In the News Businesses and Farm Group Joins Fight Against 423 By Oskar Garcia OMAHA - A new coalition opposed to a state spending cap is launching a campaign through the Web, radio and mail in hopes of defeating the proposed lid on the November ballot. Coalition representatives in Omaha Thursday said they agree with backers of Initiative 423 that taxes are too high and the state spends too much. But the proposed constitutional amendment is too rigid and will result in higher property taxes and government inflexibility, coalition representatives said. The coalition includes the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Nebraska Farm Bureau and the Nebraska Realtors Association, among other private organizations. The proposition seeks to amend the state Constitution to tie government spending to cost-of-living and population changes. "It would dramatically shift some costs to local units of government, and the only option they would have would probably be to raise property taxes," said Barry Kennedy, president of Nebraska's Chamber of Commerce & Industry. "We also have considerable fears for what it would do to Nebraska's infrastructure." Under the proposed amendment, the government could only exceed the state spending limit by a direct majority of voters, or in a number of exceptions. "This is about control," said Mike Groene of Stop Over Spending Nebraska, which is pushing the initiative. "Their (business-interest) lobbyists have control, and they don't want the people to have it," he said Thursday. Kennedy said the amendment would affect certain programs as government looks for revenue and hogtie the government's ability to meet emergencies. "When you lock things like this into the constitution it's those unexpected consequences that really come back and haunt you," Kennedy said. A clause in the amendment would allow for emergency appropriations by a three-fourths vote of the Legislature. If a court later decided the emergency funds weren't justified under the amendment, the state spending limit would be reduced by that amount the following year.