photo by Theodore Wiesehan Candidates for the Nebraska legislature Curt Friesen (left) and Greg Adams were in Seward on Sept. 10 for a forum sponsored by the Seward Area AARP Chapter and AARP Nebraska.

by Theodore Wiesehan

    While Curt Friesen of Henderson and Greg Adams of York disagreed over state policy related to education, the two candidates for the District 24 seat in the Nebraska State Legislature echoed each others' positions throughout much of the Sept. 10 candidates' forum at Seward's Lied Senior Center.
     The forum, open to the public, was sponsored by the Seward Area AARP Chapter and AARP Nebraska.
     Staunch disagreement arose over the passage of LB 239, a bill allowing undocumented immigrants in-state tuition rates at Nebraska colleges if the student lived in the state the last three years, graduated from a Nebraska high school and is applying to become a permanent resident.
     "As long as you're an illegal immigrant, the opportunity of that education that you're going to receive, you're still going to be leaving the country sooner or later - whatever country you're from," Friesen said, expressing his disagreement with the bill, "because you cannot stay here."
     Friesen argued that services for illegal immigrants place too much burden on the state.
     "As long as you're an illegal immigrant I don't believe that you're entitled to the same services that a legal immigrant is entitled to. We have enough costs to bear," Friesen said. "I don't feel that we should be required to educate them or provide those other services when they're illegal immigrants."
     Adams countered that if undocumented students are planning to stay in Nebraska the state is better off ensuring they are educated citizens.
     "This is about educating kids that have been in the state of Nebraska for three years," Adams said. "They have graduated from and attended a Nebraska high school. Those kids want to go to a University of Nebraska or a Wayne State and I say we educate them.
     "I believe they're probably going to stay in our state. I don't think they're going to turn around and leave, and if they're going to stay here I think we're better off if they are educated, productive citizens."
     In another controversial education issue, LB 126, the bill that merged Class I school boards, proved a bone of contention for the two men.
     While both candidates agreed that, contrary to popular perception, the bill does not force the closure of Class I schools, but instead consolidates the governance of the school districts, they disagreed on the bill's merits.
     "Had I been in the legislature this last session I would have voted in favor of LB 126," Adams said. "As a matter of fact, if you read the bill in detail, what the bill spends more time on is building barricades to closing Class Ones rather than encouraging the closing of Class Ones.
     "There is also a point where if we want property tax relief we have to make some hard decisions."
     Friesen argued against the bill, painting the issue as a battle between local and state control.
     "I would have voted against it," he said. "I do not feel that the state should mandate mergers. I still think it's a local issue.
     "If you want property tax relief it's a local issue -- at that point you'll decide to merge. The tools were there, I believe, to allow you to merge, so to me, LB 126 should not have been passed."
     The increasing cost of higher education did not elicit as much dispute, as both candidates played down a recent failing grade on the affordability of Nebraska higher education from a recent study by the National Center for Public Policies. Still, differences in outlook emerged between the two.
     "My children chose much more expensive colleges yet, so it's hard to find sympathy, but I guess I would," Friesen quipped. "I think the university system is still attainable to those kids that want to work hard and attend those schools...I think more and more relying on state government to pay that tab -- more parents maybe need to plan better.
     "My children are all going to be graduating with some college debt and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. When I came back to farming the first thing my dad made me do was get into debt. I wouldn't spend money foolishly that way."
     While Adams concurred that the state had a greater obligation to K-12 education than to higher education, he pointed out that university costs also factor into the migration of young adults away from Nebraska.
     "Our university system is critical to the state -- the research and the jobs that it creates," he said. "If we want to keep kids at home, we better take a very serious look at what it's going to take to keep them in our colleges and universities, because otherwise they surely are going to step across the border and go someplace else."
     Adams was also slow to make a crisis out of increasing student debt.
     "The debt at the other end is growing," he said, "but at the same time the jobs that these kids are coming out and taking are also some pretty substantial jobs with some pretty good salaries."
     The candidates held positions very similar to one another on other topics broached, including property tax relief, health insurance coverage, long-term care and Medicaid, the decline of family farms and water policy.
     In the arena of property tax relief, both suggested shifting some of the burden of education funding to state sales and income taxes and cutting back on other state spending.
     Both, however, vehemently opposed the proposed state constitutional amendment incorporating a spending cap. They agreed that it would hamstring the effectiveness of the legislature and the proper way to control the spending of elected officials is through the election process.
     Adams and Friesen both said that government incentives could encourage businesses to provide health insurance for more Nebraskans.
     Adams said the legislature should seek ways to make it easier for small employers to provide insurance for their employees.
     Friesen suggested the state government provide regulatory breaks and tax breaks to businesses that do not offer health care insurance so that "maybe that's something they (the business) could do down the road."
     He also said that increased economic development and demand for workers would increase -- via competition -- benefits offered by employers.
     The candidates agreed that the state should provide more funding for local and community based in-home and long-term care to reduce the burden of institutional care costs on the state's Medicaid budget.
     Both also agreed that there was not much the state government could do to reverse the decreasing numbers of family farms other than provide a more favorable tax climate for producers.
     Adams and Friesen also agreed that water policy will be one of the primary issues over the next decade and that all decisions should be made with cooperation between irrigators, industries and municipalities.