As the Legislature’s Revenue Committee weighs proposals as part of the Governor’s plan to reduce property taxes collected by political subdivisions, join OpenSky for our next legislative webinar on Wednesday, March 6. We will highlight a discussion about revenue caps and the implications for local government services. (REGISTER TODAY)
Sen. Jana Hughes (LD 24) will kick off the webinar, which begins at noon. The webinar will feature a conversation with Jennifer Hiebner, a member of the Board of Education for Heartland Community Schools in Henderson, Nebraska, and Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for Every Texan, where his focus is on state and local revenue systems.
In policy debates on local spending and revenue caps, Texas is often held up as a model, but the experience of how Houston has managed its revenue caps suggests the caps have contributed to cuts in services such as solid waste management and public works.
In this webinar, we’ll learn how localities in Texas are managing these limits on how they budget and hear from experience in Nebraska on how schools are navigating their new caps.
In recent polling conducted by the Holland Children’s Institute, Nebraska voters by a margin of 51%-39% opposed state policymakers placing restrictions on local government spending and levy increases. In the same poll, 52% of voters said they trust local governments to be good stewards of taxpayers dollars over the Legislature; 25% said they placed more trust in the Legislature.
Among the proposals being considered are LB 1414, which extends revenue caps on school districts to include other local political subdivisions, and LB 1241, which ties increases in property valuations within a political subdivision to reductions in the property tax levy. Another bill, LB 1316, tightens revenue caps imposed on school districts last year.
These caps would make it harder for local political subdivisions to budget year over year and make it more difficult for local elected officials to address local needs. Please plan to join us next week to learn more about revenue caps.
Week opens with inheritance tax debate
Senators return for Day 34 of the 60-day session on Tuesday with debate to resume on LB 1067, a proposal to eliminate the inheritance tax by 2028.
According to the Nebraska Association of County Officials (NACO), the inheritance tax resulted in $100 million in revenue for Nebraska counties last year. To replace that funding would require an 11% increase in property taxes. As proposed, LB 1067 provides additional state funding for county corrections programs and would allow lodging tax revenues to be shifted from spending to promote tourism and used to fund county services.
Those revenues, however, would not match the revenue lost if the inheritance tax were eliminated, and many counties would be faced with a difficult choice to cut services, deplete reserves or raise property taxes.
This week marks the final week of committee hearings, and OpenSky will share its research and analysis of several bills related to tax and fiscal policy:
- Tuesday: The Education Committee will discuss LB 957, which would increase state support for school districts which choose to provide early childhood education, and LB 1150, which would make changes to the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act (TEEOSA) funding formula
- Wednesday: A bill (LB 924) set for a hearing in the Revenue Committee would establish a homestead exemption for those who live in qualified census tracts; the Health and Human Services Committee will discuss LB 871, which would require an annual report on expenditures from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) fund, and LB 1237, which would increase the data available surrounding the ongoing review of Medicaid eligibility through the “Unwinding”
The Legislature begins full-day debate on Monday, March 4.