The proposed EPIC Tax resolution is the only measure that gives Nebraskans their property rights back. Our state senators put their own desire to prognosticate and play politics ahead of principle. Our country was founded on property rights. The original draft of the Declaration of Independence delineated "certain unalienable rights" as including, "Life, Liberty, and Property". Those three rights still are memorialized for posterity in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment specifies that "No person... shall be deprived of life, liberty or property".
How can that be with Nebraska's confiscatory taxes on property and income? If our state senators were thinking about that, it did not show in their voting. Of course many of them do think about it. However, their fear of the current system is not as great as the unknown. Sadly, many of them felt as if they were in the unknown because they had not done their homework. Sen. Erdman has done a yeoman's job of making materials available to them as well as his time for any questions or concerns they had. Debate started with solid momentum with Senator Erdman sharing a letter from the Attorney General stating that the EPIC constitutional amendment language did meet the single subject rule requirement to be placed on the ballot.
That statement fell on deaf ears as the senators asked questions that showed they hadn't taken this truly major tax reform seriously. We ended up with:
- 19 Yes 14 No
- 13 Present Not Voting
- 3 Excused Not Voting (Sens. Day, Lindstrom, Pahls)
The scoreboard looked like this: