After one last bid to expand the scope of the Legislature's property tax relief package failed, Nebraska lawmakers sent the feeble plan to Gov. Jim Pillen's desk Tuesday morning, marking a disappointing climax of the special legislative session Pillen called last month to deliver "transformational" tax reform. Lawmakers voted 40-3 to send LB34 — the bill carrying the bulk of the Legislature's narrow property tax cut plan — to the governor on Tuesday after a small group of term-limited lawmakers made a last-ditch push to broaden the bill, which senators from across the political spectrum have repeatedly cast as lackluster.
If Pillen signs all four bills that make up the property tax cut package, the plan would cut various state budgets , place an inflationary cap on annual budget increases for cities and counties and pour $750 million into a property tax relief fund. Much of that relief, though, would be funded by front-loading an existing tax credit program that more than half of Nebraska's property taxpayers are already tapping, limiting the relief the plan will actually provide to many homeowners. The Legislature pivoted to the watered-down plan after the sweeping tax cut package championed by Pillen stalled last week in the face of fierce opposition from a bipartisan group of lawmakers over its reliance on increased sales tax revenue.
The impasse over how to fund property tax relief — conservatives broadly supported the repeal of numerous sales tax exemptions and hik.