SIDNEY -- Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen held town hall meetings in Sidney and McCook January 16 following his January 15 State of the State Address.

He opened his session encouraging simplicity in communication and in government management.

"Maybe the first word would be to say, I think it is really, really important that we run government like a business; that we do more with less, and we decrease spend. And in order to do that, I believe its really, really important that we keep life simple. Keep drama out. Don't raise your voice, treat each other respectfully and work hard," Gov. Pillen said in his opening comments January 16.

He said he has four words he uses to guide leading the State.

"I have four words that are the guiding of what we're doing for you in Nebraska, and for the State of Nebraska. It's kids, taxes, agriculture and values," he said.

He said he believes children are the future. Secondly, taxes need to be well-managed.

"I believe we as a state have not been very fiscally responsible for over 50 years. I believe that it's really, really important we cut spending, that we have to correct our tax policy because it's hurting us from growing. Our property taxes are so out of whack that you don't even need to own property to be adversely affected," Pillen said.

Neil Sullivan, director of the Department of Administrative Services, Budget Division, said balancing the State budget is the first concern.

"First thing we gotta do is balance the budget. As the Governor mentioned we have done that. We got a proposal to have that a positive by $70 million. The way that we're doing that, most of that is done by saying no to stuff, by holding the line. So, a lot of the agencies, instead of giving them requests for increases, we are holding them flat. That includes like the courts, Legislature, Governor's programs, some of the Code agencies, some of the Constitutional offices, everyone's chipping in, holding 0 percent, no growth on appropriation from many agencies," Sullivan said.

"I don't pay attention, but I know I'm told that there's Democrats that do nothing but chastise Jim Pillen every breath they have. Hey! Let's knock this personal stuff off. The Unicameral creates its rules, but we have to have good people that treat each other with respect. We're Nebraska. We need to operate in the Unicameral like we are Nebraskans," Pillen said.

K,C, Belitz Director Department of Economic Development, also spoke in the January 16 town hall meeting in Sidney.

"Our role is to help grow the state, to help create the revenue that helps pay those bills. In the line of trying to do more with less, I think that our take on that is to really try to be strategic and targeted in the work of economic development. And in doing that, you gotta understand what that target is. One of the messages we try to share across the state is how truly different economic development is today than it's ever been; very different in a short period of time, five years, ten years ... it's really changed transformationally," Belitz said.