Krusin' the Capitol
By Nebraska State Senator Lowen Kruse
2003
Week 7
February 23, 2003
Hi-
I was moving too slowly and a bug caught up with me. Hmmm. Should be more
positive. I was moving too quickly and caught up with a bug. Hope I soon
shall pass it. Pun intended. I intend to survive.
Probably time to summarize my grumpiness to date. Like with the bug, let's
call it "Good News."
Good news. The problem areas of our state finances are few in number. They
are:
--more prisoners every year
--more elderly in nursing care each year (5% annual increase)
--local school costs keep rising, and we are still very low in salaries
--Medicaid for children is rising fast
--health insurance rates are killing us all
The bad news: those items account for 56% of the budget. We are trying
every way we know to reduce all of the items except the elderly, but they
will still go up and of course cancel out a major share of the cuts we can
find in the other 44%. In a nutshell, that is our dilemma.
The gap is now $800 million, and still growing. We hope to cut nearly that
amount, but the increases listed above will leave about $300 m. to raise in
some way.
There are a few hot-button items down there and I will reflect on one each
week.
Casinos. O my. Everyone is in the act. The hearing went six hours. The
two bills that made it out would allow casinos, as controlled by the
legislature. Indians are in both. Both are constitutional amendments, to be
voted on by the citizens.
I voted for one last spring. More gambling is poison, but I felt we had to
trump the slots petition which was scheduled for the ballot. It was pure
disaster. Neither the public nor the Legislature would have any say about
how they operated.
I am dragging my feet on this one. The only point of it is to stop another
petition drive. People are nuts on this and I doubt any amount of education
will help. That is terribly sad to say, but old timers who said this is bad
news still said they would vote for it "So I won't have any more taxes."
The Omaha Chamber backed off a supportive stance to a neutral position.
Businesses are the main ones to be hurt financially.
To those who want a casino by the Convention Center, and there are many, I
simply ask, "Who will pay the bill?" They want to send the revenue to the
county (had better be every county if they intend it to pass) or to economic
development. Fine. We need both. But who will pay the bill? Sales and
income taxes, evidently.
I have looked at all the studies. Not one of them varies from the
conclusion: casinos are a net loss. There would be some value to have this
asset, a hotel and casino, by the convention center. But who will pay the
bill?
What screws up people's thinking is that it seems common sense if we pull the
Nebraska dollars going to Council Bluffs back across the river we will have
$$$. Not. If we pull half the trade away from the three over there, we will
get $30 million in revenue. But no more, as Omaha is not a place one flies
to, to gamble. And the 30 will be used up in increased Medicaid alone, as
the only way this will work is if a lot more Nebraskans go to the casino.
That is scary.
The biggest chunk of the money we pull back will go to Las Vegas, where it
goes now. One casino in Omaha, a big one, will suck out $145 million a year
in gamblers' losses. That comes out of revenue to our businesses. If we
thought we could bring an outfit to town which contributed $145 m. a year to
our economy, would we be excited?
The Goss study showed that it would produce more jobs in Douglas County, but
those jobs would come from surrounding counties. Many of the persons are now
going to Iowa to work in the casinos and would probably come back here. No
gain.
South Dakota had a professional accounting firm do an audit on their revenue
and expense after the casinos came in. The lose a net $144 million per year.
We are two and a half times their size, economically.
It is a real bind. People want it, and I respect that. But who will pay the
bill?
Hang in there.
Lowen
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