Most of these bills were referred to the Legislature’s Finance Committee. Finance Committee members therefore incorporated several ideas from these bills into the governor’s bill and submitted LB1 for debate. This bill was 144 pages long and did not have enough support to advance to the next round of debate on Select File. So Finance Committee members went back to work over the weekend.

On Monday, August 12, the Finance Committee amended its new plan to a bill introduced by Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward. After several hours of debate on the floor, LB9 also failed to gain enough support to advance to the next round of debate.

Eventually, the Finance Committee decided to scale back its proposal by amending another bill. This time, they decided to incorporate their ideas into Senator Tom Brewer’s bill LB34. The strategy of amending another bill allowed the Finance Committee to avoid debating damaging motions that had already been filed on previous bills.

The LB34 amendment brought two important changes. First, it brought forward the property tax credit that had already been made available to taxpayers in 2020 under LB1107. That law already allowed property owners to claim back 30 percent of their property tax return as a credit or refund on their state income tax return. However, many people did not claim the credit because they did not know about it or had difficulty submitting the required paperwork. Once LB34 goes into effect, that tax credit will be automatically deducted from every property tax return, eliminating the need for taxpayers to submit paperwork. This approach makes much more sense for taxpayers who would otherwise have to pay their outrageous property tax bills and then wait six months for a refund.

Second, the bill sets spending caps for the state’s political subdivisions. The Property Tax Growth Limitation Act, contained in an amendment to the bill, limits the authority of political subdivisions to levy taxes by capping all increases at zero or the rate of inflation. Another amendment included in the bill allows a political subdivision to circumvent the cap by holding a special election of the people in the month of May in an odd-numbered year.

Ironically, I had introduced an amendment with the same ideas during the regular session of the House earlier this year, but the House did not pass it. At the time, my amendment was only supported by 23 Senators, so it failed by only two votes. Had we passed my amendment, the special session of the House would not have been necessary.

The bottom line is that while LB34 has some good ideas, it doesn’t provide the kind of property tax relief that Nebraskans really need. The end result is that property taxes will continue to rise, and LB34 gives taxpayers only a small reduction in the amount their property taxes will increase next year.

The EPIC option excise tax remains the best solution to Nebraska’s broken tax system, but it will be up to the people to put this measure on the 2026 ballot.