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Ricketts slams committee’s property tax relief plan

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts has slammed a property tax relief plan put forth by the legislature’s Revenue Committee, saying it would result in “the largest tax increase in Nebraska history”.

The committee proposes to increase the state sales tax rate by three-quarters of a cent in order to help fund 500 million dollars in additional property tax relief. Chairwoman Lou Ann Linehan says the plan would not raise taxes on Nebraskans—that it would actually cut taxes—but the governor disagrees.

“It is absolutely a tax increase because the plan the Revenue Committee has put forward will just end up in raising taxes and end up in more government spending,” Ricketts tells Brownfield. “It will not result in long-term tax relief.”

Nebraska ag groups have been pushing for meaningful property tax relief for many years. Laura Field with Nebraska Cattlemen says her group believes something needs to change.

“We’ve heard that statement multiple times, that you can’t raise someone else’s taxes to lower someone else’s taxes—and we have argued for years that agricultural producers’ taxes have been going up and nobody’s getting in the way to stop that,” Field says.

“We’ve seen that exact thing happen as the needs for school districts in the urban areas—and even school districts in the rural areas—as those needs have shifted, the burden has fallen squarely on the shoulders of agricultural property taxpayers. We just believe, fundamentally, something has to change.”

A public hearing on the Revenue Committee’s proposal will be held on April 24th.