Letter to Mike Flood, Speaker of the Nebraskan Legislature

Letter

Gov. Dave Heineman today delivered a letter to the Speaker of the Legislature, Mike Flood of Norfolk. Speaker Flood supports LB 599, a bill that would provide taxpayer funded benefits to illegal aliens. Gov. Heineman is opposed to taxpayer funded benefits for illegals.

The letter reads as follows:

Dear Speaker Flood:

I am extraordinarily disappointed with your support of taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens. LB 599 is about illegal immigration.

Taxpayer funds should not be used for illegal individuals. If this bill becomes law, Nebraska will become a magnet for illegal aliens. Nebraska will become the only state in the Midwest providing taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals. None of our neighboring states, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota, provide taxpayer-funded benefits to illegals.

Over the next decade, you will be spending the hard earned tax dollars of legal Nebraska citizens on illegal aliens instead of Nebraska citizens. That means millions of taxpayer dollars will be spent on illegals instead of increased funding for education and other Nebraska priorities.

Why should illegal aliens receive millions of taxpayer dollars when those funds should be used for increased state aid to education to the Norfolk Public Schools, the Omaha Public Schools, the Lincoln Public Schools and Nebraska's 246 other school districts?

Additionally, I am extraordinarily disappointed that you changed your position on LB 357. Increasing the sales tax by one-half-of-a-cent on working men and women in the City of Omaha and potentially other Nebraska cities is a huge mistake. This tax increase will make the State of Nebraska less competitive for jobs. This will hurt Nebraska's Tax Foundation ranking because state and local sales taxes are part of that calculation.

This tax increase would not only be on the working men and women of Omaha, Lincoln and other cities, but every Nebraskan who shops in these cities. Even though Nebraska is economically stronger than most states, many Nebraska families struggle from paycheck to paycheck. This tax increase doesn't help them at all. This tax increase is a step backwards.

Unless you and the Legislature reverse course, the legacy of this session will be one in which illegals were given preferential treatment over legal Nebraska citizens. This will be a session remembered for a tax increase on legal working Nebraska men and women while illegal aliens were provided taxpayer-funded benefits.

On behalf of Nebraskans, I am going to fight against your efforts to provide taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens and your efforts to increase taxes on legal Nebraska citizens. Please be advised that I will veto both bills if they reach my desk.

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