Center for Rural Affairs officials say they’ll be watching the Nebraska State legislature to see if there’s any movement to introduce a bill to create a taxpayer bill of rights. Policy Program Director Johnathan Hladik says such a measure would have severe consequences.

He says if a taxpayer bill of rights is approved it will limit the ability of state government to pass funding measures. It will also lead to even higher property taxes.

Hladik says rising property taxes is the biggest problem the Nebraska legislature needs to address this session.

Hladik says on the surface the taxpayer bill of rights also sounds good because it omits spending at the state level. However, he says by doing that it gets passed down to local government, which must increase their taxes to cover the shortfall.