Hopefuls have priorities, too

The two men hoping to succeed Dodge County’s current representative in the Nebraska Legislature see the state’s budget priorities a little differently.

“I don’t necessarily agree with the focus being set with the state budget,” said Richard Register, a Fremont attorney who has filed to seek the nomination for the District 15 seat. “I don’t disagree with the goal: Reserve money and tax relief, but I’m concerned that we need to look more long term and take advantage of some issues now.”

Charlie Janssen, a Fremont businessman and nephew of the current office holder, said there are a couple of priorities that he sees as important in this year’s session.

“I think the top

priorities are dealing with the water rights with Kansas and revisiting the Learning Community,” Janssen said. “You think that’s Omaha, but that affects us. A lot of people haven’t paid attention to that around here. It could be several years before it affects us. We need to keep an eye on it. A portion of Fremont Public Schools does fall into Douglas County.”

Register said now is a perfect time to take a hard look at state government as a whole to find inefficiencies that waste money and could eat into the projected $465 million cash reserve.

Specifically, two areas where he said needs evaluated are Medicaid and public education.

“We need to take a good, hard look at those,” Register said. “We need to go back to zero-base budgeting, which would force the state government to look at the entire way it finances. We need to look at other states in the way they fund education. A 50-50 split between state and local governments can work better than our current way of funding. That would make us more competitive with other states around us.”

Janssen said tax incentives are another way to continue to attract new companies and new families into Nebraska.

“I think we have to watch the tax incentives that have been proposed to make sure they work appropriately,” he said. “A lot of people can talk about economic development. I’ve been in those programs with RTG Medical. I can tell people that I’ve been on this road already. I’m not just looking at a map. I’ve driven that road. I know how these programs work. I think I can tweak these programs better than most people because I’ve seen them work first hand.”