LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – It’s been a long and bumpy road for Gov. Jim Pillen’s tax plan: from the failed attempt in the regular 2024 legislative session to the introduction of LB 1 in the special session to finding a new home in LB 9. And as debate looms next week, it doesn’t appear things will get any easier.
The Nebraska Legislature’s Revenue Committee was set to meet on Thursday at 8 a.m. to vote the amended form of LB 9 onto the floor, but a few wrinkles in the language meant a last-minute trip back to bill drafters.
“I’m anxious,” Sen. Jana Hughes said. “I want property tax relief.”
Hughes originally introduced LB 9 as a more gradual alternative to the Pillen’s proposal for the state to take over all K-12 education operating costs. Now, it’s the primary vehicle for the Pillen plan.
“All of it has changed pretty much,” Hughes said.
The amended version would see school levy lids lowered from $1.05 to $.25 for fiscal year 2025-26. Hughes said that would mean about 100 schools would be in trouble in terms of funding right away, but chair of the Revenue Committee, Lou Ann Linehan, said that’s something they’re working on.
“Some senators in the Department of Education are working on fixes to those issues right now,” Linehan said. “I’m not looking for perfect. I’m looking for the language to say what we want it to say.”
Linehan made strides to explain what they want to say during a briefing at 10 a.m. on Thursday. Speaking to a room full of state senators and their staffers, she and State Sen. Brad von Gillern worked to unfold the complex package, weaving in examples of savings in household budgets.
“I think the briefing went really well,” Linehan said. “I think people understand it and more what we’re trying to do.”
But for some, that gathering didn’t seem to move the needle at all.
“I think I left with as many questions as I had when I walked in,” State Sen. George Dungan, the Revenue Committee’s most outspoken opponent of the bill, said. “I’ve talked to my friends on the left. I’ve talked to my friends on the right. I’ve talked to my friends in the center. And every single group of people I’ve talked to have problems with this plan.”
Facing a wall of motions and filibusters, the bill will likely have a short run way as it heads to the floor.
“Right now it’s a little bleak, but I don’t know,” Hughes said. “I think sometimes this happens, and then the phoenix rises from the ashes. So I’m going to be hopeful.”
There’s no clear sign of when LB 9 will come onto the floor as the Revenue Committee has yet to vote on it.
The Legislature adjourned for the week on Thursday and is set to be back on Monday afternoon.
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