A year ago, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen took office as a relative political novice, touting minimal experience as an elected officeholder, reliant on a Legislature that included 15 first-year lawmakers to deliver on his agenda.
Now, after several policies he personally championed became Nebraska law in his first year as governor, Pillen is entering 2024 with political momentum and a Legislature full of reliable allies — enough for a filibuster-proof majority when they vote in unison.
With fewer than two weeks to go until the state's next legislative session begins, Pillen intends to yield his demonstrable power to address what he sees as two of Nebraska's biggest issues: property taxes and workforce challenges.
And while he did not rule out placing an emphasis on the kind of culture war issues that divided the Legislature in 2023, Pillen seems to have backtracked on , focusing instead on economic issues.Â
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"We all agree in Nebraska — every single one of us — property taxes are so out of whack, you don't even need to own property to be adversely effected," Pillen told the Journal Star. "It affects everybody, from poverty on through, because wherever we live — if we're renting something, we pay too much rent because the property taxes are too high."
The issue has been top-of-mind for months for Pillen, who in July created a working group to examine Nebraska's property valuations in Nebraska.
"The question I asked is, 'Do we want to just stop property tax from getting higher, or do we have to do more?'" the governor recalled.Â
Pillen said that he and the handful of lawmakers who were included in the group agree: "We have to do more."
"We have to cut property tax, and the adjective that was used was 'significantly,'" Pillen said.
In 2023, Nebraskans paid more than $5 billion in property taxes, he said — an increase of about $1.5 billion over the last six years. The governor hopes to reduce the state's collective property tax bill $3 billion.
"It's bold, it's courageous," the governor said. "But we are gonna get that done."
Pillen's plan to dramatically reduce property taxes comes as the state's future revenues live in doubt.
The state's “tax-cutting spree," which has included three rounds of income tax cuts over the past three years, will reduce state revenues by $3.1 billion over the next five years and will cost an estimated $1 billion annually by 2028, according to , a national think tank.
And the school aid fund that state lawmakers established and poured $1 billion into this year as part of an effort to reduce property taxes will dwindle faster than state officials initially projected and could be depleted as soon as the early 2030s, according to a November report from the state's Legislative Fiscal Office.
Pillen said he isn't concerned by such forecasts.
"The reality is because of the fiscally responsible tax policy that we're getting in, our economy is gonna keep growing and this Education Future Fund is sustainable," he said.
"The strength of our economy, the growth of agriculture, the growth of what's going on throughout our state — yeah, no, our Education Future Fund will be strong and vibrant. Not a shadow of a doubt."
The path to reducing state residents' property tax burden by 40% will include placing a "hard cap" on the growth of county and local governments, Pillen said.
With that mandate came an acknowledgment from Pillen that he is trying to reduce the size of state government, too.
"We have to challenge municipalities and counties — just like we are at the state level — to figure out new processes, to assess what we're doing," he said. "Some of the things we're spending money on for services for Nebraskans makes no sense."
Other members of the Nebraska's executive branch have been warning state agencies and boards for months that Pillen's agenda could target their own cash funds.
Secretary of State Bob Evnen, who in October said Pillen is "trying to cut the fat" out of state government, in November warned the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission that the governor will likely examine the commission's $890,000 reserve fund.Â
"It is apparent that our governor is absolutely dedicated to reducing the size of government," Evnen said at the commission's November meeting, noting that the commission should be prepared to justify the amount of money in its coffers.
"Everybody is gonna be looked at," he added.
Pillen has faced backlash in recent months over his executive order ending remote and hybrid work options for most state employees, which has prompted nearly 600 state employees to seek new jobs, according to union survey data.
The governor maintained that the order wasn't designed to cause an exodus of employees from state government, which before Pillen signed the order in November. But it could nonetheless aid his pursuit to reduce the size of his own branch.
"If we have positions empty for an extended period of time, looks to me like we're doing OK," he said. "We might've figure out some of the things we were doing really wasn't creating much value."
Pillen, too, said the state can't solve its workforce shortfall by throwing money at it.
The internal issue mirrors the one Pillen is trying to solve for the entire state, where there are around 60,000 unfilled jobs and where the unemployment continues to hover around 2%.
He intends to champion policies that will address child care and early childhood education access issues that have plagued the state in recent years, often keeping would-be workers at home due to mounting child care costs.
That could include incentivizing businesses to come up with innovative ways to be hospitable employers to workers with young children. The Lincoln-based sports video analytics company Hudl, for instance, opened an on-site child care center on the first floor of its corporate headquarters this year.Â
The governor hopes, too, to invest in trade schools and community colleges so Nebraska has plenty of electricians, welders, plumbers and animal technicians in the coming years.
Pillen said solving the state's labor shortage will also require workforce housing development.
"We don't have it solved," he said.
If the Legislature does focus on such economic issues in its upcoming 60-day session, it would mark a reversal for the nonpartisan body of lawmakers who spent much of last session locked in fierce debates over abortion and health care restrictions for transgender youth.
Pillen — who championed LB574, the bill lawmakers passed in May to restrict access to abortion at around 12 weeks and banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors — previously seemed intent on facilitating another acrimonious session in 2024.
The governor in June called the state's 12-week abortion ban, which he signed and celebrated, "unacceptable," .
But now, as organizers carry out a ballot initiative campaign intent on enshrining "a fundamental right to abortion until fetal viability" into Nebraska's constitution, Pillen's tone on abortion seems to have changed.
"Right now, today, we've got to make sure we protect every baby after 12 weeks of age," he said Friday. "We sure as heck can't go backwards. So that's my focus right now."
Pillen, though, rejected the implication that attempting to ban abortion outright might fuel the campaign meant to undo even the 12-week ban that his allies in the Legislature passed in May. And he said his position now "is not necessarily different" than it was in June, when he pledged to "end abortion."
"What it is is there's a new thing that's happened," he said, referring to the ballot initiative campaign. "I'm a believer that you've got to understand and see what cards you're dealt and try to assess the field, and that's where we're at today. That's where we're at today."
The abortion ballot initiative campaign, which , is among two such campaigns intent on undoing laws that Pillen championed and signed.
Nebraska's controversial law providing tax incentives for donors to scholarship funds for private and faith-based schools will already be in the hands of voters after a coalition of advocates known as "Support Our Schools Nebraska" gathered more than 100,000 signatures to get the issue on the 2024 ballot.
Pillen suggested the opposition to the "Opportunity Scholarships Act" was fueled by misinformation spread by the state's teachers' union.
Still, though Pillen himself won't appear on the November 2024 ballot, voters will offer a referendum on at least one of his administration's earliest accomplishments — if not two — when they weigh in on the scholarship act and, potentially, abortion access. Â
The governor declined to speculate about the potential outcome of the referendums and said the successful bid to put the scholarship act to voters didn't prompt any second thoughts over his support for the policy.
"So, no, I'm not gonna give up on it, I'm not gonna stop," he said. "Because it's about kids."