News
Nebraska property tax relief package signed into law
Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts signed his property tax relief package into law Tuesday during a ceremony at the state capitol.
The package will provide 20 million dollars in direct property tax relief credits for agricultural land. It also removes penalties for school districts that lower their levies and limits the use of bonding authority by districts without a vote of the people.
The tax package was endorsed by several Nebraska farm organizations. Nebraska Farmers Union president John Hansen says that while it’s not everything they wanted, it does represent a positive step forward.
“We had the ag groups working together. We had the Education and Revenue Committee chairs working together. We had the governor constructively engaged. We have found ourselves in a better place than when we started—and that’s progress,” Hansen says.
AUDIO: John Hansen
Speaking for Nebraska Cattlemen, Dave McCracken of Friend said they appreciated the efforts of the governor and the legislature to provide some property tax relief.
“This is a great thing for us. Twenty million dollars is a lot of money they’re putting in the relief fund,” McCracken says. “If you spread that over every acre of the state of Nebraska, it won’t amount to a lot—but it’s sure something we’ve worked hard for.”
AUDIO: Dave McCracken
Nebraska Farm Bureau president Steve Nelson also thanked the governor and legislature for their work. But Nelson says Farm Bureau will continue to seek longer-term solutions to the property tax burden faced by farmers and ranchers.
“We’ve seen ag property taxes rise 176 percent in the last ten years. This is certainly unsustainable,” Nelson says. “It’s flattening out, but it’s not turned around—and we need to deal with this issue.”
AUDIO: Steve Nelson
Efforts to institute further property tax and education funding reforms were met with strong opposition from local school officials from across the state.
AUDIO: Governor Pete Ricketts and committee chairs comment at signing ceremony
We cannot afford to continue this path without restricting and pulling back tax increases. The value of property is inflated, we all know that, it is unsustainable. Taxing on unsustainable assessments is foolish and local tax spending is still a choice made by non-farming entities including county officals and the educational sector (who feel they must be entitled to funds and do not have to pull back their requests). Unfortunately, they do not apologise for their behavior and public servants decline to be accountible and say it like it is!