U.S. Senator Mike Johann’s weekly column

The work of 112th Congress will be tremendously important to the lifeblood of our state’s economy—agriculture. Between preparing the next farm bill (the current one expires in 2012) and checking the power of an overreaching Administration, the Senate Agriculture Committee will be engaging in issues of great significance to our state’s farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, and rural communities. In anticipation of this important work, I’ve outlined to the top members of the committee my objectives and goals to ensure American ag producers remain globally competitive and continue to lead the world in food and energy production.

About five years ago, I was touring the country as Secretary of Agriculture, using what I heard from producers as the foundation for writing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s proposals for the 2008 farm bill. I appreciated the insight that folks from across the countryside provided for that undertaking, and I look forward to again deepening my discussion with the ag community about the future of farm policy. The Senate Agriculture Committee will continue to hold hearings to examine various farm bill provisions; I am hopeful that the Committee will utilize the expertise of Nebraskans throughout the process and perhaps even hold a field hearing in our state.

The Agriculture Committee will also play a central role in overseeing and counterbalancing the increasingly stifling regulatory efforts of the Obama Administration. Over the last two years, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been especially busy proposing new ideas to regulate—and unnecessarily interfere with—agriculture. Among EPA’s many misguided efforts are the development of a duplicative permitting scheme for pesticides, consideration of more stringent standards for dust, and even the regulation of milk spills. In all of these endeavors, the Administration has shown a disregard for both common sense and the realities of life as a farmer. I take the Senate’s oversight responsibility very seriously and will tirelessly work to rein in these ill-advised regulatory efforts. (post continued)

It’s a new year and while our economy isn’t out of the woods yet, we’re seeing more daylight than we have and a lot more than two years ago at this time when every month about 500,000 Americans were losing their jobs.

Part of why we’re getting back on the right track are major tax cuts Congress passed that enabled Nebraskans to keep more of their own money. They’ve spent it in thousands of ways locally, and so have people in every state, that have helped the economy nationally.

Tax Cuts in Recovery Act Saved Nebraskans More than $346 million

You may not realize that Congress passed those tax cuts because they were part of the Recovery Act enacted in early 2009 and got lost in all the usual political noisemaking in Washington.

The Recovery Act’s Making Work Pay tax credit kept $9 million each week in the hands of Nebraskans. That tax credit went to more than 600,000 workers and working families, saving them $346 million in 2009 and millions more in 2010. That’s money Nebraskans spent on things like food and clothing and appliances, but also on business investment, boosting jobs and economic growth.

Have You Heard of the New Tax Cuts?

The Making Work Pay tax credit expired at the end of last year. Just in time, Congress approved a new major tax cut that will help every worker this year and next.

Again, you might not have heard much about this new tax cut. It was tucked into the big bipartisan tax bill that got a lot of attention over whether to extend all of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003 that were expiring at the end of the year. I’m glad we came together to make sure that taxes don’t go up while we are still digging out of the recession. (post continued)

Governor Dave Heineman’s Weekly Column

I want to share with you details of the budget recommendations for FY 2012 and 13. I recently proposed a balanced budget without raising taxes. Additionally, I’ve proposed several job and education-related investments aimed at enhancing Nebraska’s economic momentum.

My first proposal is a Talent & Innovation Initiative based on recommendations provided in a 2010 comprehensive review of Nebraska’s economic climate by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and the findings of a Legislative Task Force.

The initiative involves creating a statewide internship program to increase the number of college and university students interning with Nebraska businesses; providing competitive grants to expand small business and entrepreneur outreach; creating a site and building development fund that combined with community funding would increase the number of industrial and commercial sites available for new business projects; and incenting investment in small, Nebraska based startup companies through an Angel Investment Tax Credit Program.

Economic success and education success are linked together. We need both. We are focused on creating higher paying jobs and developing a more highly educated workforce. We want our graduates and young professionals to be prepared for high-quality, high-skill jobs with dynamic companies doing business right here in Nebraska.

I am proposing a one-time investment of $25 million to accelerate the development of the University of Nebraska’s Innovation Campus in Lincoln. With University of Nebraska’s pending move to the Big Ten, university leaders have an outstanding opportunity to significantly increase student enrollment, expand the university’s research efforts, and develop partnerships that will increase job opportunities for Nebraskans. This investment is needed now, not five years from now. (post continued)

Since yesterday’s post stating that we had over 1000 friends on facebook, we’ve added more friends.  Apparently, some people saw our post and now we have over 1100 friends.  Don’t worry, we’re not going to post every time we add some facebook friends, but this response was amazing.

Fremonter.com has over 1000 friends on Facebook, and we’re going for 2000.  Most of our friends live in and around Fremont, or have a Fremont connection, such as they used to live here, or have a friend or family member who does. 

Please join us on Facebook at this link.  We also have a permanent link to our Facebook page on the left column.  We’ve starting building pages on Twitter and YouTube, too, but those are in the initial stages and not very impressive yet.

Upgraded. Easier to read. Mobile version for smartphones.  More columnists.

This is the fourth version of Fremonter.com in three years.  We keep making improvements.  For example, we’ve upgraded the software running the site and given the front end a face lift.  We’ve made the site simpler and easier to follow. Also, there is now a mobile version of Fremonter.com, so you can better view the site from your smartphone’s browser. If you go to the bottom right corner of this page, you can scan the code for Fremonter.com. This code will work on your Android, I-phone, Blackberry, or Windows phone.  Or you can simply go to Fremonter.com on your smartphone browser.

We’re making other changes, too.  We’ve added new columnists who will be writing on more topics.  Most of these columnists will be presented in the next few days and weeks, and we’re open to other new columnists, too.  This is your invitation to become part of Fremonter.com.  Feel free to be a guest columnist with us, or comment on stories.

We’re going to make the site more fun.  We’re going to do more with videos and entertainment.  We’re making sure you have a reason to visit daily.  We get hundreds of thousands of hits each month (over 500,000 last month) and we’re going for more!

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