Nebraska Legislature prepares for special session on property taxes
Pillen: Tax bill is a ‘living, breathing document’
LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) - The process for when Nebraska lawmakers head to a special session this month is becoming more clear. What’s still fuzzy, though, are the details the plan that will be discussed during the session.
At this point, fixing Nebraska’s high property taxes will be the only item on the agenda in the special session. Pillen has explained that taxing groceries or medicine is off the table. he also left no wiggle room when asked Wednesday if he would raise the state sales tax.
Pillen has spent the summer traveling the state, trying to create a groundswell of support for his plan to cut property taxes in half. He says he never scheduled a town hall in the state’s two biggest cities — Omaha and Lincoln — because he spends most of his time there anyway.
“I think I’ve been with [Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert] more than she’s been with her chief of staff, so I’m with business leaders and people in Omaha and Lincoln nonstop,” Pillen said.
When lawmakers return to the capitol in two weeks, for many, it will be the first time seeing the governor’s tax plan in writing. He calls it a “living and breathing document,” getting updates over and over after talking with members of the public and state senators. That’s why there still isn’t any paperwork or bill to share right now.
Republican State Sen. Julie Slama — who argues the only way to cut property taxes is by cutting spending, not by adding new taxes — took aim at the governor, posting to X on Wednesday, “College students, rather than writing your next term paper, tell your professor that it’s a living and breathing document and turn in nothing.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn has been working behind the scenes, figuring out how to get 33 senators on board.
“We’re taxing people out of their homes,” Sen. Linehan said. “Things we’re talking about taking exemptions off, they are not necessities. It’s not food. It is not your rent. It is not gas. It is not the things you have to have to live. These are optional things, like having somebody mow your yard or clean your pool.”
The major difference between the current plan and the one that failed to get through the legislature this spring involves the state taking over all K-12 public school funding.
“We should’ve moved away property taxes paying for schools a long time ago,” Linehan said. “Most states have and it’s time that Nebraska does.”
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