State Legislature

Nebraska Farm Bureau backs property tax relief bills

Nebraska Farm Bureau is expressing support for legislation that it says will provide property tax relief to the state’s farmers and ranchers.

Two of the bills are sponsored by State Senator Lydia Brasch of Bancroft. One would send 20 percent of the state income taxes collected in a local school district back to the district for school funding purposes.  Brasch says that would ensure that all schools receive some form of state funding assistance.

“That’s an issue that’s been a concern for schools that have received no equalization aid—and also for taxpayers in those districts,” Brasch says.

Brasch’s other bill would reduce the level of taxable value for ag land for school taxation purposes from 75 percent of market value to 65 percent.   Brasch believes a combination of those two bills would provide “a beneficial solution” to the challenges of property tax relief and school funding.

“There will be a few moving parts here with various legislation,” she says, “but it is time that we do bring some equity and fairness back into the tax situation that we currently have in our rural communities.”

According to Nebraska Farm Bureau, Nebraska farmers and ranchers account for less than three percent of the state’s population but now pay nearly 30 percent of the total property taxes collected statewide. Farm Bureau says Nebraska ag land owners now pay the third highest property taxes in the country, behind only California and Texas.

AUDIO: Nebraska Farm Bureau conference call with reporters