Flush with tax cuts signed into law just five weeks before the
Republican gubernatorial primary election, Gov. Dave Heineman says
he has delivered.
And, he says, he is already focused on more to come.
Tax cuts would be an annual component of his budget
deliberations, Heineman says.
“Every year I can do it, I’m going to try.”
During his 15 months in office, the governor says, he has helped
craft a prudent state budget that meets such vital state needs as
education while fine-tuning the final spending blueprint with
selective item vetoes.
And don’t forget the effect of this year’s tax cut package on
braking state spending, Heineman says.
In the governor’s view, Nebraska has become “a high-tax state”
over the past 15 or 20 years, slipping into a non-competitive
economic position through what he describes as “tax creep.”
Last year, he says, during his first months in office, he took
the first step to begin to reverse that drift.
Working with state Sen. Dave Landis and members of his Revenue
Committee, Heineman says, he helped lead the way to enacting a
modern job creation tax incentive package for Nebraska.
That economic development plan, dubbed Nebraska Advantage, also
represented the first phase of tax relief.
In his second year in office, Heineman says, he proposed more
than $400 million in tax cuts and tax relief investments over the
next three years. The 2006 Legislature scaled that package down
closer to $300 million and Heineman signed on to the agreement.
And last Thursday, he signed the bill providing targeted sales,
income and property tax relief.
What’s next?
If Heineman is elected to a four-year term, he says this is what
he has in mind over that period of time:
* Eliminate the estate tax.
* Lower taxes on small businesses and family farms.
* Eliminate the so-called “marriage penalty” inherent in state
income tax provisions.
* Lower state income tax rates, probably incrementally.
