Pillen promises ‘local control’ amid latest Nebraska tax reform plan putting all K-12 education funding in state’s budget
Latest property tax town hall meeting crowded with supporters; state senators still think there aren’t enough votes to pass the governor’s reform plan
COLUMBUS, Neb. (WOWT) - At Gov. Jim Pillen’s lastest town hall meeting on Wednesday in his home town, it was standing room only — and a receptive crowd — to hear his plan to reduce Nebraska property taxes.
The State of Nebraska collects billions more dollars from property taxes than sales taxes. Pillen is trying to even it out — something he couldn’t get done earlier this year.
Now, he has new carrot in the proposal targeting education.
The new wrinkle in the proposal would have the state fund all K-12 education — and it comes with a $1.3 billion price tag. It’s similar to what the state does now for community colleges.
Right now, that line item is the largest on the Nebraska property tax bill. Pillen insists, however, that local control would still rule the day.
“No question — all of us have that issue, right? And we want to control our destiny,” Pillen said. “The thing that is really really the classic about ‘local control’: I’m the most guilty; I’ve never gone to City Council meeting, school board meeting, or county board meeting. We have out-taxed ourselves because we have not said ‘no’ to spending.”
The governor urged those in attendance to contact all 49 senators to share the importance of increasing sales taxes and lowering property taxes — and to combat the power of the lobbyists.
“The lobbying groups are really really good at bringing up all these barriers; and hell, I think most of them are myths,” he said.
He repeated that everything is on the table — except for taxing groceries and medications. But that message wasn’t able to convince 33 senators to carve out the exceptions and new taxes just a few months ago. And even today, state senators believe they are 2-3 votes short of passing Pillen’s plan.
“I don’t think I’ve ever remembered a governor in the entire time I’ve lived in Nebraska make a promise to do something without a plan,” State Sen. Carol Blood said. “‘I’m going to lower your property taxes by 40%.’ And then bring forward bad legislation — which, he doesn’t have full body support, not enough to get it passed — and then blame the Legislature because he brought forward bad policy.”
On Tuesday, Pillen sent a letter to Unicameral Speaker John Arch, officially announcing his plans to call senators back to Lincoln on July 25 to make more headway on addressing property taxes in Nebraska. But many senators told 6 News that they only heard about the special session from the governor’s social media accounts.
Pillen said Wednesday that his office hadn’t yet been in touch with all 49 senators but would be before the special session in a month.
“And again, our plan is living, breathing. There’s key components where we’re moving. But yeah, we’ll hear from everybody and everybody will have input,” the governor told 6 News.
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