Opinion

Forgive me for not realizing sooner that the 2022 version of the Nebraska Legislature would end on a draconian note. From its support of a veto of badly needed federal rental assistance funds to turning down an attempt to provide the same tax relief to middle class Nebraskans as it guaranteed to the richest, this Legislature showed its true colors in the waning days.

It’s 965 miles from Lincoln, to the border town of Del Rio, TX. But that doesn’t mean our nation’s border crisis isn’t felt a thousand miles away. The Biden-Harris Administration’s failure to secure our broken southern border has caused a host of issues. It’s weakened our national security and overwhelmed our court system. It’s strained our economy. Most devastating, however, is the human cost it’s imposed. Our failure to secure the southern border has enabled sophisticated drug trafficking to run rampant. These deadly drugs are killing Nebraskans, leaving a wake of devastation throughout our communities.

LINCOLN (AP) - A Nebraska state lawmaker who resigned after admitting that he took photos of a female subordinate in his office without her permission acted in a “boorish, brainless and bizarre” manner but did not commit illegal sexual discrimination or harassment, according to an investigator hired by the Legislature.

There is a crisis at our southern border, and President Biden is only making it worse. At the end of March, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced it was on track to surpass one million encounters with immigrants illegally crossing our borders over the last six months. CBP data show there were 164,973 migrant encounters at our southern border in February, up seven percent from January and 63 percent from February of last year. These staggering numbers do not include the number of illegal migrants who eluded border agents.

A major tax cut package that could cost the state as much as onefifth of its budget in the outyears worked its way through the 2022 legislative session as lawmakers focused on the big issues in waning days.

In the remaining days of the 2022 Legislative Session, we must work together to strike the appropriate balance between managing government spending and returning excess revenue to the people. That is how we responsibly steward taxpayer money.

For many Nebraskans, Lent means two things: a time for personal reflection, and a time for weekly fish fries. My daughter-in-law comes from a big Catholic family who have called Omaha home for generations.

LB 873 passed and was sent to the Governor last week. As far as tax relief in Nebraska goes, this is the biggest tax cut I have seen since I first came to the legislature in 2017. LB 873 passed because the senators in the revenue committee reached a compromise. There are a lot of different pieces to this bill from Senators Linehan, Friesen, Briese and Lindstrom.

According to a new Bloomberg Economics analysis, the average American family will spend an additional $5,200 this year because of our record-high inflation rate. Polling data show that a majority of Americans are seriously concerned about inflation, a sign Americans already burdened with higher costs at the grocery store and gas pump are bracing for additional financial pressures. As our nation struggles to overcome the economic damage caused by COVID-19 shutdowns, the unnecessary stimulus bill President Biden signed last year and continued efforts by congressional Democrats to continue the spending spree have deepened our economic troubles.

With lawmakers log-jammed inside the State Capitol during the waning days of the short 2022 legislative session, the political intrigue outside is bubbling over. State senators are trying compromise and downright bullishness to move along big ticket items favored by the Governor such as: tax cuts for corporations and the rich; a big ditch in Southwest Nebraska to take a fair share of allocated water from Colorado's stretch of the South Platte River; building an Okoboji-size lake between Lincoln and Omaha; building a new prison; and providing continuing property tax relief.