FAIRBURY - Elected officials across the state are preparing for the state legislature to go back into session later this week, and in Southeast Nebraska, state senator Tom Brandt stopped by a meeting with the Jefferson County commissioners late in 2024 to recap the last legislative session and outline his plans for the next one, which begins this week in Lincoln.


During his address, Brandt discussed the fallout from the ballot measures that voters addressed in November's election; taxes; and what his role as a senior senator is with so many new faces joining the state senate starting this month, among many other things. The following is a recap of some of his comments from his address late last year; some quotes have been rearranged to fit the topic but no language has been altered.

The Nebraska state senate convenes for the first time in 2025 later this week in Lincoln.

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On finding alternative revenue streams:

We have a group of five senators actively working, we’ve already got it drafted. LB-9, to go from a dollar-five to 95 will cost $300 million. It’s scalable, if you can find more than that. But I can tell you the party’s over. You talk to Senator Dorn – the income is way down for the state of Nebraska. I don’t think we’re below 0, but the ARPA and the infrastructure – and it’s probably the same way for the county – the hangover is coming down, guys. So we have to find a revenue stream to fund this, we’ve got some sales tax exemptions [on the table], we’ve got a proposal for some SENDD taxes to possibly increase, possibly increase [taxes on] cigarettes, hemp... gaming’s pretty well covered, some things on alcohol. Some income on medical marijuana will be coming in. There’s 31 luxury taxes that we put into a package... Right now you don’t pay sales taxes when you charter an airplane, get your swimming pool cleaned, dating services, go to the zoo – things that are kind of discretionary. And so a group of senators have identified that, and we’re going to try to go after these sales tax exemptions. Because in Nebraska, with 177 sales tax exemptions, no other state has that many. 40% of the people that go to the zoo are from out of state – let's tax them! Make them help pay for it.  

On adding a toll road to Interstate 80: 

You could do that. In Chicago, there’s about 10 miles of I-80 that’s a toll road. We’re going to this legislative conference in Detroit, and I ask these guys from Illinois, ‘How do you take a federal interstate and make it a toll road?’ And he goes, ‘It’s easy: we paid for it. We paid for that section of road so we could intentionally tax it.’ So to do a toll road, that’s what would have to happen: you would have to have a private contractor come in, build the road, and then set the funding up to pay for that part of the road. I don’t think it would be very effective in this state – we just don’t have enough population. We’ve got too few people and too many miles of road, at least out in the country. But it can be done, and it has been done. 

On voting and election security: 

As a test, we required the voter ID. There were a few...quirks in certain spots in the district, in the primary. Didn’t have that this time [in the general election]. Also, people aren’t aware that you can’t just walk into a polling place with your favorite candidate on your shirt or your hat. Some people are really engaged. Nebraska, I think, is a model for the rest of the nation. We don’t have people voting that shouldn’t be voting. It’s a testament to how fast it goes out and runs. Nebraska’s a little unique in that  if we’re short poll workers, you have the ability to call them like jury duty. And we’re fortunate that you can still go to a polling place – not every county has that.  

On changing Nebraska's electoral college approach to a winner-take-all: 

At the end of the day, there wasn’t enough support to do it [make any changes to the procedures] 45 days before the election. If this had been two years before the election, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Senator Lippincott had introduced the bill. To do that in the short session...didn’t work it, didn’t prioritize it, didn’t do anything. Just left it sat in committee, and it marinated until the very last day, and then he felt like we had to do something. We had a vote on the floor, and it ended up like 26-8 against it. And it wasn’t that people were opposed to it, it’s just bad form to come in at the last minute.  

Might there be an effort to resurrect it? 

Yes, I think there would... let’s just leave it at that. It could take the form of an actual vote, or it could be a constitutional amendment, which I favor – let the people vote on it in the next general election. And then that way it’s in the Constitution, and we can move on to something else.  

It really only affects one district, and one election. It isn’t for senator, or for House, or anything, it’s just for president. The biggest proponents of this are the media. They made a fortune off of ads.  

I believe someone will reintroduce it. And if it is, something will pass.  

On the additional 2024 ballot measures: 

There was no shortage of ads around here too, and a lot of them were for the referendums, the amendment votes, and that drove turnout too I’m sure. And all of those measures are because of what the legislature did, either affirming or not what the legislature did. The Nebraska unicameral was intentionally set up so that the people are the second house. It’s unfortunate that the governor made a statement about making the initiative harder. I couldn’t disagree with him more, because in this state, the people have the right to petition the government.  

We got a mandate from the people on medicinal marijuana – 70 percent [approval], I mean, wow. If it makes it through the courts – and we could do it without the courts, too – but we’ll draft that legislation, and then it will be up to individual cities to decide whether they want a pharmacy.  

I can tell you the bill that didn’t pass three years ago – we had 31 votes and we needed 33 – would have been the most restrictive in the country, and that’s kind of what we’d be looking at again when we get to that point. And the abortion law that passed is the one that’s the existing law today. 

Opportunity scholarships, that was kind of resounding too, that was almost 60 percent [in favor of repeal]. I’m sure someone will bring that up.  

The one I’m kind of surprised by is the paid sick leave. That had a high level of support. I was disappointed from the chamber of commerce that there wasn’t more discussion on that. Not I’m getting some very angry business owners calling me to ask, ‘Do we have to do this, this and this?’ And I say, ‘I honestly don’t know – call the chamber of commerce.’ I’m not sure what this is going to look like. If you’ve got one part-time employee and you have to give them paid sick leave, or if they’re contracted help, you don’t have to do anything... I don’t know. 

On the senate's incoming class, and his role and responsibility in working with them: 

We’ve got 17 new senators, and with the class that’s there now on January 8 there will be 33 senators that have been there two years or less. So my class will be the senior class – there's nine of us left out of my original class. The class behind me, not counting those that got appointed, four. You can put our two classes together, we’re still smaller than any of the other two classes. So this is kind of what happens with term limits – you force out after eight years, and now you’ve got some huge classes and others where you have virtually nobody.  

We kind of see our function as getting everybody up to speed, to get everybody working together, and to not have something uber controversial that’s going to tear everybody apart – and if we do, people are going to handle it with dignity and grace.  

We have a first, second and third caucus. And in our caucus there’s three seniors – myself, Senator Dorn and Senator Murman – and I’m kind of running this thing. We have 16 senators, and eight are new. That’s extraordinary, that’s very unusual. Excellent people that won races this year. We have got a lot of county commissioners, city council, school boards – people that have done public service. And speaking as someone that didn’t do that before I did this job, it makes a huge difference.  

On working with fellow senators to enact legislation, and what legislative priorities may be:

It’s an opportunity. It’s not a challenge, because when you get the new people in there, everybody tries to get real friendly real fast and shove their stuff through before they know what’s going on, and that’s just human nature and it’s always been that way. The fact that there aren’t going to be any extra funds... The governor still, and I agree, we need to do something about property tax, but if you push the pillow down here, it’s got to go up over here. So does that mean we’re going to do something on sales or income tax? Because we gave a big income tax decrease. But it’s on a five-year decline. We did affect homestead exemptions last year. There may be some more work done there.  

Last year we said a senator can only introduce 20 bills, which for me would be a lot – the most I’ve ever had was like 12. But because there’s fewer senior senators, you get a lot more groups come to you, and need your help. Some have approached me, and I’ve said, no you’ve got this new senator coming in who’s an expert on this, I’ll work with them to help get it passes. That’s where we’re at in the legislature today, and two years from now it’ll look totally different. There probably will be a sports and spaces bill, but she’s working on rewriting that to take away some of the gray spaces that were in the original one.  

The governor will probably tell us what his intentions are, but I know property taxes are probably the number one thing.