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Nebraska’s primary election day is one week away. Six candidates are hoping to secure the Republican nomination for governor. Sal Hougin, Gary Rogge, Jacy Todd and John Walz are vying for the spot. They either did not meet our qualifications for an interview or did not respond for an interview. However, candidate Sheila Korth-Focken and incumbent Jim Pillen sat down with KETV. Pillen said his work is just getting started across the state, and he wants to continue serving his constituents. “We have some great big, hairy, audacious things we believe we can do, and we’re making progress. But I sure as heck not satisfied,” Pillen said. “I have an extraordinary passion for the state and the people in Nebraska. I’ve been I’ve been out on the campaign trail meeting Nebraskans for almost six years now. Been everywhere, have relationships everywhere. I listen to the people. I’m a very conservative person. We’ve done what we said. We do. We have a, the track record.”Korth-Focken said she knew she wanted to run for office 20 years ago, and with a history of working for federal and local governments and with experience in agriculture, she said she’s confident she will represent the voices of Nebraskans as governor. “There were several things that I saw that our state needed help with regarding children, veterans and taxes, and spending in particular. That’s why I decided to run right now,” Korth-Focken said. “I’ve been working on federal policy my entire career, and I also have experience working in local government. I’ve balanced the budget for local government in my hometown of Randolph, here in Nebraska. And I’ve cut wasteful spending, and I’ve lowered taxes at least somewhat in that capacity.”Both Pillen and Korth-Focken agree more needs to be done to lower property and income taxes. Pillen said they’ve already made progress on addressing the issue. “We did historic income tax cuts year one,” Pillen said. “We’ll be down to 3.99. Am I satisfied? No. We’ve got to take income tax lower as well. We have to shrink government and get our tax policy. So we’re competitive…I believe it’s really simple. We have to quit being ideologists…The only way you stay in business is you got to cut spend. There’s no place in those 40 years that anybody cut spend. We’ve been duped. It’s a tax shift.”Korth-Focken said there’s a laundry list of things that can be cut to help provide tax relief. “Earmarks, like special interest money that is not directly going to building roads or teaching children in school. These are all things that can be cut without affecting essential services that we all rely on every day,” Korth-Focken said. “So many people need that tax relief.”Another major focus is balancing the state’s budget. Korth-Focken said she’s laid out a plan on her website of what action she would take. “I have released over $2 billion in cuts that we can make to spending and again, all common sense ways to trim spending so that we can reduce taxes and that we can balance the budget,” Korth-Focken said. Pillen said the state does not have a budget deficit. He said it is a predicted revenue shortfall, and he said they’ve been balancing the budget by decreasing spending. “We’re Triple-A credit-rated as a state. there’s only other 15 other state, 14 other states. We’re 15. So, we don’t have a budget crisis. We have a spending problem where decreasing the spending,” Pillen said. Both talked at length on a variety of topics. You can find more about their priorities on their respective campaign websites.
Nebraska’s primary election day is one week away. Six candidates are hoping to secure the Republican nomination for governor.
Sal Hougin, Gary Rogge, Jacy Todd and John Walz are vying for the spot. They either did not meet our qualifications for an interview or did not respond for an interview. However, candidate Sheila Korth-Focken and incumbent Jim Pillen sat down with KETV.
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Pillen said his work is just getting started across the state, and he wants to continue serving his constituents.
“We have some great big, hairy, audacious things we believe we can do, and we’re making progress. But I sure as heck not satisfied,” Pillen said. “I have an extraordinary passion for the state and the people in Nebraska. I’ve been I’ve been out on the campaign trail meeting Nebraskans for almost six years now. Been everywhere, have relationships everywhere. I listen to the people. I’m a very conservative person. We’ve done what we said. We do. We have a, the track record.”
Korth-Focken said she knew she wanted to run for office 20 years ago, and with a history of working for federal and local governments and with experience in agriculture, she said she’s confident she will represent the voices of Nebraskans as governor.
“There were several things that I saw that our state needed help with regarding children, veterans and taxes, and spending in particular. That’s why I decided to run right now,” Korth-Focken said. “I’ve been working on federal policy my entire career, and I also have experience working in local government. I’ve balanced the budget for local government in my hometown of Randolph, here in Nebraska. And I’ve cut wasteful spending, and I’ve lowered taxes at least somewhat in that capacity.”
Both Pillen and Korth-Focken agree more needs to be done to lower property and income taxes.
Pillen said they’ve already made progress on addressing the issue.
“We did historic income tax cuts year one,” Pillen said. “We’ll be down to 3.99. Am I satisfied? No. We’ve got to take income tax lower as well. We have to shrink government and get our tax policy. So we’re competitive…I believe it’s really simple. We have to quit being ideologists…The only way you stay in business is you got to cut spend. There’s no place in those 40 years that anybody cut spend. We’ve been duped. It’s a tax shift.”
Korth-Focken said there’s a laundry list of things that can be cut to help provide tax relief.
“Earmarks, like special interest money that is not directly going to building roads or teaching children in school. These are all things that can be cut without affecting essential services that we all rely on every day,” Korth-Focken said. “So many people need that tax relief.”
Another major focus is balancing the state’s budget.
Korth-Focken said she’s laid out a plan on her website of what action she would take.
“I have released over $2 billion in cuts that we can make to spending and again, all common sense ways to trim spending so that we can reduce taxes and that we can balance the budget,” Korth-Focken said.
Pillen said the state does not have a budget deficit. He said it is a predicted revenue shortfall, and he said they’ve been balancing the budget by decreasing spending.
“We’re Triple-A credit-rated as a state. there’s only other 15 other state, 14 other states. We’re 15. So, we don’t have a budget crisis. We have a spending problem where decreasing the spending,” Pillen said.
Both talked at length on a variety of topics. You can find more about their priorities on their respective campaign websites.
