Bill would add school funding, reduce property taxes

The Revenue Committee’s property tax/education funding reform bill, LB 974, was brought out of committee on a 6-2 vote last week.

LB 974 will inject additional state dollars into education funding. By the third year of implementation, it will provide more than $200 million per year in additional funding to our schools to provide property tax relief for hard working Nebraskans.

It will accomplish this by requiring the state to provide over $2,000 per student in foundation aid by that third year.

Under the bill, every district will receive more state dollars than would be available under current law. It will be most impactful in rural Nebraska, in particular for those districts that currently receive little, if any, equalization aid.

Equalization aid refers to state dollars which are sent to local school districts under the current education-funding system.

To help ensure that these new dollars to local schools will drive down the property tax bills for everyday Nebraskans, LB 974 will reduce valuations on residential and commercial property from the current 100% of value to 87%, and on ag land, from its current 75% to 55%.

An innovative new form of transition aid will be available to help any school districts that might be negatively impacted by the valuation reduction.

Among other items, the bill contains provisions intended to keep school spending and taxation growth closer to the inflation rate than they currently are.

With this, we can ensure that increases in the property tax burden will mirror increases in wages and income for working Nebraskans. The cost of different things go up all the time, but the costs to pay property taxes must never again go up so much more dramatically than the ability of the people to pay them, forcing people to leave their homes, sell family farms and even declare bankruptcy.

As I’ve discussed in the past, each senator in the legislature is given one priority bill designation, and each committee is given two, to apply to bills.

Almost all bills without a priority designation will not have a chance of passing.

LB 974 was designated as a priority bill by the Revenue Committee.

The deadline to designate a priority bill is fast approaching, and while I haven’t announced mine, it will most likely be one in the arena of property tax relief.

As always, do not hesitate to reach out to me or my office on issues relating to state government, bills in the legislature or public policy in general.

Be sure to mention where you’re from; responding to constituents is my top priority at the start of every workday.

I can be reached at [email protected], and you can call my office during regular business hours at 402-471-2631.