2 of 3 Nebraska school bonds that passed this week would be moot under proposed bill

Three Nebraska school districts passed school bonds this week, but if one Nebraska legislator gets his way, two of them wouldn’t have counted.

Voters passed school bond issues in the Humphrey, Seward and Springfield-Platteview school districts this week.

“We are extremely excited for the next steps, and we sincerely appreciate our district patrons’ support,” Humphrey Public Schools said in a Facebook post after the bond passed on Tuesday. The unofficial vote was 534-493.

The district, which is north of Columbus in Platte County, will use proceeds from the $15.9 million bond issue to build a new facility for students in seventh through 12th grade.

The district apparently finally found the sweet spot that its voters would support, after failed bond issues of $39.5 million in 2023 and $29.5 million in 2024. Those bond issues had included plans for a new gym and performing arts center.

The new bond project, “is focusing on addressing our academic and space needs,” Superintendent Brice King wrote in the district’s January newsletter.

“The updated design reflects a strategic choice to reduce project costs, prioritizing academics and expanded trade programs that prepare students for their future,” King wrote.

The bond is projected to cost residents about $110 annually for every $100,000 of property they own.

Seward voters overwhelmingly passed a $25 million bond issue that will pay for a number of upgrades, including security enhancements to both the high school and elementary school, new additions, classroom renovations and upgrades to the heating and cooling systems.

More than 2,300 people voted in favor of the bond, while only around 1,000 voted against it. One factor that may have made it more palatable to voters is that their tax rate will not go up because the district is retiring a 2010 bond next year.

“That definitely makes a big difference in my mind,” Seward Superintendent Josh Fields said about the bond’s lack of a tax increase.

He said the district worked with an architect to do facility studies and then pare down projects to get the amount asked for to get to a level where it would not affect the tax levy.

The largest bond issue by far passed in the Springfield-Platteview district in Sarpy County.

More than 68% of voters in the district who cast their votes did so in favor of the $79.9 million bond, which will pay for a new elementary school in the growing district, as well as additions to the junior-senior high school and other improvements.

Though all three of the bond issues passed with resounding support, only one of them had enough voter turnout to meet the threshold that would be required under a bill proposed by Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue.

LB765 would, among other things, require at least 50.1% of registered voters in a school bond election to participate for the result to be valid.

During a hearing on the bill Wednesday by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, Holdcroft called it a “common-sense measure” to ensure, “that local school patrons are not saddled with a large property tax burden unless a majority of voters have turned out on election day and made their wishes known.”

Holdcroft said one of the most common issues he hears from his constituents is that property taxes continue to rise significantly.

Under the threshold being pushed by Holdcroft, five of the 16 school bond issues that passed in 2025 would be invalid, as would two that passed Tuesday. Only the Humphrey bond had a majority of registered voters turn out, at about 62%.

In the Springfield-Platteview election, turnout was less than 40%, and in Seward, Fields said it was about 46%.

Holdcraft’s bill is not the first one he’s introduced around school bond issues. Last year, the senator introduced a bill that would have mandated that school bond elections take place at the same time as other regularly scheduled elections. Though it didn’t pass, it highlighted a complaint sometimes raised that schools intentionally hold bond issues outside of other elections to drive down turnout and help boost their chances of success.

During his testimony Wednesday, Holdcroft pointed out that one of the bond issues that passed last year was a $185 million bond issue in Millard that had just 28% turnout and was held just six weeks after the general election.

Fields, however, noted that 1,500 more people voted during the recent Seward school bond election, which was an all-mail ballot election, than voted in the last school bond election in 2010, which was held during the general election.

“And so I think the numbers kind of speak for itself a little bit within that,” he said.

“We want great voter turnout, we wish that we would have had higher,” Fields said, “but at the same time, people had more time to vote when you talk about mail-in ballots.”