Gubernatorial candidate Jim Pillen visited Alliance on Monday evening, speaking to a group of people gathered at the West Side Event Center about his vision for the State of Nebraska.
Pillen described his experience growing up in Nebraska, noting that living in the state has taught him the importance of instilling positive values.
“We learned about faith, family, hard work and the value of the dollar,” said Pillen. “I’m a real strong fiscal conservative. Man, it was pounded what a nickel was worth. So, I think that part is really a big deal. Grit, determination, collaboration and just never giving up, those are the traits that I think are really important for who the next governor is, and that’s what Joe (Kelly) and I will bring to the party as your governor.”
Pillen said his campaign is focused mainly on four issues: ensuring children have opportunities and education, keeping government out of peoples’ hair, promoting agriculture and standing up for values.
“It’s one thing all of us in Nebraska agree on is our kids are our future,” Pillen said. “We can never give up on a kid. That is our future and that is the way we can grow our state. We’ve got to stop two things: we’ve got to stop the brain drain and we’ve got to make sure we train and educate all of our kids. Half of our kids graduating high schools are not getting any further training.”
Pillen said it is important for community leaders and business owners to mentor high school students as they prepare for graduation and to give them opportunities to learn about career opportunities in their hometowns.
“In Nebraska, if we don’t lift those kids up, all our communities, a lot of us like to be Chamber of Commerce and pretend everything’s perfect,” said Pillen. “Guess what. We have challenges across the state. We have kids in poverty in every community. I believe we as business, farmers and ranchers, pull these kids up, get them trained for the 21st workforce, that’s how we can really grow our communities. I think it’s really, really important.”
Pillen said he wants there to be a shift in the way the state handles education, noting that school funding needs to be addressed.
“As a state, we’ve given up on kids,” Pillen said. “We’ve got 244 school districts in the state. This is an amazing number to me, 158 of the school districts get not a single penny from the state.”
Pillen hopes to address the high property taxes throughout the state with a balanced approach, changing how farms are valued for property taxes.
“If we could go income based, in a year like this when it’s dry, we can still handle property tax if it’s based on the productivity of the land, as an example,” said Pillen. “If we keep going on the market valuation as our farm prices keep going up, as homes keep going up, all that does is create more money to flow into our county government, and when government gets it, it spends it. So, we have to have a plan to stop spending money on all levels of government.”
Pillen said defending agriculture from various organizations is paramount to the success of the state’s economy. He also emphasized the importance of preserving values in the state, noting the effort to elect 35 conservatives to the State Legislature to ensure the ability to enshrine a pro-life status in Nebraska. He emphasized his pro-life stance is only regarding abortion, not in vitro fertilization, not about medical ethics, not about patient-doctor relationships and not about preventative contraception.
“It’s about helping young moms choose life and love, and about stopping the murder of babies growing in a mother’s womb,” Pillen said.
Pillen said there is a need for people to be engaged in their local governments, especially when it comes to voting. He noted the race for governor is not over, encouraging people to vote.