Old ally blasts gov.'s budget plan

LINCOLN -- The president of the state's largest agriculture group this morning accused a past ally, Gov. Dave Heineman, of reneging on his promise of "no new taxes" to help solve the state's budget crisis.

Keith Olsen, a Grant, Neb., farmer and president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau, told state lawmakers that the governor's plan to take away about $750,000 in commodity checkoff funds to help
solve the state's budget woes amounted to a tax hike on agriculture.

"To me, that's new money going into the general fund. To me, that's a tax," said Olsen, in comments after testifying to the Legislature's Appropriations Committee.

The committee is collecting testimony from state agencies and other representatives on the governor's proposed budget cuts to handle the state's predicted $334 million shortfall in tax revenue. Among the cuts proposed by Heineman is utilizing checkoff fees paid by farmers on sales of corn, wheat, sorghum and other commodities. Such funds are used to promote the sale of such products and do research.

The Farm Bureau was one of Heineman's earliest supporters when he upset former NU football coach Tom Osborne for the Republican nomination for governor in 2006.

A message left with the governor's office seeking comment was not immediately returned.