Invitation to NE Taxpayers July 3 Tea Party

Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom and several other organizations are sponsoring an Independence Day Tea Party on Sat. July 3, from 11 AM to 3:30 PM at Walnut Grove Park, 152nd & Q Streets, in Omaha. Featured speakers are Cong. Lee Terry, State Sen. Pete Pirsch, Omaha City Council Member Jean Stothert, and several more. Also, patriotic music and skits, drawings for books and other prizes, and face-painting and balloons for the kids. HyVee will cater lunches. Rest room facilities will be available. Please bring friends & neighbors to help us celebrate our nation’s founding and heritage!

REVISE THE CITY OF OMAHA FIRE UNION CONTRACT

Public service unions are bleeding Omaha taxpayers dry, especially with their overly generous benefits. We urge all Omaha taxpayers to lobby their city council members to stand up to the Mayor and his union supporters and rein in excess spending.

BACKGROUND POINTS. 93% of the Omaha Fire Division budget operates under a union contract, unlike other city unions, which contributes to budget overruns and unnecessary spending. The Omaha Fire Division ran $4.5 million over budget in FY 2009.
Pull much of this percentage out of the contract.

Firemen sent home daily because of overstaffing but still paid. Too many fire captains. The office of fire chief increased from 8 to 11 employees, and 3 more battalion chiefs. 70% of fire trucks have 6-7 persons on board, though the current contract calls for only 4. To handle one kitchen grease fire, 3 fire trucks, a hazmat truck, a rescue squad, and 3 battalion chiefs arrived.
Add several hours to firefighter shifts. Save $700,000 by reducing top-heavy managerial staffing of the fire division, as recommended by the Matrix Study. Begin a personnel audit of this department. There are now 45 captains on ambulances, even though the Commission of Industrial Relations (CIR) recently stated clearly that these captains are not needed on the ambulances, now costing Omaha taxpayers up to $1 million annually.

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS.
· The accumulation of unused sick leave, vacation days, and personal days off that contribute to cashouts that equaled about $2 million this fiscal year needs rectification.
· Paying off annual leave cost $785,386 last fiscal year, so end this benefit.
· Lower the number of annual days of vacation, which employees must use or lose each year.
· No payment for accumulated sick leave or vacation time.
· No cash payments for unused sick leave at retirement.
· Never expiring sick leave days, vacation days, personal days, and disability income must discontinue and resemble the private sector.
· Cut the number of sick leave hours.
· Current employees continue to build compensation time in future years.
· Almost $3 million in comp time banking that city employees could cash out in 2010.
· No cashing out compensation time.
· No comp time calculated at 1 ½ times actual number of overtime hours worked.
· Contracts should force union employees to cash out existing comp time upon becoming management employees.
· No banking time off for hours worked when called back.
· No cashing in time-off banked hours.
· Paid holidays only after first 6 months of employment.
· No holidays for employee birthdays or on 9-11.
· No personal leave days or “open days.”
· No longevity pay.
· No taking of hitherto untaken furloughs, if employee is back at work at full duty.
· No specialty pay for paramedics.
· No bonus pay given if sales tax revenue increases, as mentioned in current contract.
· Fire Division overtime increased 18%, so trim overtime.
· Some firefighters enjoy outside employment with accompanying salaries and benefits.
· Revise and lower base pay standards in present contracts.
· Hire a professional labor relations legal service to negotiate union contracts.

Property Valuation Town Hall Meetings

Again this year, Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom is sponsoring a series of Property Valuation Town Hall meetings. These seminars, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, are all at Millard Library, 132nd & Westwood Lane in Omaha. The dates are Tue. June 1, Tue. June 15, Tue. June 22, and Tue. June 29. We will be showing a Power Point presentation instructing you how to challenge your higher property valuation on your home or business. We will have appeal forms available. Also, you can take home paper copy packets detailing our current outrageous valuation system and suggestions for complete reform. Please attend & bring friends and neighbors! This event is free and open to the public.

Tax Day Tea Party in Omaha

Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom and several other groups will sponsor a Tax Day Tea Party on Thu. April 15, from 5:00 PM = 8:00 PM at Walnut Grove Park, 152nd & Q Streets, in Omaha. Featured speakers are Att.Gen. Jon Bruning, State Treasurer Shane Osborn, and State Sens. Pete Pirsch, Tony Fulton, and Bob Krist, who will speak on crucial tax, spending, and government regulation issues of importance to us. There will also be patriotic music and poetry, balloons, and fun for all! Taxpayer watchdog stickers and tea bags for everyone! You can purchase hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pop, and ice cream. Please bring friends & neighbors and join us on April 15 to help take back our country and run it the way our Founding Fathers envisioned.

TEA PARTY EXPRESS COMING TO OMAHA

The Tea Party Express from California will visit Omaha on Thursday, April 1, as a guest of NE Taxpayers for Freedom and several other groups. Please bring family & friends to attend this event at Pavilion 5 at Lake Zorinsky, near the boat ramp, from 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM. Use entrance at 156th & F Streets. Guest speakers on the topics of “Voting Out the Bad Guys” and a “Campaign of One,” how to get active in upcoming candidate campaigns. Listen to good music, meet other fiscal conservatives, and just have plain fun! Bring lots of signs. We will have balloons for the kids! Fiscally irresponsible politicians in Washington and in Nebraska have failed the taxpaying citizens by their bailouts, reckless deficit spending, government takeovers in the private sector of the economy, Cap & Trade (Tax), socialist health care, and higher taxes. Taxpaying citizens are angry and frustrated. The Tea Party movement is not merely a temporary fad. We are mobilizing. Join other taxpaying citizens to take back our state and country! Volunteer to help by emailing netaxpayers@gmail.com.

Sen. "Ben-occhio" Nelson Betrays Nebraska

Nebraska taxpayers tired of his lies.
His phony explanations are drawing flies!
His lame logic really takes the prize.
His distortions of the biggest size.
To make excuses for Obama ties.

If the senator were a wee bit wise.
He’d vote NO on ObamaCare,
As we advise.

Lookin’ in the mirror after he did rise
In response to his many constituent cries.
He noticed much to his surprise
That his nose had grown to twice its size!
Ben-occhio!!

Senator Ben-occhio Nelson of Nebraska

BEN-OCCHIO WATCH:
MAKE SURE HE HEARS FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS.

Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom has begun a “Ben-occhio Watch” statewide project in response to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson’s endorsement and votes for socialist ObamaCare and other leftwing legislation. The objectives of this project are as follows: 1) to expose his liberal voting record on fiscal and regulatory issues though he tries to posture himself as a fiscal conservative to his Nebraska constituents; 2) continue a steady stream of critical commentary against his votes
by calling talk radio, writing guest editorials, and making the senator a frequent “guest” at our taxpayer tea parties; 3) confront him at public forums to ask him why he votes contrary to the wishes of Nebraskans; and 4) scour the state for a formidable challenger in the 2012 Nebraska senatorial election.

This project packet includes the following materials:
Directions to access his annual voting record on the NE Taxpayers for Freedom website.
Instructions on how to call talk radio shows.
Outline on how to write guest editorials.
Contact sheets for Nebraska TV and radio stations and newspapers.
======================================================================================
SIGN ME UP TO GIVE BEN-OCCHIO POLITICAL TEARS FOR THE NEXT 2 YEARS!

NAME _______________________________________
ADDRESS ____________________________________
CITY/ ZIP ____________________________________
PHONE ______________________________________
EMAIL ADDRESS _____________________________
HERE IS MY $8 DUES TO JOIN NE TAXPAYERS !
















NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR FREEDOM
P.O. Box 6452
Omaha, NE. 68106
Email: netaxpayers@cox.net

STREET NAMES TO HONOR OMAHA MAYORS

Democrat cheerleaders for former Mayor Mike Fahey are whipping up support to rename 7 blocks of Webster Street adjacent to the new baseball stadium for this mayor. Meanwhile, Republican boosters are hawking a proposed ordinance to rename another downtown street, perhaps in front of the Qwest Center, for former Mayor Hal Daub. Many Omaha taxpayers would question the idea of honoring former Mayor Fahey in this way. Recall that he is responsible for the horrific “spiking” of police and fire pensions by backloading huge pay raises and retirement benefits to a time when he would have left office. Property taxes will skyrocket to pay for these millions in future obligations. Omaha taxpayers undoubtedly will pay dearly in property tax hikes to manage and operate the unneeded, new baseball stadium, a monument that Fahey has bestowed upon himself like a Roman emperor. Also recall that former Mayor Daub granted too generous pay and benefit raises to the police union. Remember his assuring us that property taxes would not rise to pay for this monument to himself, the convention center and arena. 41% of your recent 10% property tax hike will fund the debt service, principal plus interest, of this complex. The Omaha city council will vote on Tuesday, Nov. 10, on these street renamings. Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom urges taxpayers to contact their city council members and urge them to do the following: 1) name an Omaha alley after Mayor Fahey, an alley filled with deep ruts and holes, like the ruts in which he left Omaha taxpayers. An alley strewn with loose garbage, just like he treated us taxpayers. 2) name all the street curbs surrounding the Qwest Center for former Mayor Hal Daub, because he kicked us taxpayers to the curb with his debt yoke from this facility.

JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST OMAHA TAX HIKES!

Omaha taxpayers, frustrated and angry, tell me that their Omaha city council members and Mayor listen to what they say but do not abide by their wishes to NOT raise taxes. Truthfully, only City Councilmen Chuck Sigerson and Garry Gernandt acknowledged the 2,500+ petition signatures we submitted from citizens opposing tax hikes and our list of over 70 suggestions for budget cuts. That 4 city councilmen voted to raise our property taxes 10% during this recession, as citizens are losing their jobs, working fewer hours, and depleting their savings, is unconscionable. No council member has taken the initiative to systematically reform the budgeting process, while other metropolitan cities already have adopted many of our budgeting suggestions. It is not sufficient to direct anger and frustration against public officials who fail to heed constituent concerns. We must channel our feelings, translate them into actual Taxpayer Tea Party enthusiasm, into positive and productive action. Time to lobby our Mayor and council to 1) change the city charter to make it easier to avoid tax increases and to cut spending; 2) urge them to work with us to actually make short-range and long-range strategic budget cuts; and 3) use suggestions from the Matrix study and Behrens-Tate study to better manage city financing and operations. The city council so far has proved impervious to our suggestions, so we must apply pressure. We are creating Committees of Correspondence in each city council district, like our colonial forefathers created them in their neighborhoods to fight and thwart burdensome taxes yoked onto them by the British Crown. Each district committee will have a team leader to coordinate activities, including email, phone, and fax campaigns to lobby city council members and Mayor. Our Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom website will show their voting records and their replies or lack of responses to committee members. We will organize neighborhood meetings and invite council members to come and face questions and comments from their constituents. Pictures of tea bags will go to the council to accentuate our displeasure. Our committees of correspondence can and will apply necessary pressure on council members. We will challenge them and our Mayor to implement a Back to Basics philosophy and program to rein in taxes, spending, and regulation. These officials must understand that higher taxes lower our savings and consumer spending rates, hurting businesses that consumers patronize. Lower business profits translate into lower employment, layoffs, and furloughs. Not content with raising our property taxes 10%, Mayor Suttle now wants to raise our city sales tax, burden us with a new garbage collection fee, and possibly slap us with another property tax hike! Don’t get angry; get active! Contact us at netaxpayers@cox.net to get involved today in the Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom Committees of Correspondence!

PROPERTY VALUATION TOWN HALL MEETINGS.

Our Nebraska Taxpayers for Freedom group will host the first in a series of Property Valuation Town Hall meetings on Wed. Sept. 16, from 6-8 PM at Millard Library, 132nd & Westwood Lane in Omaha. First, we will view a short Power Point presentation showing how our current valuation system is causing rural and urban property taxes to skyrocket. Then, State Sen. Pete Pirsch will discuss his LR 241, which would urge the Legislature to study a reform of our valuation system. Next, we will distribute our own issue paper on property valuation reform. During the remainder of the meeting, those attending can each speak for up to 3 min. about their ideas and suggestions for property valuation reform. We will transcribe all these comments and forward them to the Legislative Council at the Unicameral, so that state senators can use these suggestions to help them formulate remedial legislation in 2010. We invite all concerned taxpayers to attend with friends and neighbors.