The Nebraska State legislature’s Revenue Committee voted 6 to 1 to advance a property tax relief and school funding measure. Nebraska Farmers Union President John Hansen says the measure LB 1106 is a tweaked version of Lb 974 that contains some fixes put in to appease large school districts. He says the large schools are studying the bill to see if they could support it.
He says one of the problems with 1106 is that while it provides some relief for property taxes, it makes schools more dependent on state funds because it reduces their ability to levy taxes.
Hansen says one of the solutions to the school funding property tax relief problem he suggested to lawmakers is to fund schools the same way economic incentives are provided.
Under LB 974 just like LB 1106, an additional 520 million in state aid to K-12 schools would be distributed over the next three years. And to reduce local property taxes, the valuation of property that can be taxed to fund schools would be reduced with agricultural land dropping from 75 percent of actual value to 55 percent.
