Krusin' the Capitol
By Nebraska State Senator Lowen Kruse
2005
Week 2
January 15, 2005
Hi
I t i s c o l d. For those not in Nebraska, the forecast this week was
simple: "Single digits for several days." Builds character.
Our response to the governors' budget [possessive is intentionally plural] is
the same behind the scenes as on record. We are impressed. Can already see
the change and welcome the positive tone. It is a tough budget, but does a
lot of the necessary.
Low level waste liability, I predict, will be satisfied with one transfer
from cash reserves to an isolated account this August. News stories will be
saying "One lump sum payment" and "Four payments." Really does not matter. Our
fiscal officer can figure out if she can save money by paying now or by
collecting some interest. For us, it is one transfer.
That is bad news for property taxes, which would have gotten the relief from
improved revenue. A tax on utilities, which get some of the money, was the
option. But everyone is so eager to get this mess behind us that I am confident
of the decision. We still do not have a place to send our nuclear waste. So
we store it here. Among us. Without a safe structure.
However, the good news for property taxes is that we will fund a $60 million
increase in payments to K-12 schools each of the next two years. I am not
impressed with the levy limit and would cheerfully remove it. But too many think
it is doing something, so therefore I guess it is. Emotionally.
The limit is 1.05 and is supposed to back up a nickel in two years. With the
low level payment, it will not. The rate has exceptions of course. Our levy
is over 1.25, and Millard is over 1.32, with another bond about to be voted.
The limit is often counter-productive. For example, school boards hold back
on maintenance and then float a bond for a new building. Which increases the
tax load.
I have dropped in three bills that would appear to challenge the budget,
which is not comfortable to do as the Vice Chair of Appropriations. However, the
bills are to get senators and the public to talk about specifics instead of
complain about generalities. For example, if we hold down our rate to rest
homes the cost shifts to families who are paying privately. I say let's talk
about that.
I have moved offices. Now am just inside the west doors, to the left: Room
1021. Private, and much more room. Our walls are 14 foot high. That is a
lot of yellow, the only color the paint crew buys. Anyone good at a mural? It
is fun that Senator Tyson is our predecessor. Tyson cultivated saying
"NOOOO." To everything. Several have suggested ways of removing the spirits which
must have controlled him. Now if you all come at midnight on February
30........
I will close with a poem from Senator Chambers. He is gifted in managing
words.
On the playground, in the sandbox,
With her little hand,
Little Lilly built a castle
From the moistened sand.
First she scooped and then she patted,
Formed and shaped each part.
When the castle was complete,
Joy engulfed her heart.
To the grown-up eyes of cynics,
Who, in judgment stand,
Lilly's handiwork was merely
Shapeless mounds of sand.
Who said every miracle -- must
Be a noble thing?
Who said every miracle -- makes
Each heart soar and sing?
Too it is a miracle -- how
Life's reversals can
Transmogrify angelic Child
Into embittered Man.
Let the sweet Child build sand castles,
Play at Blind Man's Buff;
Stand aside -- for LIFE will level
Castles, soon enough . . . . .
"Transmogrify" is the genius work here, and the reality which startles.
"Miracle" is the mischief maker. Transmogrify means to transform in a bizarre or
unexpected way. The embittered man was a sweet child. Was the radical change
a miracle? Of our own making? Life has many miracles. Do our miracles mess
with the Creator's plan for miracles of health and wholeness?
Wonderingly,
Lowen
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