Gov. Pillen’s State of the State Address & Nebraska Appleseed Response

 
LINCOLN, NE -- President Kelly, Speaker Arch, members of the 109th Legislature, tribal leaders, fellow Nebraskans. What a time of promise and opportunity for our state and nation. What a tremendous moment for those of us who have been blessed with the privilege to serve our fellow citizens in public office. I am as grateful today for that privilege as I was when I stood in this chamber just over two years ago and swore to uphold our Constitution—and I am more invigorated than ever before.
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I recently had a very real reminder of the preciousness of each moment. For the many Nebraskans whose livelihood depends on their stewardship of powerful animals, respect for that power is no mystery. I dropped my guard, and I was humbled by a reminder of that power. I am here before you today only by God’s grace. But a life-GIVING moment like the one I experienced can have the effect of clarifying one’s sense of mission.

It reminds one of how delicate life is, and to make the most of every moment one is given.
I’m grateful that almighty God has given me a second shot, and I continue on the road to recovery, instilled with a renewed commitment to spending my days fighting for the people of this state and, most importantly, making a positive difference.

I am grateful beyond words to my wife and our First Lady, Suzanne, for her constant love and care.
And I am grateful for the outpouring of support from so many Nebraskans, and I am especially grateful for the power of their prayers and for sending me the gift of the holy spirit.
Thank you.

Okay, no more horsing around.
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To all of the public servants in this room—and especially to our new senators and their families thank you for answering the call to public life and for taking on the burdens and sacrifices of service. The road ahead is full of long days and late nights, of time away from loved ones, and of sometimes trying debates and disagreements.

But with it comes the daily opportunity to leave the greatest place in the world even better than we found it for our kids and grand babies.

If we keep their futures and the betterment of this state as our north star—and set our own personal political fortunes aside—there is no limit to what we can achieve here.

I am excited to partner with both the veterans and the new arrivals to this Legislature.
And, I assure you, every moment will be worth it.
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I am pleased to report that the state of our state is extraordinarily strong. Our unemployment rate is among the lowest in America.

Our state’s population is growing faster than it has in decades, and our population has now topped two million people.

The engines of our economy are powering that growth—from our agricultural backbone to our powerhouse financial services and manufacturing sectors.

Our state government is smaller, more efficient, and more productive.

And, at long last, the tax burden on our citizens to pay for that government is less than it was two years ago.

Our natural resources are plentiful, our people are the hardest-working of anywhere on earth, and it will soon be morning again in America with the return of a presidency and congress committed to making this nation prosperous, secure, strong, and healthy again.

But even with these strengths, this legislative session affords us tremendous opportunities to take further steps forward.
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Simply put, the work of making Nebraska a low-tax state is far from over.

We should remember how we got here and why our tax system is so out of whack.
In the past, during a deflationary period, city, county, and state government in Nebraska grew at an excessive rate.

There was little fiscal restraint—and the result was bloated government growing unchecked on the backs of its people.

The burden is upon US to correct it NOW.

And to make Nebraska competitive with our neighbors, we must set the example at the state level.
Despite dire warnings of budget shortfalls, I have presented a budget that SHRINKS state spending by half a percent over the next biennium.

In fact, if you set aside increased and unreimbursed Medicaid spending required by the federal government, State spending in this budget is REDUCED by 2.3 percent.

Even as we make a multigenerational investment in the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and significantly increase our state commitment to supporting the mission of Offutt Air Force Base and U.S. Strategic Command, we have presented to you a fully balanced budget that CUTS spending.

We have achieved this historic spending restraint by having the courage to say no, and to focus on needs, not wants, and we will continue to have that courage.
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Not all are happy when we work to fix the tax system.

But as my dad used to tell us on the farm: what does happy have to do with it? We have work to do.
Our job as public servants is not to make everyone happy—much less any one industry or special interest group.

Our job is to focus on schools, public safety, roads, and critical services—the NEEDS of Nebraskans and nothing else.
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This year we will prioritize improvements to Nebraska’s school funding system. TEEOSA—Nebraska’s thirty-year-old formula for school funding—remains broken, burdening local communities and property tax payers in districts with limited resources and shortchanging our kids.

It would shock most Nebraskans to hear that 25 years ago, 226 school districts received state aid—by 2024, that number had shrunk to 60. That was not the intent with the original law.

We are going to have the courage to make serious and lasting fixes to this system. I will establish a blue-ribbon commission of experts to cut through the bureaucracy and vested special interests in our current school funding system and recommend a new model for Nebraska, which THIS Legislature will be able to consider and adopt.

And along with other technical changes to strengthen TEEOSA, Senator Hughes is championing a bill that will honor the state’s constitutional obligation to fund K-12 education by increasing the foundation aid per student across the state, consistent with the principle that school funding should ALWAYS follow the student, not the system.
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Although you wouldn’t always know it reading the papers, last year did result in real wins for Nebraskans struggling with our spiraling property tax crisis.

After years in which only some Nebraska homeowners took advantage of property tax credits, now ALL homeowners receive this relief.

For the first time in a generation, Nebraskans opened their property tax statements last month to find the amount they owed was LOWER than the year before.

Like many of you, I have been overwhelmed by the gratitude shown by so many Nebraskans for this relief.

For the first time EVER, the amount of property taxes local governments can collect will be capped, with commonsense flexibility to allow investments in public safety, police, and firefighters. But the work is not done, and we must do more this year.

There are leaders in this body like Senator Clements who continue the fight to eliminate Nebraska’s death tax.

By making commonsense adjustments to our tax code and making it more competitive with other states, we will invest two hundred million MORE dollars into Nebraska’s property tax credit fund. From Harrison to Omaha, Nebraskans of all stripes have recognized how out of whack our property taxes have become and what a burden they put on families, communities, and our ability to grow. They expect us to continue to work to solve it—and we WILL.
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To shrink government we must eliminate its obsolete parts and clean out its closets. Over the years, we have created far too many boards and commissions. Many have missions duplicative of those of other government agencies, or which have grown outdated over time. 

All add regulatory power or more government where none is needed. Especially at a time when we must tighten our belt and treat every nickel like manhole covers, we must continually assess which parts of government are still of use to the people.

The clock ran out on these efforts last session, but we must right size our boards and commissions with a commonsense, bipartisan bill that will eliminate or consolidate dozens of them. Speaker Arch has reintroduced a bill that will do just that.  I am grateful for his leadership on this important issue and I look forward to signing it into law.
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We have an opportunity to consolidate and streamline two of our major code agencies, as well.
Water is the lifeblood of Nebraska, and what we do to protect our QUANTITY and improve our QUALITY of water will be our legacy.

Through both our vast system of surface waterways and our treasured Ogallala Aquifer—we have a natural hedge against drought and therefore a God-given foundation for our agricultural and industrial economy in the toughest of times.

State government bifurcates its management of this resource through two separate departments—of Environment and Energy and of Natural Resources. By doing so, we needlessly divide our focus on water quality and quantity.  Given the interrelatedness of these two things, this makes no sense.

Further, it places Nebraska out of step and uncompetitive with the majority of our fellow states.
For our most treasured resource to remain the envy of North America for the next seven generations, a new model of stewardship is needed.

I am grateful to Senator Brandt for carrying an important measure that will combine DEE and DNR and establish the new combined Department of Water, Energy, and Environment. It will save costs, eliminate duplicative overhead, and streamline the mission of stewarding and protecting our natural resources and environment, and enhance collaboration, as well.

We have begun the work of consolidating all of the important work of these two agencies under unified leadership, and I look forward to working with you to carry that work to its completion.
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Now more than ever, it is vital that our state speaks with a unified voice on the national stage.
For three decades, under our current allocation of electoral college votes by congressional district, we have divided our voice and diminished our impact in presidential elections.

Not one of our fellow states except one has followed us down this path. Now is the time to fix it, and I thank Senator Lippincott for his leadership in giving it the priority it deserves.

With no presidential election right around the corner, there is no better time to dispassionately deliver on the will of a majority of the people of this state, honor our constitutional founding, and unify our voice in our most important exercise of national democracy.

I call on this body to end this thirty year experiment and pass winner take all THIS legislative session.
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In the modern world, it can be extremely difficult to protect our kids and culture from the harmful effects of ever-present social media, online bullying, and attacks on our values.

Every parent knows firsthand the worry of what their kids are being exposed to online and on screens.

Here in Nebraska, we are going to level the playing field between parents and Big Tech giants.
I am grateful to Senators Sanders, Hardin, Bosn, and Storer for introducing a package of bills to protect children from the harms of social media, ban phones in classrooms, and fix our child pornography laws to include AI-generated images.

We protect kids from tobacco, alcohol, tattoos under certain ages, and even restrict the age when kids can work—there’s no reason why we should not protect their mental health from the damage caused by social media, too.
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We must protect our kids—and especially our daughters and granddaughters—in other ways, too.
In a world where common sense has become uncommon, it remains our north star here in Nebraska.
It’s hard to understand, a small minority believe it is acceptable to allow biological boys to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and playing fields with girls.

This is unfair, unconscionable, and a recipe for predatory behavior.

Senator Kauth has brought back a new and improved Stand With Women Act, which will make sure that women’s spaces are protected FOR women.

I don’t want my granddaughters—or ANYONE’S daughters and granddaughters, for that matter, sharing a locker room with boys, and I know the overwhelming majority of Nebraskans agree. Pass the Stand With Women Act to my desk so we can protect common sense here in Nebraska.
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Last, but absolutely not least, we must take steps to protect both our farmers and producers AND the consumers of the food our state produces.

I’m grateful to Senator Jacobson for his work to protect farmers’ data from being taken advantage of by large corporate and big data interests. 

We have another opportunity to protect both our consumers and our agricultural producers in a single step.

The big food industry wants to flood our supermarket shelves with deceptively-named products that purport to be “meat” on par with what our ranchers, feeders, and farmers produce throughout Nebraska.

But in reality, this stuff is made in bio-reactors, and is a masquerade of the original, with unreliable protein, unknowable ingredients, and a flat-out dishonest label on the front.

The backers of these products are cut from the same cloth as the anti-farmer activists who want to put our agriculture producers out of business, and we need to recognize them as such.

I will never stop fighting for Nebraska’s farmers and ranchers, and I stand with Senator DeKay, who has introduced a strong bill to “beef up” our consumer protections and false labeling laws to eliminate these dishonest products from Nebraska’s grocery shelves.
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Last year, Nebraskans experienced countless examples of public service in its purest form.
2024 was a year when we felt mother nature’s wrath time after time.

Record blizzards, raging wildfires, torrential floods, and vicious tornadoes set the stage for a record ELEVEN declared emergencies throughout the year.

Many Nebraskans experienced the worst day of their lives, with homes destroyed, families in peril, and futures uncertain.

But in the darkest moments, the people of our state were at their best. Nebraskans helped Nebraskans, and the strength and resilience of our people shone through. One of the greatest privileges of the work as your Governor is to get to know firsthand the men and women who have answered the call to be the first to respond when crisis strikes.

With us today is Chris Potter, the chief of the Kennard Volunteer Fire Department from Washington County, whose fire and EMS responders were there for their community moments after a deadly tornado tore through it.

Please join me in welcoming him as a representative of all of our first responders across Nebraska. Also with us is the entire Nebraska Emergency Management Agency team.

These dedicated professionals are the hub of the wheel of our state’s emergency response system.
When the call comes in the middle of the night, they are the ones making it.

Their work is often unseen and unknown to many Nebraskans, but that in no way diminishes the dedication of their work or the pride with which they do it.

Join me in welcoming the NEMA team, honoring them, and thanking them.
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Many important issues will consume our focus throughout this legislative session. I pledge to you that we will be your partner through it all.

Thank you for your service to our state, and thank you to your families. God bless you and God bless the State of Nebraska.

Nebraska Appleseed Response to the Governor’s State of the State

LINCOLN, NE – Today, Nebraska Appleseed Executive Director Becky Gould issued the following statement in response to the Governor’s State of the State address:

"This morning, Governor Pillen shared his reflections on the state of the state and his priorities for the 2025 legislative session. Governor Pillen spoke about the importance of fighting for the people of Nebraska and making a difference in their everyday lives. We know that far too many Nebraskans are struggling right now to make ends meet.

There is important work to be done this year to implement policies that would deliver direct and lasting economic support to hardworking Nebraskans and their families. One extremely critical piece of legislation before senators this year would ensure thousands of families can maintain access to food through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). LB192 needs to pass this year to help Nebraskans afford food for themselves and their families.

We are discouraged to see legislation that would severely weaken Nebraska’s minimum wage law – the same law that an overwhelming number of Nebraska voters enacted in 2022. The will of the voters who endorsed this measure should be upheld so that Nebraska workers are paid a fair wage. We hope Governor Pillen will stand with Nebraska voters and oppose any attempts to undermine the minimum wage.

For everyone to have access to the good life, it’s critical that all Nebraskans are able to continue to put food on the table, afford child care, access safe and affordable housing, and earn a fair wage. We look forward to working with Governor Pillen, the Legislature, and community members to advance common-sense policies that support Nebraskans and strengthen our communities across the state."