Pillen talks taxes, local control at Holdrege town hall meeting

Gov. Jim Pillen provided further hints Tuesday about how he plans to pay for a state takeover of school funding, and tried to reassure people his idea would not erode local control. At a townhall meeting in Holdrege, Pillen talked about his idea to lower property taxes by expanding sales taxes.

“Services should be taxed. So, examples: How many pay for mowing lawns? How many people pay for getting your dog bathed? Those are all services that we should pay taxes on, because if that doesn’t work for your pocketbook, you can do it yourself,” Pillen said.

Pillen estimated it would cost the state an additional $1.7 billion a year to replace local property taxes that currently go to schools.

His plan drew a skeptical response from Holdrege car dealer Dave Janssen.

“I don’t know the budget like you do, but that seems like pretty near impossible just to raise that kind of money, just by eliminating exemptions on lawn mowing and dog baths,” Janssen said.

Pillen said more money could be raised by taxing agricultural and manufacturing inputs, raising taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, and taxing other currently exempt services like car repairs and lawyers fees.

Daren Hatch, superintendent of Elwood Public Schools, asked if all the schools’ money comes from the state, how would it be distributed.

“I worry about our money going to Lincoln and getting it back, so what would your split be between urban, rural, large, small? Because we don’t want to die on the end of the hose… waiting for our three drops to come," Hatch said. "So I think that might be some of the pushback you might get from rural and even further west – the further west you get, I mean, they’re on the further end of the hose."

Pillen said plans are still being worked out, but no district should get less money. And he said eliminating unfunded mandates would save schools money and let them pay teachers more.

Speaker of the Legislature John Arch says Pillen has indicated he will call senators back for a special session on property taxes beginning July 25.