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Hopes for property tax relief in Nebraska start to fade

With each passing day, hopes that the Nebraska legislature will provide substantive property tax relief for Nebraska farmers and ranchers start to fade.

But Jay Rempe, vice president for governmental relations with Nebraska Farm Bureau, says they haven’t given up the fight.

“There’s still some bills in Revenue Committee that they’re still looking at and having some discussion about,” Rempe says. “If they could get out, we’d have discussion on the floor.”

Rempe says Farm Bureau continues to push for legislation that would lower the assessed valuation of farmland from 75 to 65 percent.   But he is more confident about an increase in the property tax credit program.

“The Appropriations Committee has indicated it’s going to put an additional 60 million dollars into the property tax credit program,” Rempe says.  “That would bring it up to 200 million dollars.  So that’s a positive in that regard.”

Rempe admits property tax reform is a complex problem—and he says the big influx of new senators in 2015 has probably slowed the process.

“We’ve got a lot of new senators in there and they’re trying to get arms around it, grapple with it, and try to figure out which is the best way to go,” he says.

But long-term, Rempe says, the property tax problem won’t be solved without addressing school funding.

“That’s where some reform needs to take place.”