Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen joined several state lawmakers Wednesday to unveil a tax proposal that would remove hundreds of millions of dollars from the state’s tax rolls, including measures that would slash income and corporate taxes, stop taxation of Social Security income, and restrict taxes on agricultural land.

The bills would be the largest tax cuts in the state’s history — $78 million in income tax cuts alone by the end of next year and more than $720 million by 2027, Pillen said at a news conference surrounded by fellow Republicans.

The cuts were billed as necessary to keep and attract people to the state who would otherwise be put off by Nebraska’s heavy tax burden, particularly its state income tax.

‘We have to compete better than we have been,’ Pillen said at a news conference with a handful of fellow Republicans. ‘These tax cuts, they’re not going to get us in the Top 10. But we’ll rank No. 15 in the states.’

Critics fear the proposed cuts could hurt state coffers and the public programs and infrastructure that rely on tax funding.

‘We have serious concerns about the affordability of the tax measures discussed by the governor, especially given his recent commitment to significantly increase public education funding,’ said Rebecca Firestone, executive director of the Nebraska-based tax policy think tank OpenSky Policy Institute.

Tax rates alone don’t drive people’s decision on whether to live in Nebraska, she said.

‘Other factors such as quality of life, access to good jobs and the desire to be close to family rank much higher than taxes in the decisions of businesses and individuals,’ Firestone said.

The measures would include bills to speed up implementation of a tax cut passed last year to phase in decreases of top individual and corporate tax rates. The new measures would slash individual and corporate tax rates gradually to 3.99% by 2027, far lower than the reduction to 5.84% by 2027 signed into law by former Gov. Pete Ricketts last year.

Sen. Joni Albrecht, of Thurston, unveiled a bill dubbed the Agricultural Value Fairness Act, which would shift farm and ranch land from being assessed at market value and would instead assess it based on its income potential. That potential would be calculated using information from the federal Agriculture Department, the University of Nebraska, land surveys, income reports and other sources, Albrecht said. Increases on agricultural land valuations would be capped at 3.5% annually.

‘Nebraska is an outlier in how we value ag land,’ Albrecht said. ‘In states such as Iowa, Kansas and South Dakota, they use the income-based assessment value to their ag land.’

The measure would go into effect next year and potentially reduce ag land valuations across the state by $7.5 billion, she said.

Pillen, the owner of a hog farm operation near Columbus, praised the move as a lifeline for family farms, noting he recently received a letter from a farmer whose 123-acre farm had been assessed at $30,000 per acre — its market value during a year when real estate prices have soared.

‘He can’t make enough income to pay the property taxes,’ Pillen said. ‘That’s just wrong.’

Another bill would stop taxing Social Security income, estimated to amount to $16.7 million in the next fiscal year, and a bill by Sen. Dave Murman, of Glenvil, would end funding community colleges through local property tax collections and would instead see the state provide funding for community college operations. The bill would start with the funding the two-year colleges currently collect through local taxes and increase that annually by 3.5%, Murman said.

Maryland’s Gov.-elect Wes Moore announced additional Cabinet appointments on Tuesday, a day before he’s scheduled to be sworn in as governor.

Salisbury Mayor Jake Day will be the housing and community development secretary, the incoming administration announced.

Kevin Atticks has been named the state’s agriculture secretary. Atticks founded Grow & Fortify to support value-added agricultural organizations and the businesses they represent.

Moore also has appointed Serena McIlwain to be the state’s environment secretary. She has served as undersecretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

Josh Kurtz has been appointed secretary of natural resources. Kurtz served as the Maryland executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Carol Beatty has been appointed secretary of disabilities. She was appointed to the post by Gov. Larry Hogan in 2015.

Rebecca Flora has been named planning secretary, and Carmel Roques has been appointed secretary of aging.

Kevin Anderson has been appointed to lead the state’s commerce department.

Hagerstown Mayor Emily Keller has been appointed special secretary of opioid response.

Rhode Island’s governor said in his State of the State address Tuesday that he will propose broad tax relief in his forthcoming budget plan.

Democratic Gov. Dan McKee laid out his administration’s legislative plans and budget priorities in the address to the General Assembly — his second State of the State address.

McKee said in his prepared remarks the budget he will submit to the General Assembly this week will propose a broad tax relief plan to help Rhode Island residents navigate inflationary pressures and make the state a more competitive place to do business. McKee wants to reduce the state sales tax from 7% to 6.85%, which equates to about $35 million annually in taxes.

State law requires a 3-cent increase in the gas tax starting July 1, for $25 million annually in taxes. McKee is proposing to stop the increase. He also wants to give residents a rebate for the gross receipts tax on energy bills this winter, reduce the corporate minimum tax and eliminate a tax that businesses pay for litter. McKee said the litter tax is a nuisance for small businesses and does not pay for cleaning up litter, so the state should fund an initiative to tackle litter instead.

McKee was sworn in for his first full term as Rhode Island’s governor this month, saying he has never believed more strongly in the state’s future. He is a former lieutenant governor who became the state’s chief executive in March 2021 when two-term Gov. Gina Raimondo was tapped as U.S. commerce secretary.

McKee is required to submit to lawmakers a proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. McKee said his goals are to strengthen the education system, raise incomes in every community and create a healthier state. Within the first 100 days of his full term, he aims to outline a plan for Rhode Island students to do as well as, or better than, Massachusetts students on standardized tests by 2030. The budget will invest an additional $57 million in K-12 education and another $4 million for out-of-school learning programs.

McKee wants to make Rhode Island a hub for bioscience activity, a priority he shares with Democratic House Speaker Joseph Shekarchi.

He said in his prepared remarks that he is proposing a new matching grant program to help municipalities fix potholes. He wants to update the formula that allocates how state funding goes to schools, and he wants to build the new Department of Housing into a robust state agency with additional funding to help homeless people.

In addition to members of the General Assembly, the state’s other general officers, members of the judiciary, heads of various state departments and agencies and municipal officials typically attend the governor’s State of the State address.

A bill proposed in the Connecticut state legislature would, if passed, give children 12 years and older the right to get vaccines without parental consent.

Democratic state Rep. Kevin Ryan, who represents the state’s 139th District, introduced the measure, Bill No. 5480, which is described as ‘an act allowing children 12 years of age and older to receive a vaccination without the consent of a parent or guardian.’

The measure, which has been referred by the state House to the Joint Committee on Public Health, was proposed for the state’s 2023 legislative session and does not rule out other vaccines aside from those for COVID-19.

Ryan’s proposal, according to Hartford’s WFSB, comes amid concerns from his constituents.

‘As their representative, it’s my duty to express their requests and ensure their concerns have been taken seriously, especially on a health care issue,’ Ryan said, according to the outlet.

At this point, it is unclear whether Ryan’s bill, which is one of many that were proposed for the state’s legislative session this year, will make it to a floor vote. The Public Health Committee will be tasked with deciding whether the measure advances.

Parents in Connecticut are required to give either written or verbal permission for their children to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The age of consent for the vaccine in the state, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, is 18.

Fox News Digital reached out to Ryan regarding his vaccine proposal but did not receive an immediate response.

In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that omicron-targeting bivalent COVID-19 vaccines had been authorized for use in children as young as 6 months old.

The news of Ryan’s proposal comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that a preliminary COVID-19 vaccine ‘safety signal’ had been identified and that the organization was investigating whether the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine creates an increased risk of ischemic stroke in people 65 and older.

A man charged with threatening to kill a Kansas congressman said in federal court Wednesday that he has a ‘very religious’ defense and is now acting as his own attorney, despite a judge’s warnings that he is making a big mistake.

Prosecutors hoped to call U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner, the Republican whose Topeka office received the phone call prompting the criminal charge, as a witness Wednesday afternoon.

The trial of Chase Neill, 32, of the northeastern Kansas city of Lawrence, came amid what authorities say is a sharp rise in threats against the nation’s lawmakers and their families.

Prosecutors contend Neill became fixated on LaTurner and threatened to kill him in a call the night of June 5 and subsequent calls the next day. Federal public defenders initially representing Neill said he saw himself as having a special relationship with God that allowed him to call down ‘meteors and plagues’ on officials and that local authorities saw him as harmless.

Twice within the past week, Neill has asked to represent himself, withdrawing one request before his federal court jury was selected Tuesday. He said Wednesday in court that he has been portrayed as ‘a false Christ,’ damaging his reputation.

U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter granted Neill’s latest request, finding that he can defend himself competently, despite his lack of legal training as a high school graduate with some college education. Before she brought the jury back into the courtroom Wednesday morning, Teeter warned Neill repeatedly that she considered his decision unwise and that he had top public defenders representing him.

‘Many defendants would relish the opportunity to be represented by your counsel,’ she told him.

But Neill was adamant and said he believes the U.S. government is abusing its power by prosecuting him. He added, ‘This matter is very religious.’

‘These global events do represent my relationship with God,’ he told Teeter, without being more specific.

Members of Congress have faced a sharp rise in threats since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In October, an intruder severely beat former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in their San Francisco home.

Local school board members and election workers across the nation also have endured harassment and threats. Police in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this week arrested a former Republican legislative candidate over a series of shootings targeting elected Democratic officials’ homes or offices, though none were injured.

In Neill’s trial, he appeared in court Wednesday wearing khaki pants, a blue jacket and a dress shirt without a tie, just as he had Tuesday, but he was no longer chained at the ankles. Teeter cited both his professional dress and his polite demeanor in court as favoring allowing him to to represent himself.

He and prosecutors do not dispute that he called LaTurner’s office in Topeka on June 5 and left a message in which he said, ‘This is a threat to your life.’ Prosecutors say the call prompted LaTurner to beef up security at the office.

Part of the June call was played for jurors during the prosecution’s opening statement, and it included a threat against all members of Congress. A public defender said Neill also threatened the entire universe and never attempted to go near LaTurner or his office.

Separately, a U.S. magistrate judge said in an August order refusing to release Neill from custody that Neill had suffered a head injury four or five years ago ‘characterized as a head fracture.’

Teeter concluded during a hearing last month that Neill was capable of following what was going on in court and assisting his lawyers, making him mentally competent to stand trial.

Arizona has new directors for its Department of Corrections and Department of Public Safety.

Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Tuesday that Ryan Thornell will take over the DOC while Tempe Police Chief Jeffrey Glover will be the next head of the DPS.

Thornell has worked in corrections for more than 18 years and has been deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Corrections.

Thornell will begin his Arizona job on Jan. 30. He replaces David Shinn, who retired Jan. 4 after being the state’s DOC director since late 2019.

Glover replaces DPS. Col. Heston Silbert, who retired Jan. 6 after serving as DPS director since 2020 and deputy director for five years before that.

Glover joined the Tempe Police Department in 1999 and retired as a commander in February 2020 before returning eight months later as interim chief of police.

Glover became Tempe’s first Black police chief in August 2021 and he will be the first Black to head the DPS.

‘I have the utmost confidence that these directors have the expertise and wherewithal to take on the challenges and opportunities in their departments,’ Hobbs said in a statement.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz raised more money over the last six months of 2022 than her three rivals combined in the pivotal race that will determine majority control of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

Protasiewicz along with Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell are running as liberal candidates in the race. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly are the conservative candidates.

The top two vote-getters in the Feb. 21 primary will advance to the April 4 election. The winner replaces conservative Justice Patience Roggensack, who is retiring.

Races for the Wisconsin Supreme Court are officially nonpartisan, but candidates for years have aligned with either conservatives or liberals as the contests have become expensive partisan battles. The conservative-controlled court for more than a decade has issued consequential rulings in favor of Republicans, with major cases looming that could determine the future of abortion laws, redistricting and rules of elections.

The candidates and outside interests that have promised to spend millions on the race have been relatively quiet up to this point, more than a month before the primary. But those on both sides have made clear they see the race as crucial in the battleground state, with whoever winning determining ideological control of the court heading into the 2024 presidential race and at least a year after.

Protasiewicz raised just over $756,000, while Mitchell raised nearly $116,000 over the last half of 2022. Mitchell and Protasiewicz were the only two candidates who were raising money during the entire six-month reporting period.

Dorow, one of the conservative candidates, raised nearly $307,000 in just one month after getting into the race in December. Kelly, her conservative rival, raised just over $312,000 between when he got in the race in September and the end of the year.

All of the candidates filed their latest spending reports on Tuesday.

Protasiewicz had nearly $735,000 cash on hand as of Jan. 1. Mitchell had about $72,000 cash on hand. On the conservative side, Dorow had more than $283,000 cash on hand while Kelly had nearly $277,000.

There were several notable contributors.

Democratic Wisconsin Elections Commission member Mark Thomsen gave $5,000 to Protasiewicz and Democratic state Sen. Kelda Roys gave $1,000. Donors who gave the maximum allowed contribution of $20,000 to Protasiewicz included attorney and former Supreme Court candidate Tim Burns and philanthropists Lynde Uihlein, David Lubar, Marianne Lubar and Madeleine Lubar.

Kelly received $20,000 donations from billionaire GOP megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein.

Fair Courts America, a group funded by Uihlein, plans to spend millions of dollars to back Kelly, the group’s spokesman, Dan Curry, said in November.

Other notable donors to Kelly included Republican Wisconsin Elections Commission Chair Don Millis, who gave $5,000, and former Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Rick Graber who gave $2,500.

Hawaii put forward a plan Tuesday to make preschool available to all 3- and 4-year-olds by 2032, which if successful would put the state in a rarified group of states managing to provide pre-kindergarten education to most of its children.

Hawaii’s leaders have aspired to universal pre-K for decades but have found it elusive. A recent analysis found the state was moving so slowly toward that goal that it would take 47 years to build all the public preschool capacity Hawaii needed. The state expects it will need 465 new classrooms to serve the additional students.

Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke, who has been tasked by Gov. Josh Green to lead the state’s efforts, said only half of Hawaii’s 35,000 3- and 4-year-olds attend preschool, either by paying expensive tuition for private schools or obtaining one of the few spots in publicly-funded pre-K programs.

The state estimates there are about 9,200 children whose parents want to send them to preschool but aren’t able. It’s targeting its plans at this group.

‘It’s clear about the difference in educational outcomes from a child who goes to pre-K and one that doesn’t,’ Senate President Ron Kouchi said at a news conference announcing the plan.

‘To be able to help our educational outcomes while keeping more money into the working families pockets to take care of all of their needs is a real critical component.’

His colleague Sen. Michelle Kidani echoed this point, noting that many families are leaving Hawaii for other states because they can’t afford preschool or daycare in the islands.

The state plans to have 80 new classrooms ready for use in 2024, each of them serving 20 students.

Hawaii has already identified 50 classrooms at existing public elementary schools and 30 in publicly funded charter schools that it can renovate for use. Luke said converting one existing classroom would cost about $1 million, given that new bathrooms, sinks, chairs and tables need to be installed for smaller children.

The state will draw on $200 million the Legislature appropriated last year to build preschool classrooms.

About 20% of 3- and-4-year-olds (some 7,000 children) are from families that don’t want to send their children to preschool, Luke said. The state is not expecting them to take advantage of this program though Luke said this percentage may change depending on how successfully the state builds new capacity.

The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University said that nationally, 39% of 4-year-olds are either in preschool, Head Start or other early childhood education. The District of Columbia and six states had 70% of their 4-year-old populations in preschool before the coronavirus pandemic hit: Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

G.G. Weisenfeld, senior early childhood education policy specialist at the institute, said the challenge for many states is to offer both high-quality preschool and to make it accessible to large numbers of children.

She said Hawaii is notable for its high quality, with its existing publicly funded preschool ranking among just five programs nationwide that meet all 10 minimum quality standards set by her research institute. The other four are Alabama, Michigan’s Great Start Readiness Program, Mississippi and Rhode Island.

Some states serve lots of children but only offer two hours of class per day, have larger class sizes with 30 children, have unqualified teachers or lack a curriculum, she said.

‘And so if you have a low quality program, even if you’re serving lots of children, you’re not going to get the impact or the child outcomes that we know that you can achieve in a high quality program,’ Weisenfeld said.

Weisenfeld, who was the director of Hawaii’s Executive Office on Early Learning in 2013-2014, commended Luke, Hawaii’s current lieutenant governor and a former state representative who used to chair the state House Finance Committee, for bringing the plan together.

‘One of the hardest things to make it happen is political will. I think Alabama has been so successful because of the leadership of the governor. I think that’s happening in Hawaii,’ she said. ‘I think Sylvia Luke has definitely taken this on and she’s incredibly smart and will make it happen.’

Jacqueline Ornellas, a principal at Lincoln Elementary School in Honolulu, is scheduled to have one of its existing classrooms renovated to accommodate younger children.

She said currently 60-70% of Lincoln’s students haven’t been able to go to preschool because their families couldn’t afford the cost. She said Lincoln’s teachers do a great job getting students caught up to grade level but she’s seen firsthand the difference preschool makes in a child’s academics.

‘That’s what our community is going to have — that opportunity to make the kids more successful,’ Ornellas said.

Angela Thomas, the early childhood resource coordinator for Hawaii County, said kindergarten teachers build on the exposure to vocabulary and reading that children have earlier in life. She called the state’s plan was ‘game-changing’ for the Big Island.

‘Our kids don’t do very well in reading in third grade. Our scores are not that great islandwide. And so having more early childhood opportunities for children is going to be really exciting,’ she said.

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., introduced a bill to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) following a controversial ruling that tightens regulations on pistol stabilizing braces.

The ATF issued its final rule Friday that will treat guns with stabilizing accessories like short-barreled rifles, which require a federal license to own under the National Firearms Act. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the ruling enhances public safety, but Gaetz said it unfairly punishes disabled gun owners and veterans who rely on stabilizing braces to be able to fire with one hand.

Gaetz introduced H.R.374, the ‘Abolish the ATF Act,’ Tuesday morning in response to the ruling, telling Fox News Digital it was the ‘final straw.’

GOP LAWMAKERS, NRA SLAM ATF RULE TO REGULATE PISTOL BRACES: ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL OVERREACH’ 

‘I have a lot of disabled veterans in my district who enjoy pistol shooting and rely on stabilizing braces to be able to engage in the activity,’ he said in a phone interview Wednesday morning. ‘The recent actions from the ATF essentially allow them to make case-by-case determinations on whether a pistol with a stabilizing brace is legal or an unlawful, sawed-off shotgun.’

‘The continued existence of the ATF is increasingly unwarranted based on the actions they’re taking to convert otherwise law-abiding people into felons,’ he said. ‘My bill would abolish the ATF. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to try defunding the ATF. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to target the individual bureaucrats at the top of the ATF who have exceeded their authority in rulemaking. And if that doesn’t work, we’re going to take a meat cleaver to the statutes that the ATF believes broadly authorize their actions.’

According to the ATF, the new rule does not affect stabilizing braces that are ‘objectively designed and intended as a ‘stabilizing brace’ for use by individuals with disabilities, and not for shouldering the weapon as a rifle. Such stabilizing braces are designed to conform to the arm and not as a buttstock. However, if the firearm with the ‘stabilizing brace’ is a short-barreled rifle, it needs to be registered within 120-days from the date of publication in the Federal Register.’

However, Gaetz said, ‘the people at the ATF making these rules fundamentally don’t understand firearms.’

‘I think they are under the flawed conception that a stabilizing brace increases the lethality or danger of a pistol,’ he said. ‘It seems the ATF is on a snipe hunt for regulatory action that virtue signals to the anti-gun left, but that has no real practical safety impact on Americans.’

Gaetz’s bill, which has been referred to the Judiciary Committee, does not have any cosponsors yet, but he said there’s ‘broad support’ among Republicans ‘to go after the actions of ATF.’

‘I believe that you are likely to see ATF bureaucrats hauled before the Judiciary Committee to explain themselves in the coming weeks and months,’ said Gaetz, who also sits on the committee. ‘Because we’re hearing this very loudly from our constituents, and the reason I filed this bill is, frankly, I think that the ATF should have to justify their existence at all.’