so at this time. Gary, I don't
plan the running.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I do is around Memorial Party. Yeah, I see you.
Pleasure to welcome Jim Vocal back to the program from
the Platt Institute. We have heard a lot, Jim in
this legislative session about Nebraska budget deficit or budget gap
growing a little bit now apparently, and you're not happy
with what you're hearing out of the legislature.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, we've got a three hundred million dollar gap, and
there are certainly choices on the table, and some of
them are not great. And I want to walk your
listeners through this first and foremost policy makers must manage
against over correcting and panicking. The principles for finalizing this
budget is to avoid any missteps that would worsen our
competitive tax position.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
So here's what.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Number one you should look at to close that gap.
State spending must be brought down in line with the
slow revenue. You got to look at cuts, and if
those cuts can't fill that gap, and if this thing
looks like it's a cyclical situation, look at the cash reserves.
What we shouldn't do is tax our way out of this.
There's discussion. There's a bill that's still stuck in Revenue
Committee to pausing come tax cuts from twenty twenty three.
(01:04):
Those were desperately needed to make us somewhat regionally competitive.
And the other two things that are on the table
that aren't great. Policy number one is increasing the tobacco tax,
which is unreliable revenue, and expanding the sales tax base,
and expanding the sales tax base on services that are
currently exempt from sales tax, which you've advocated. It is
(01:24):
and it's an appropriate way to fund rate reductions. Tax
rate reductions, but lawmakers should not leverage a sales tax
expansion to fill a gap that's caused by overspending.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Well, the goob wanted to cut university spending that has
instead been increased a little bit. We've got tax receipts
projections down right.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
March numbers are below projection.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
So when the April, when the forecasting board meets in April,
that could bring these numbers down even further. And we
don't know any the federal changes might happen too.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
Right, and they are required to balance the budget. So
where would you suggest the spending cuts come from.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, we've got a five and a half billion dollar budget, Geary,
I don't have necessarily specifics to bring to the table today,
but three hundred million out of five point five billion
dollar budget I think should be doable. When family experience
from families experience their revenues declining, they have to look
first at cutting their expenses. As I said before, if
you can't find those cuts, then you could leverage temporarily
(02:25):
the cast reserves that sit between seven and eight hundred
million dollars right now.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Yeah, that seems to never be used. It's nice to
have it, I guess. But if you have it, that's
there for a reason.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well it's been brought down slightly, but that's what it's
there for. But we can't tax our way out of
this budget gap. The priority needs to be looking at
state spending, making sure that we have fiscal discipline and
we don't worsen our tax competitiveness because guess what other
states around us. Let's use Iowa as an example, they
continue to look at lowering their income taxes. Since two thousand,
(02:58):
they have lowered their income tax rate more than any
other state in the entire country. So we have to
remain regionally competitive. We have to keep our promises with
those twenty twenty three income tax cuts. We need to
prioritize fiscal discipline.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Well, you know we were talking earlier about law enforcement
and corrections and all of that. I think and have
for a while. We've got, if not the worst, the
second worst overcrowding issue in America. And so if we
need to build new facilities, let's build them. Well, that
costs a lot of money. Well they did, he approved
(03:34):
it two years ago. New prison. I don't know that
that's even going to be enough. So where does the
Plant Institute come down on that? And that kind of
spending if it's necessary for the safety and security.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Of Nebraska, So that needs to be prioritized. But if
you look at you've got to look at state spending
that is not mandated by the federal governments.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You've got to look at other areas.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
This is a I know, three hundred million sounds pretty big,
but in a five point five billion dollar budget, it's doable.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
You have three bills K through twelve, Education, the university,
and medicaid.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
So pick which one you want to cut. That's bottom line.
That's it.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Everything else is little tiny. I mean, it's literally chewing
around the edges. If you say, well let's go after
general services, well that's the lawnmowing at the state capitol. Okay, Well,
let's go after you know the State Department of Personnel.
It's tiny. Those are the three bills here. Do we
have anything like I thought I heard the GUP talking
(04:33):
about doing a DOUGH a state version of the Department
of Government Efficiency. We have anything like that going on?
Speaker 2 (04:39):
We don't, Gary, but other states have now implemented a
statewide dough department, and we're watching that carefully.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
At the Platinum student.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
That's certainly something that should be on the radar of Nebraskans.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Regardless, we always.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Should be looking at ways to trim the budget in
times where revenues are coming down and we can't tax
our way out of this problem.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
We shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Nebraska's woefully uncompetitive on property taxes. We just made a
decent move on on income taxes, and we're sending the
wrong message to Nebraska taxpayers across the state if we
prioritize raising taxes versus cutting spending.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Dave Navide talked about this fifteen years ago. Performance audits
for every single department down there, including the appropriation for
the University of Nebraska, which is seven.
Speaker 3 (05:26):
Hundred million dollars a year or something like that.
Speaker 4 (05:28):
I don't know what the number is, but if we
don't commit to performance audits and then act on it. Yeah, okay,
you know dojes saved two hundred million dollars in a week.
But if they don't act on them in legislation, what
difference does it make? And that's what necessary. Well, that's
what it is here. You could go through and I
think he did this his first year. He had didn't
(05:50):
he have that firm from Utah come in.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
He did it last year and they found two hundred
million that actually funded the increase in the property tax
credits in the last special session last summer.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
But we also got to be careful on that.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Subsidizing local property tax problems and local spending by the
state also should be avoided in these times by by
increasing those efforts.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
You're gonna run for legislature, ever.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I don't think so at this time. Gary, I don't
plan the running.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
I do is around Memorial Party. Yeah, I see you.
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