“Falletta Conducts ‘Pines of Rome'”
Omaha, NE—Omaha Symphony welcomes guest conductor Maestra JoAnn Falletta, and guest violinist, Blake Pouliot, for a performance this weekend in homage to Rome. Maestra Falletta, the only female conductor of a top 40 orchestra, will lead the orchestra in the works of Berlioz and Respighi.
Road to Omaha – Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
Omaha, NE – On today’s episode of “Road to Omaha,” KVNO’s Brandon McDermott spoke with Oral Roberts head coach Ryan Folmar.
Questions about land set aside for conservation raised
April 4th, 2013
Lincoln, NE – The proposal is by Sen. Tyson Larson of O’Neill. It would affect grants by the Nebraska Environmental Trust, funded by lottery profits, to groups like Ducks Unlimited or the Nature Conservancy that purchase land.
[audio:https://kvnonews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/legiup4_2KVNO.mp3]If those groups then sell the land to the federal government, that takes it off the property tax rolls. Larson’s bill would require that the groups would have to come up with a way to replace those property taxes. The Environmental Trust currently puts such a requirement in its contracts with groups. Sen. Annette Dubas of Fullerton suggested that could be too rigid:
“We have allowed or provided for flexibility for the Trust board to give them the latitude that they may need to address each grant on its individual merits,†said Dubas. “ And when we start putting things into statute, that takes some of that flexibility away. Do you feel like we could create more problems than we would solve by doing this?†Dubas said.
Larson defended his proposal:
“My concern is that Environmental Trust boards change over the years because it is an appointed position by the governor,†Larson said. “ And with those changing boards, these good practices that the current Trust board has seen fit to include in the contracts could possibly change,†Larson added.
Other senators expressed concern that conservation groups could buy land with help from the Environmental Trust and then turn around and sell it to the federal government for a profit. Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege put it this way:
“I think it’s okay to send a message to people: Be careful about using the Environmental Trust to line your own pockets,†said Carlson.
Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery questioned the requirement of providing for replacement property taxes, if the Environmental Trust were to provide grants to a local government unit, like a Natural Resource District, or NRD:
State Senator Bill Avery of Lincoln (photo courtesy of Nebraska Legislature)
“Let’s say that an NRD in the Republican River Basin gets a Trust grant to retire acres in order to comply with the Republican River Compact,†Avery said, “and the NRD wants to transfer land to the Bureau of Reclamation or to the Corps of Engineers to manage the project. The NRD would have to pay taxes to the county. And we would have one government agency paying another government agency. I find that to be just a little awkward and unusual,†said Avery.
As debate continued into the late afternoon, senators adopted an amendment to take public entities out of the requirement to come up with money to replace lost property taxes. They then returned to debate on the bill itself.
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