Search Results for: heineman

Questions I would like reporters to ask about Heineman’s tax plans (UPDATED)

Posted by neal

Please link me in the comments if these questions are being addressed and I’ll update this post accordingly, because all I’ve been seeing so far is a bunch of cheerleading masquerading as news.

1. If the tax burden on corporations and high-income taxpayers (referred to colloquially by Heineman and co. as “small businesses”) must be lowered in order to make Nebraska more “business friendly,” yet if the proposals are revenue neutral, who will be paying more to make up the difference?

2. Since the alleged economic benefits of lowering taxes on corporations and high-income taxpayers are accepted without any burden of proof being placed on those making the claims (even within a story in which companies have already moved here to take advantage of Nebraska’s offerings), what would be the economic impact of raising the taxes on those who will pay the difference required to make the proposals revenue neutral?

3. How does eliminating state income taxes and raising state sales taxes translate to higher tax receipts for cities? You’d think a story dedicated to that would explain the mechanism for reaching such a profound conclusion. What is the connection between an increase in state sales taxes and city tax receipts? Are we supposed to believe that people whose sales taxes are now higher are suddenly going to feel compelled to spend more money?

Of course, reporters are instead busy spreading completely unsubstantiated spin about the magical effects of the tax shift, referring to a regressive tax shift as ‘reform’ with no attibution, or reminding us (yet again) that Heineman was an Army Ranger.

UPDATES!
From the good people of Twitter (and if you’re not following me, do it):

To which I responded that this assumption ignores the effects of regressive consumption taxes on levels of consumption, to which Dave replied:

Why is it not a bigger deal that Governor Heineman was caught lying to reporters?

Posted by neal

In the Lincoln Journal Star, reporter Algis Laukaitis quoted Governor Dave Heineman summarizing a closed-door meeting of midwest governors:

OMAHA — Fearing a repeat of the flood devastation that occurred this year along the Missouri River, governors from five states asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday to take a pre-emptive and unprecedented step and lower the level of Garrison Dam in North Dakota this fall.

[…]

“The No. 1 priority we are all concerned about is flood control,” said Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, who hosted a meeting of governors at the Gallup Campus in Omaha on Monday.

Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer didn’t attend, instead phoning in by conference call. Heineman clearly didn’t realize that Schweitzer had allowed reporters to sit in on his end of the conversation, because it turns out Heineman is lying about what happened.

From the Associated Press:

Schweitzer, who allowed reporters in his office for what was expected to be a private meeting, phoned into the Omaha conference in which governors from Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota and South Dakota took part. […] The host, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, clashed several times with Schweitzer during the meeting.

Afterward, Heineman told reporters in Omaha who were not allowed into the meeting that “the No. 1 thing we all agree to is flood control.”

There was no unanimity on that topic during the meeting, however, after Schweitzer strongly challenged the notion of it as a priority.

One can only speculate as to why — the appearance that he accomplished something in the meeting he called, maybe? — but Heineman just flat-out lied about what happened in his failed attempt at a closed-door meeting. Via his staff, he had no comment on the discrepancy.

The arguments between Schweitzer and Heineman seemed to be pretty weird. As reported in North Dakota’s Plains Daily:

…a disagreement between Schweitzer and Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman erupted over the sharing of information and Schweitzer’s attendance at the meetings. Schweitzer, who has a background in soil science, indicated that he was the most qualified of the governors to comment on flooding issues and wanted to make a Power Point presentation to the meeting. Schweitzer alleged that the other governors weren’t “getting good information” and “weren’t basing their information on the latest data.”

Because of this Schweitzer said he “didn’t see much sense to the meeting.”

“If you show up you could bring that damn data with you and share it with us,” said Heineman who later added the meeting site did not have the capability for Power Point presentations.

“Don’t you have electricity?” Schweitzer asked.

That’s our governor!

DN: Convicted killer gives tours of the Governor’s mansion… UPDATED: Heineman’s office cuts off DN access… UPDATED AGAIN: Governor’s office reverses decision

Posted by neal

From today’s Daily Nebraskan:

Timothy Haverkamp points to an unfinished pineapple in a design that’s carved in the grand staircase at the governor’s mansion, and explains the artist left it incomplete out of superstition.

Lines on the rug below his feet represent the state rock, he says, and the abstract painting in the sitting room off the foyer depicts Lincoln’s landmark buildings.

Haverkamp rattles off details about each room without notes. The stories and facts are rooted in his mind after leading hundreds of tours through the governor’s residence.

He has worked at the mansion for years. He is also a murderer…

Haverkamp was one of five people who, along with cult leader Michael Ryan, shot off the fingers of Richardson County farmer James Thimm, sodomized him with a shovel and then shot him in the head after throwing him in an open grave.

He now takes your children on tours through the governor’s mansion, essentially unsupervised.

Interestingly enough, as reporter Rachel Albin points out, the governor’s office not only doesn’t want this information publicized, but they wish to respect the rights and privacy of this convicted killer.

Can you believe this is the same governor’s office issuing blistering statements against the Nebraska Supreme Court’s decision to rule the electric chair unconstitutional? The governor who demands a vehicle for the most permanent and irreversible form of punishment is concerned about a convicted murderer’s privacy to protect that murderer’s ability to live some kind of a normal life.

That Dave Heineman is one mercurial fellow. Great work, Daily Nebraskan.

UPDATE!! As reported by UWIRE, Heineman’s office has cut off Daily Nebraskan access to the governor!

Press contacts told newspaper staff members that no one would comment to the newspaper in the future, it would be taken off an e-mail list and its staff members would not be allowed to attend press conferences in the Capitol — especially the Governor’s office, said Josh Swartzlander, editor of the Daily Nebraskan.

When contacted by UWIRE, Jen Rae Hein, spokeswoman at the Nebraska Governor’s office, would not respond to questions regarding severing ties with the student journalists and the publication. She did not offer any additional comment and said she would contact UWIRE if she had a comment.

The situation is reminiscent of when Tom Osborne banned the DN from covering NU football practice back in 1995.

as reported in Editor & Publisher:

Osborne met with the team and soon afterwards, Daily Nebraskan students were banned from covering the team’s practice sessions, creating a national media uproar. The Chicago Tribune, for example, warned Osborne not to bite the journalistic hands that fed him.

“Coaches like Osborne, whose sports depend . . . on free publicity are happy to be open when the news is favorable but . . . clam up defensively when criticism comes,” the Tribune said.

The furor convinced Osborne to slightly reverse his field. He rescinded the no practice ban against the student journalists, but refused to allow Daily Nebraskan reporters to interview him or his coaches.

UPDATE!! Now according to today’s Daily Nebraskan, Heineman’s office has backed down.

[Heineman’s Deputy Communications Director Ashley Cradduck] then said the Daily Nebraskan would no longer receive press releases from the governor’s office and the newspaper’s reporters would be banned from covering the governor’s press conferences at the State Capitol.

If Daily Nebraskan reporters were at one of the governor’s press conferences at the Capitol “I would ask the security to see if they could remove (the reporters),” Cradduck said.

When the Daily Nebraskan tried to get a written copy of the new policy, Heineman’s Communications Director Jen Rae Hein refused to go on record with a comment.

She then hung up the phone.

Later in the afternoon, the governor’s office clarified its position by saying Daily Nebraskan reporters would be allowed to cover any kind of press conference at the Capitol, but they would still not receive e-mailed press releases.

Celebrate Ranger week

Posted by neal

I think the World-Herald‘s Paul Hammel must’ve lost a bet.

March 14:

The conservative Republican and former Army Ranger told the business group that he was prepared for the “fight” of his life to get some cuts in state income tax passed this year.

March 15:

Gov. Dave Heineman, a former Army Ranger, ratcheted up his rhetoric Wednesday in support of his tax-cut package in its new, slimmed-down form.

March 19:

But Heineman, a former Army ranger, is encountering more flak as he tries to ford the beach of tax relief.

March 20:

Some observers weren’t giving Heineman’s proposal much of a chance this year, but the former Army Ranger dug in his heels, and State Sen. Abbie Cornett kept pushing to see what the Legislature’s budget-writers would accept.