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 LB 34 — 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.
Tuesday's final special-session votes again split western Nebraska's five-member delegation, as happened when LR 2CA won 32-14 first-round approval Friday. The three Panhandle senators — Hardin, Erdman and Brewer — vote "yes" to end debate and move to second-round approval of Brandt's amendment, while Jacobson and Ibach opposed it. Both west central Nebraska lawmakers voted "no" as Wayne lost on his 29-15 motion to adjourn the special session until Nov.
18. An identical vote split then sent senators home for good, with Jacobson and Ibach joining a a 29-15 majority to adjourn "sine die" and Brewer, Erdman and Hardin voting against. That final vote likely ended the Unicameral floor careers of Erdman and Brewer, who will leave the Legislature in January due to term limits.
Hardin, Ibach and Jacobson will be joined then by the winners of Nov. 5 races between Tanya Storer of Whitman and Tony Tangwall of Whitney in Brewer's District 43 and Sidney Vice Mayor Paul Strommen and Larry Bolinger of Alliance in Erdman's District 47. The impasse over how to fund property tax relief — conservatives broadly supported the repeal of numerous sales tax exemptions and hiked sin taxes, while progressives hoped for legalized online sports gambling and recreational marijuana, luxury taxes and a new income tax bracket — forced lawmakers to turn to the front-loaded income tax credits, the only revenue source the two camps could agree on.
Lawmakers' decision to pivot to the scaled-down package, which multiple senators called "the very least we could do," was met with resistance from members of the Legislature's senior class, who have repeatedly pushed for the expansion of the tax package or for lawmakers to scrap the plan altogether and return to the drawing board. That push continued Tuesday as Sen. Justin Wayne of Omaha moved to amend LB34 to eliminate sales taxes on household electric bills, hike taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, and repeal sales tax exemptions on services like dry cleaning, swimming pool cleaning and chartered flights.
"It's important because the renter, the person on fixed income, are right now not getting any benefits from LB34," Wayne said Tuesday. "We're trying to create some balance." "I just feel like we need to do more," he added.
His latest push for an expanded tax package fell six votes shy Tuesday as lawmakers rejected his amendment on a 1921 vote. Some defended LB34 even as they agreed with Wayne that it did not go as far as they hoped it would when Pillen recalled the Legislature to Lincoln last month for an abnormal special session focused on property tax reform. "I'd like to see much more done in this session, and we had some great plans to do that, and they got resoundingly shot down.
And that's, unfortunately, the way that things work in here," Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn said. "But don't convince yourself that we're doing nothing here today," he added.
"There are parts of LB34 that will have a lasting impact on property taxpayers in Nebraska." reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or [email protected] .
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