Property Tax Plan Advances

Stripped-Down Bills Offers Only Some of What Governor Wanted By Gordon Hopkins Two important bills have advanced in this special session of the Nebraska Legislature. LB2A cloture vote of 34 to 10 in the legislature ended debate and advanced LB (Legislative Bill) 2, which makes adjustments to appropriations and re-appropriations for state operations and aid.The bill was introduced by Senator Robert Clements (R-District 2) at the behest of Governor Jim Pillen and would reduce unexpended and reappropriated general funds across more than 40 state agencies in the current and the next fiscal years.According to Unicameral Update, a government news source produced by the Clerk of the Legislature’s Unicameral Information Office, the estimated reduction in funds to state agencies would be $120 million. Among the cuts are:$1.3 million from the Veterans’ Affairs program;$5 million from the Broadband Bridge program under the Nebraska Public Service Commission;$250,000 from the Election Administration program under the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office;$6.6 million from programs under the Crime Commission; and$25 million from programs under the state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).Senator Clements said, “The key was not taking away 100 percent of the unused dollars of any agency.”A number of senators expressed concern about the impact these cuts would have on those agencies.Senator George Dungan offered an amendment that would restore some of the funds to DHHS.“So, to reduce the amount of money available to DHHS without fully understanding,” said Dungan. “What the effect is going to be puts us in a problematic situation.”Despite that argument, the amendment failed, as did others attempting to save some of the funds. LB34Governor Pillen issued a statement after LB34, the property tax relief plan, advanced to the next step in the legislative process in a vote of 34-11, “I am grateful to Senator Lou Ann Linehan (R-District 39) for her strong leadership in achieving this first step toward property tax relief. Although there is much work yet to do to achieve a victory for Nebraskans facing spiraling property tax bills, this vote is a step in the right direction. I look forward to partnering with good faith members of the Legislature to continue the work of delivering transformative property tax reform and bringing this consensus bill into law.”However, this is a substantially less ambitious than originally intended by the governor. Gone are a number of sales tax increases.Also eliminated is one of the more controversial elements of the plan, which was to have the state take over funding of schools.

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