BROKEN BOW, Neb. – Senator Tanya Storer, the representative for District 43, visited Broken Bow on Friday shortly removed from the adjournment sine die of the first session of the 109th Legislature.
In addition to visiting several events around town throughout the day, Senator Storer had a casual meet and greet at Ollie’s Coffee and Boutique.
A group numbering around a dozen listened and asked questions over a time period of just over an hour about the legislative session and what Storer saw as triumphs, frustrations, and opportunities to build on.
LB 113 was the first subject of the afternoon, which changes provisions relating to licensees under the Nebraska Liquor Control Act. Storer pointed to the bill’s connections to her district: quality water and quality grain, which Nebraska has. The bill passed 33 yes and 13 no, increasing a gallon production limit and loosening self-distribution regulations.
Storer said that she was happy with being able to balance the budget without increasing taxes. She cited LB 170 (eliminating sales tax exemption for candy and soft drinks) as a key example of a bill that would increase taxes.
“I was one of only seven republicans that voted against that, (I) voted in opposition to raising any taxes, and we can get into the minutiae of that conversation, but I made a promise that I was not going to raise taxes,” Storer explained.
The new property tax relief fund Storer stated to have some ‘heartburn’ with.
“We have to be very careful that it may be what I refer to as feeding the beast. What I mean by that is now because it’s just coming right off the front, it’s a discount on your property taxes. That may sound until you stop to think about those out-of-state investors. It actually is now cheapening up the land for them and I have concerns we actually could be putting upward pressure on our land prices going forward by doing it this way,” said Storer.
She added that additional concerns were that it is an ‘identifiable pool of money’, which makes it suspect to being raided in the future. She said actual property taxes are not being reduced with it statewide, calling it a ‘smoke and mirrors game’ that isn’t sustainable long term.
“I’m going to be working with a group of senators, Farm Bureau has committed to working with me as well, to continuing to find what I call true tax reform and being able to move some of those things that are currently on the property tax ledger off of it over onto the state’s side of the ledger,” said Storer, who used Community Colleges as an example.
LB 383 was Storer’s priority bill of the session, which she said she was thrilled to have be passed but also to have bipartisan support. The bill adds an age verification process to the use of social media platforms (Photo IDs or some sort of biometric system are possibilities) in addition to children under the age of 17 needing parental permission to access social media.
Storer said she believes the bill can have a lasting impact socially, referring to the timing of the “social media explosion” in 2012 and the mental health and suicide crisis that became more of a concern afterward. Storer said that she believes the part of LB 383 that makes the most sense is that parents or guardians have to be able to have access to their children’s accounts.
“I explain it to people this way,” said Storer, “We are empowering parents to be able to parent their children in the digital world the same way we have always been able to in the physical world.”
On the subject of lab-grown meat being banned in the state, Storer said she was initially reluctant to the idea of a ban due to being a ‘true conservative’ and wanting to let the market decide. She said the more she researched and learned however, her support of the ban came to be from a concern about the safety of lab-grown meat.
The bill that had become known as the “brand bill” by many was something that Storer said brought about a concern for her during its discussion.
“I have had confirmation, having had a front row seat that very few people in this state understand the beef industry. Very few people understand the importance of livestock inspection. Not only do they not understand, they really kind of don’t care,” said Storer.
She said it’s frustrating knowing the impact the beef industry has on the state’s economy while having very little understanding of it.
“The fundamentals for me for the bill that came up and moving forward is that we don’t want to jeopardize the integrity of that inspection system. It’s really a chain of title is what it is,” said Storer on the bill that ultimately did not pass in any form.
Before closing the meet and greet, Senator Storer touched on some legislative items that had a constitutional element to them, which included medical marijuana. She said that contrary to popular belief, nothing had been done in the session to void what was voted on by Nebraskans on ballots in November.
Storer said that when she was campaigning, she wanted to make sure when asked about it that people knew what they were not voting for.
“Most people had this, as did I, had this assumption that medical marijuana meant that I was going to go to my doctor and get a prescription and go down to my local pharmacy and get a prescription bottle of (marijuana), right? No. That is not how medical marijuana works. It doesn’t work that way because it is still federally illegal,” said Storer.
Storer said that two lawsuits are in the works. One is challenging how the signatures were collected to get the initiatives on the ballot (which she said she believes there is ample evidence that signatures were illegally collected). The second is challenging that Nebraska is regulating and legalizing something that is federally is illegal.
She said the sentiment in the body was that “the voters voted on the cannabis commission writing the regulations, so if we’re going to honor the will of the voters let the cannabis commission write the regulations” and “we don’t want to get the cart ahead of the horse and so let the lawsuits work out and if they are not successful, then we come back and determine if there are additional needed regulations for the state of Nebraska.”
Listen to Senator Storer’s full talk about medical marijuana here:
Before closing, Storer heard from a citizen who spoke to the importance of prescribed burns for the area and how they are the most efficient way for himself and those like him to maintain their land’s natural ecosystem. He stated that he was fortunate that his burning was done for the season before the Governor’s burn ban, adding that an overall burn ban stopped landowners to burn when conditions were best for it even though they had the large crews and equipment to do it safely.
Storer responded by saying she believes more time needs to be spent looking at the parameters that surround burning in order to alleviate the need for complete bans in the future.
Toward the tail end of the meet and greet Storer touched one more time on property taxes and how they are an issue that will never be fixed in everyone’s eyes.
“I was at a meeting the other day and I said I don’t think the day will ever come where you’ll have widespread consensus that says ‘You did it! You got it fixed! We’re happy!’ That’s not going to happen. So it’s ongoing management,” she laughed.
