2024 Legislature: substance amid property tax stalemate

April 22, 2024, midnight ·

Nebraska Capitol (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News)
Nebraska Capitol (Photo by Fred Knapp, Nebraska Public Media News

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Nebraska Public Media News' Dale Johnson talked to legislative reporter Fred Knapp about the recently-completed session of the Nebraska Legislature. Here is a transcript of their discussion:

Dale Johnson

Fred, let's start at the end. lawmakers did not pass a big tax bill on Thursday. What happened?

Fred Knapp

Well, there weren't 33 votes to break a filibuster against the bill. So at some point, Senator Lou Ann Linehan, who was spearheading the charge for this, on behalf of the governor just asked to move on to the next item on the agenda. Governor

Johnson

Gov. Pillen, Sen. Linehan, and others had been working on this plan for nearly a year. Remind us what it was supposed to do.

Knapp

Pillen set the goal of a 40% reduction in the property tax. And in order to do that, and property tax goes to local governments, he was going to have the state offset some of the revenue that the locals will otherwise get. And so he floated initially the idea of a two cent sales tax increase. The Revenue Committee eventually dropped that to one cent, and then they dropped that and they were left with expanding the sales tax to certain items that are not currently taxed, like candy and pop, veterinary services -- not for livestock, but for pets --, lottery tickets, dry cleaning, advertising services. Even with all that, it wouldn't have met the governor's 40% reduction goal but his budget director Lee Will said it would have reduced property tax bills by about 22%.

Johnson

We both have seen a lot of last day legislative sessions that usually include a speech by the governor. And in that speech, there is a habit of thanking lawmakers for their work. How did Governor Pillen’s speech differ?

Knapp

It differed both in tone and substance because while he did go through the ceremonial thinking of the lawmakers for what they had accomplished this year, he then switched gears and said they had failed to do anything about property taxes. And as a result, he would call them back into a special session later on this year before their next regularly scheduled session, which would not be until next January. Johnson

Alright, staying on Thursday’s activities, the Legislature also approving another scholarship program to send kids to private or religious schools.

Knapp

This is Senator Linehan’s replacement plan for the law she got passed last year which would have created a similar program but funded it through tax credits. This one makes a direct appropriation. As an appropriation it's not subject to the referendum which her last year's bill was. And it's on the ballot as of now, whether voters want to continue that law in effect or not.

Johnson

What were some of the other significant pieces of legislation passed in the session?

Knapp

Schools in the more rural areas of the state are now allowed to, if they want, have a staff member be armed, in case they are a long way from a police station or a sheriff's office. There was an expansion of work release programs for prison inmates. There were reforms to the parole system. And there was a tax credit for employers to offer moving expenses for employees moving in from out of state, targeted at people making between $70,000 and $250,000 a year. There was also legislation to try to leverage more federal funds for hospitals and nursing homes to shore them up financially.

Johnson

Last year, there was a seemingly endless series of filibusters and emotional debate. How did this session compare to last year?

Knapp

It was relatively tame until towards the end. You'll remember what triggered last year's emotional debates and filibusters was a proposal to limit health treatments for transgender minors. This year's equivalent of that was the “Sports and Spaces” bill which would have restricted trans athletes in Nebraska schools to the teams and locker rooms and bathrooms that correspond to their sex at birth. The Education Committee didn't advance that proposal until very near the end of the session. And it turns out it didn't have enough votes to overcome a filibuster, so it died. But then there was a big controversy involving Senator Steve Halloran, who read on the floor testimony about a book describing a rape scene and he inserted the names of some colleagues into his reading of that.

Johnson

Why did he say what he did?

Knapp

It was during debate on a bill about obscenity and he said he was trying to show what kind of materials were available in some schools, and that he called out the names of his colleagues to get them to pay attention. The Legislature's internal governing Executive Board later voted to reprimand Halloran for having violated the Legislature's workplace harassment policy.

Johnson

So where do things go from here?

Knapp

With the governor promising a special session on property taxes, that seems likely. He's also said he's open to a special session on changing Nebraska's Electoral College voting system to the winner-take-all system used in 48 other states, but only if there are enough votes to overcome a filibuster, 33. And that has not been the case so far.

Johnson

All right. So the next step is to wait and see when the call for the special session is made.

Knapp

That would be the next white or black puff of smoke on the horizon.

Johnson

You'll hear about it from the Nebraska Public Media newsroom. Thank you, Fred.

Knapp

Thanks, Dale.

Johnson

I'm Dale Johnson, Nebraska Public Media News.