the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, July 27, 2006 7:00 pm
Although he has hammered Pete Ricketts for protesting the assessed valuation of his Omaha home, Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson filed a valuation protest himself in 1985, Republican officials said this week.
Nelson “successfully petitioned the Douglas County assessor (to) lower the valuation on his two-story home in Omaha’s Regency subdivision, the very same action for which he has criticized Pete Ricketts,” Lancaster County GOP Chairman Mark Fahleson said.
In attacking Ricketts, the Republican Senate nominee, in newspaper ads purchased by the Nebraska Democratic Party, Nelson and his party have “deceived Nebraska voters,” he said.
Fahleson distributed records documenting the Nelson valuation protest at a news conference in Omaha.
Nelson campaign spokeswoman Marcia Cady said Douglas County agreed with Nelson’s protest in 1985 whereas Ricketts’ protest this year was found to be without merit.
Nelson was a private citizen, and not a public official, when he filed his protest two decades ago, Cady said. He was elected governor in 1990.
Official documents show Nelson purchased his home in 1984 for at least $340,000, Fahleson said. Nelson filed a protest to the $256,500 assessed valuation of the home in 1985, proposing a $220,000 valuation, which was agreed to by the county.
Nelson has suggested Ricketts “wants to pay less by having other people pay more,” Fahleson said. In doing so, he said, Nelson “took a cheap opportunity to criticize Pete Ricketts for doing the very same thing Nelson himself did in 1985.”