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Property tax relief for Nebraska farmers still a top priority

The Nebraska Unicameral will begin its 2020 short session this Wednesday and property tax relief will once again be a major focus.

In an interview with Brownfield in December, Revenue Committee chair Lou Ann Linehan said her goal is have a property tax relief package passed by mid-February. 

“Where the Revenue Committee is, is we would take new revenues that we have, over and above what we thought we were going to have—over and above budget—and we would take that extra revenue and use it all for property tax relief,” Linehan says.

She says ag producers would be the top priority.

“Going first to the ag producers in the highest levied districts, we would take their valuations down from 75 to 55 percent.”

Residential and commercial property valuations would be reduced from 100 percent to 80 percent. The committee’s plan would compensate schools with increased state funding but would also impose spending limits on each district.

Linehan thinks there will be enough votes to pass the plan.

“I think we have 25 (votes). Can we get to 33? That will be the hard part,” she says. “I’ve gone through the list of 49 senators several times and I think we can get to 35.”

Governor Pete Ricketts agrees that property tax relief is the top priority but hasn’t indicated whether he will support the Revenue Committee’s plan. In the past, Ricketts has opted to deliver property tax assistance by putting more money into the state’s property tax credit fund.

(The following interview with Senator Linehan was recorded in mid-December at the annual meeting of Nebraska Cattlemen in Kearney.)