NRD candidates field questions

LB701 opened up a can of worms and local taxes should not be used to meet a state obligation, asserted Buck Haag, one of nine candidates vying for five seats on the Middle Republican Natural Resources District.

Haag and other candidates for the MRNRD fielded questions at the High Plains Radio candidate forum Tuesday night at the Bieroc Café.

MRNRD candidates present at the forum include Haag, Rick McConville, Jim Coady, James Uerling and current member Joe Anderjaski.

Haag, whose father Gayle served on the MRNRD for more than 20 years, graduated with a bachelor's degree in 2007 and has returned to the family farm.

He believes Nebraska can get into compliance with the three-state Republican River Compact without using taxes and wants to eliminate the property tax provision of LB 701.

"The views of a minority are ruling while the majority pays the way," he said.

In response to the question of more transparency on the board, Haag said the public needs to take an active interest in the MRNRD.

"If people really knew what was going on, they'd be shocked," he said. He reminded the audience that LB701 merely gave the NRDs the option to use the property tax but it was the board's decision to implement it. He added that "some people think Kansas needs water right now -- that's not true."

McConville is a life-long resident of Southwest Nebraska and has farmed all his life. There is more to the MRNRD than irrigation, he said, such as conserving water for the future and regulating the current use of water.

In response to a question about how to reduce water usage, McConville said that irrigators should not use more than what is allocated and that pumping may have to be reduced to get into compliance.

But everyone is all in this together, he noted, as "we're all pulling from the same water." We can't ask one area to reduce their water usage if another area is not doing the same, he said.

Another lifelong resident of the area, James Uerling, said he is a candidate for the MRNRD board as he believes the current board is going in the wrong direction.

He's against the property tax provision in LB701 and said irrigators need to pay their own way, in the same way plumbers and other professions pay for their tools.

"I don't believe in taxing all residents in paying for irrigation," he said.

In response to a question on what it will take to change the direction of the board, Uerling said it will take at least two election cycles.

Jim Coady said he will bring the perspective of a town resident to the MRNRD if elected. He will also bring his experience of serving on the McCook School Board for 16 years and as a former member of the Gov. Dave Heineman's Water Policy Task Force.

"There is a more sensible solution than levying taxes," he maintained.

In response to the question of how to sustain the current water supply, Coady said that could be done with retirement of acres and lowered water allocations, depending on amount of available rainfall. He also said that Nebraska doesn't have to give Kansas any water -- all the Republican River Compact mandates is that Nebraska can only use 49 percent of the available water.

The only current member of the MRNRD board who attended the forum was Joe Anderjaska, who has served two terms and is a fourth-generation farmer.

When asked if LB701 was fair, Anderjaska replied that voting to use the property tax authority in LB701 was the "hardest vote" he had to make but that hindsight is always better.

"At the time, it was the only option we had," he said. An avid opponent of taxes, Anderjaska said he's always voted against budgets, except for one time, and that he hoped LB701 was a one-time occurrence.

Anderjaska believes that some solutions to maintaining water resources would be idling irrigating acres, buying current irrigated acres to be farmed as dryland and stream augmentation to move water downstream.

The bottom line is that in the long run, it's important that the area has enough water in the future for everyone to use, he said from farmers, children and others.