Text Box: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COOPERATIVE The Nebraska Cooperative Government had it roots in the Platte County Attorney's office of the 1980's. The County Attorney in a rural community often is drafted to also be the city or village attorney for the smaller communities in the county. Small, rural communities struggle to provide an acceptable level of public service while facing considerable resistance to raising taxes from local taxpayers. A village attorney attends meeting after meeting in town after town where this challenge is faced. Resistance to raising taxes was well understood by Paul Schumacher, who had just completed 2 successful terms as Platte County Attorney and fulfilled a campaign promise to hold the line on his office budget by cutting his salary. He was serving as Village Attorney for the Village of Creston. Creston was badly in need of street improvements. A Creston village board member returning from watching the Huskers play in the Orange Bowl told of people lining up for blocks to play the Florida Lottery. The Creston Board wondered if it could do similar fundraising statewide and fix the village streets. Schumacher recalled where, as County Attorney, he had a discussion with Attorney General Paul Douglas that suggested there were no geographical limits on municipal activities conducted under the County and City Lottery Act. A little research indicated, much to everyone's surprise, that the law on the subject had not changed and there still did not exist any geographical limits on the community betterment activities authorized under the Act. In early 1989 plans were made for Creston to hold the required election. Creston's voters approved the plan, but its ambitious objectives were short lived. Shortly after the election, a major revision of the County and City Lottery Act was passed. The revision restricted fundraising activity to within the boundaries of the approving city or county. Subsequent research indicated this revision had been in the works for sometime and it is unlikely the Legislature was aware of Creston's ambitions. The new 1989 legislation did, however, provide for communities to work in cooperation with each other to raise community betterment money. For the fundraising to be conducted without risk for the local community there needed to be a large population base. Schumacher teamed up with a retired fire chief, salesman, and feed miller, Pat Fox, to test the feasibility of linking many communities together in a unified community betterment effort. Fox took to the road in eastern Nebraska and soon reported that the idea was tremendously popular. Schumacher began preparing "election kits", local elections were called, and the proposition began passing in all the early elections. Whereupon, retired crop dusting pilot, Leonard Babka, and Schumacher took to the air in Babka's small plane to test the idea in the conservative Third Congressional District. The grassroots support was instantly obvious and almost overwhelming. Then on August 9, 1989, The Lincoln Journal broke the story on the front page. The story hit a sensitive nerve in powerful circles and a fierce political struggle ensued. The intense opposition carried little weight behind the closed curtain of the voting booth. Surprisingly, it bolstered the movement by adding credibility and visibility to the effort. Silver Creek and Duncan submitted the preliminary Interlocal agreement Schumacher had drafted to the Revenue Department for the required approval. Official skepticism to the novel plan was high and political resistance was intense, but by early 1990, after a meeting between the Revenue Department's Roger Hirsch, lobbyist Walt Radcliffe, and Schumacher, the legal approval of the Cooperative's foundational document was received. On May 3, 1990, in the Village Hall at Lindsay, Nebraska, Gerald Nienaber (Lindsay), Roger Bivens (Silver Creek), Russ Dodd (Long Pine), and Harry Prososki (Duncan) (Commissioner Vi Bruning of Belvidere was absent) met as the first Commissioners of what was originally called the Nebraska Cooperative Lottery. Platte County Attorney William Kurtenbach was appointed as General Counsel for the Cooperative and a private public administration company, Community Lottery Systems, Inc. (Lotto Nebraska), was chartered to handle day to day administration. The administration company was given the responsibility for obtaining the necessary equipment, backing the prizes, insulating the communities from loss, and generally conducting the day to day operations. The company was to have as its shareholders Paul and Michele Schumacher, Leonard Babka, LeRoy Trofholz, Tom Bertsch, and the Columbus Convention Center. Also holding shares for a short period of time in the early years of the project were Pat and Rita Fox, Tom Swedlund, and Loran Schmit. The basic ground rules for the Cooperative fundraising were approved at the first meeting of the Commission. Those rules called for the sponsoring government to net approximately 10% of gross sales and the state to collect a 2% tax. Rapid expansion followed the meeting as Kurtenbach and Schumacher piloted by Babka and former NPPD chief pilot, Lyle Lower, were frequent visitors at countless County and City Board meetings all across the state. These meetings were almost always at night, so Kurtenbach and Schumacher would often introduce themselves as representing a "fly by night" organization. Contrary to the pre-existing conventional wisdom, the some of the warmest receptions and eagerness for cooperative participation was in the conservative Third Congressional District. Dozens of community elections were called. The approval vote in most cases was "by a landslide". Rarely did the measure fail. Although some communities elected to carry out the will of the voters with independent operations, the vast majority (particularly of smaller communities) chose to conduct operations under the umbrella of strength, safety, and professional management offered by the Cooperative. Public revenue generation on the order of over a million dollars a year soon was achieved, far exceeding Schumacher's original goal of raising a total of a million dollars in community betterment and tax relief. A million dollars a year by some standards is not much money, but by the standards of Nebraska's rural communities a million dollars, unencumbered by bureaucratic red tape, goes a long way to enhance the quality of life. It simply amounts to a lot of community betterment. The goal of a membership population of 100,000, cited in the 1989 Lincoln Journal article, was reached and surpassed. With a heavy statutory emphasis on directing proceeds to community betterment projects and only limited funds available to reimburse the local outlets for their effort, some communities had a difficult time finding and keeping outlets interested in participation. Fortunately in the vast majority of the communities, the local establishments were eager to contribute their efforts to the project. In many communities these establishments were the only remaining social center, a place to get a drink, hot meal, talk with the neighbor, and watch the football game on a bigger screen TV. The local establishments became the unsung heroes of community fundraising. What was originally thought to be the impossible task of auditing, record keeping, and managing dozens upon dozens of independent minded bar owners fell into the capable hands of Norma Jank, Edith Ochs, Jane Davis, and Michele Schumacher. Most of these people had strong law enforcement backgrounds and their efforts together with the dozens of participating City and County Clerks over the years are truly responsible for the discipline that enables the operation to thrive with the highest integrity. The equally impossible task of keeping equipment functioning in 80 to 90 locations spread over the length and breath of Nebraska fell on the shoulders Tom Havelka. Willing to take to the road at any time and under any weather conditions, Tom has averaged over 200 miles a day and has managed to keep down time to less than 24 hours in over 99% of thousands of service calls. Tom's commitment to keeping it working made it happen. The marked increase in revenue continued until 1996 when out of state casinos began attracting hundreds of millions of Nebraska entertainment dollars and distributors of illegal gambling devices began to take advantage of the general lack of public support for suppression of illegal gambling. Between 1995 and the end of the decade, fundraising decreased by over 20% principally due to the casinos and the reluctance of law enforcement and the Legislature to deal effectively with wide spread illegal gambling. Antiquated restrictions in the County and City Lottery Act also contributed to the decrease. Never the less the Cooperative fundraising remained viable, annually generating over $1,000,000 for the Cooperative's membership. Independent games (generally in larger communities or communities near Omaha and Lincoln), most of which were directly or indirectly spawned by the Cooperative's grass roots work in 1989 and 1990 had a similar fortunes and remain an important community betterment fundraising element in those communities. Although several communities have lost their ability to participate in the fundraising because the local liquor establishment did not find participation profitable enough, not a single governing body or electorate has ever voted to terminate its fundraising under the County and City Lottery Act. Over the decade, the Cooperative was blessed with grassroots leaders willing to serve on its governing Commission. The Commission meets quarterly in member locations all across Nebraska. The membership on the Commission was expanded to seven from the original five in order to provide effective representation. This Commission is elected at the annual meeting of the communities and represents grass roots leadership at its very best. In very few places in government do common sense and no nonsense leadership cut through to the chase as they do at a Commission meeting. Gerald Nienaber of Lindsay served as original Chair, followed by Russ Dodd of Long Pine. Russ' forceful leadership was a critical to the early success of the operations. Greg Robinson of Kimball currently heads the Commission. Two of the original Commissioners remain on the Commission to this day, Russ Dodd (Long Pine) and Harry "Spider" Prososki (Duncan). The Cooperative's Commission has had the benefits of service from Roger Bievens (Silver Creek), Gordon Boatman (Randolph), Carl Dierks (Chadron), Roger Johnson (Randolph), Dick Lindauer (Keith County), Chuck Whitney (Columbus), Gerald Brown (Brady), Bill Flavell (Eagle), and Verlouis Forester (Gosper County). In 1995, an odd thing happened on the way to this innovative method of community fundraising. The leadership and membership began to realize that the Cooperative was some how so much more than the fundraising it was originally designed to facilitate. The effort had created a political entity unique in the State of Nebraska and unique nationally. The probability of it having happened was remote and the probably of doing it again even more unlikely. Apart from its fundraising, the organization itself had taken on a unique value worthy of preservation. It brought together communities the size of Hubbell and Ong with those the size of Columbus and Dawson County, yet there was no "big vs. little" distrust. Lyman, Kimball, and Crawford were participating in the same process as Waterloo, Nehawka, and Syracuse without mention of the words "western" and "eastern". A common cooperative effort involving over 80 communities, 100,000 people, and over $100,000,000.00 dollars was being executed with more precision and efficiency than the best of "consolidation and merger" without a single small entity having to surrender its identity or sovereignty. By serendipity or design, a powerful political formula came into being. Significant potential synergies began to be envisioned. The Cooperative's Interlocal Agreement was tweaked to give the Commission the legal authority to make far-reaching decisions, subject to each community's right to not participate in a given program. The name was officially changed to the Nebraska Cooperative Government to better articulate this expanded vision. As a government, it is unique. It levies no taxes and is entirely funded by a vehicle that converts millions of dollars of voluntary consumptive spending into productive investment. It has no employees, no property, no offices, and no bureaucrats. It functions entirely through creative liaisons with the private sector organizations functioning as professional private-public administration companies. By the advent of the 21st century the Cooperative was equipped with the potential to become an integral part of Nebraska's political infrastructure. Consistent with its potential, the Cooperative has been its pioneering work on using advanced telecommunications to shrink the physical distance between its members. It saw the potential of the Internet before Internet was a household word. It was one of the very first public entities in the state to have a web page, post its minutes on the net, and have its own domain name (www.cogov.org). In 1995, its leadership was recognized by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs sponsored Tri-State Governors Conference (Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado) in Goodland, Kansas, where it together with its Internet Administration company, Community Internet Systems, Inc., received the award for Outstanding Nebraska Public Telecommunications Success Story for 1995. Today together with Harlan County Government and the Hoesch Library in Alma it operates a unique public Internet pilot project and it is coordinating an emerging local government network, enabling a number of cities and counties full time access to the Internet at a fraction of commercial rates. It stands equipped and ready to serve the needs of it member communities and creatively meet the needs of its people in the 21st century.   Text Box: Nebraska Cooperative Government A Nebraska Based Organization Contributing over $20 Million to Local Nebraska Communities   Text Box: To contact us:   P.O. Box 39, Columbus, NE  68602 Phone: 800.852.6707 Fax: 402.564.9441 E-mail: pschumac@megavision.com       Return to main page