Property Tax Relief Package Advances

This week, the Revenue Committee voted a property tax package out of committee, LB243, sponsored by Sen. Briese. Although we have not seen the new bill, we have learned it includes portions of the following bills.

• LB589 (Sen. Briese) – Places a cap on school district revenue growth. Allows for schools with an average of 3% or more student growth over three years to use 70% of that growth toward their allowance over the cap. A school district may exceed its property tax authority, with a 75% majority vote of the school board. Additionally, a district may exceed their property tax request authority by any amount with a 60% vote of the people. The cap would not apply to property tax revenues required to pay bonded indebtedness. This requires all special education funding to be inside the school funding formula and subject to the cap.

• LB242 (Sen. Briese) – Changes Nebraska Property Tax Incentive Act by eliminating the 5% cap on the allowable growth percentage for the total assessed value growth of all real property in the state from the prior year.

• LB243 (Prioritized by Sen. Briese), this changes the minimum amount of relief granted under the Property Tax Credit Act, currently funded at $315 million. Raises the statutory minimum to the following:
  • 2024: $388 million
  • 2025: $428 million
  • 2026: $468 million
  • 2027: $488 million
  • 2028: $515 million
  • 2029: $560 million
  • Thereafter, the fund will grow by the allowable growth rate.

• LB783 (Sen. Murman) – Eliminates the property tax general fund levy authority of community colleges. More details are forthcoming.

• LB309 (Sen. Bostar) – Changes interest rate from 9% to 14% when tax refunds or claims are owed by taxing entities to taxpayers.

• LB28 (Sen. Erdman) – Require valuation of property with an appeal to the TERC that has not been decided when the first half of taxes become delinquent to revert valuation to the value of the year prior to the appealed year.