A Bill To Increase State Property Tax In Nebraska Legislature – Here’s What You Need To Know

On Thursday, senators voted to advance a bill that would boost the amount of state property tax credits given to landowners.

A Bill To Increase State Property Tax In Nebraska Legislature – Here’s What You Need To Know (PHOTO: KLKN-TV)

State Property Tax In Nebraska Legislature

Legislative Bill 243 was first introduced by Senator Tom Briese, which received the final round of debate with a final vote of 41-0. The bill raises the funding for two current programs that use sales and income tax dollars to offset Nebraskans’ property tax bills, at a cost of roughly $300 million over the following two years.

Since schools are the most who utilized the property tax dollars, Briese said the bill also pushes to limit the total tax dollars schools can contain.

Legislative Bill 243, contains an additional 3 percent cap on the total revenue growth of school district spending. Briese filed a modification, which would make exceptions for rapidly growing school districts.

Several factors can be exceeded if the cap will be implemented. According to Briese, one factor is student enrollment growth and if students have revenue growth of 4%, they can exceed that 3 percent with another 4 percent.

According to ABC 8 news that the bill allows schools to have an increase annually in tax revenue of 3 percent, but as Briese said that it has exceptions.

Meaning, schools can collect more if they’re fast-growing, have students from poor families, or have students with limited English proficiency. In addition to the three percent cap, they can also collect between four to seven percent or more.

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Several Concerns Arise For The Bill

Each district has its own circumstances and even if the bill has its final modifications, others have some concerns with the bill mostly those who oppose the bill including the OpenSky Policy Insitute.

Rebecca Firestone said that if the caps come into place some districts may find that they have challenges in sort of managing their revenue flows, even with the new amount of education funding coming in.

Nebraska Examiner reported that LB754 would speed up the elimination of taxes on Social Security benefits. It would also reduce the top personal and corporate income tax rates from roughly 7 percent to just under 4. Those changes are projected to reduce state revenues by about $400 million over the next two years.

However, Gov. Jim Pillen, who supports the bill, has previously said the measure would be part of the largest package of tax cuts in state history.

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