On Wednesday, August 28th, Mike and I traveled to Grand Island to visit the Nebraska State Fair. We toured the 4-H building as we do every year to look at the many entries from the district and our grandchildren’s entries from Dodge County and Dakota Thurston County. We enjoyed watching our granddaughter march down Main Street with the Mead marching band. We ended up visiting with a gentleman from Kansas who said he was impressed by the amount of 4-H participation going on at the state fair. We saw bus loads of children coming to visit the state fair and enjoyed the wonderment in their eyes as they saw everything available to see. I would like to say thanks to those on the Nebraska State Fair board and all the volunteers that are helping make the state fair a success. We had a delightful experience and realized that we are unable to see everything in one day. We should plan two days. Congratulations on a great 2024 Nebraska State Fair!

Special Session Bill Updates

I have had some questions over the weekend about LB34 and would like to clarify what was accomplished during special session. In Governor Pillen’s August 22nd column, he stated that because we frontloaded the Property Income Tax Credit to property tax statements, 45% of Nebraskans who were not claiming this on their income tax return, will now receive a 20% tax savings while those who were claiming this property tax credit will see approximately 3% property tax savings. Nebraskans will also see relief as we included caps on local spending authority for cities and counties. Most people view out of control valuation increases as the problem. Excess spending is the real issue. As valuations were increased, levies were supposed to decrease, but it is very obvious that this was not being done at the local level. This will decrease property tax increases by county and city governments. (Portions from Pillen, Governor Jim. Weekly Column. “Property Tax Reform: We Need to Do More”. 22 August, 2024. https://shorturl.at/u3pqb)

Exemptions to this include:

• approved bonds,
• response to a declared emergency,
• amount of unused property tax request authority that may be carried forward to future budget years,
• increase in property tax request authority approved by voters,
• amount of property taxes budgeted for public safety services (crime prevention, offender detention, and firefighter, police, medical, ambulance or other emergency services), and
  amount of property taxes budgeted for public safety services, county attorneys, and public defenders.

We also approved two budget measures to help offset a future shortfall in funding the property tax relief proposal. LB2, introduced by Senator Robert Clements of Elmwood at the request of Governor Pillen, makes adjustments to the state budget that was finalized in the recently concluded regular legislative session. This bill reappropriated general funds–also known as carryover funds–by $82 million across more than 40 state agencies in the current fiscal year (FY) and FY 2024-25. LB2 also lowers general fund appropriations by $41.46 million. In total the proposal reduces funds available to state agencies by approximately $120 million.

LB3, also introduced by Senator Clements at the request of the governor, authorizes and provides for fund transfers, changes certain fund transfer provisions, and changes application of investment earnings. Among other provisions, LB3 eliminates the crediting of accrued interest to more than 40 state agency cash funds. These dollars instead will be directed to the state’s General Fund. This bill is projected to increase state revenue by $22 million in 2025, $80 million in 2026, and $71 million in 2027. It also states legislative intent to transfer $200 million to the General Fund from the state’s Cash Reserve Fund in 2027 if needed and if funds are available. (“Budget bills clear final round”. Unicameral Update. 20 August, 2024. https://update.legislature.ne.gov/?p=36838)

As always, I invite you to let me know your thoughts, ideas, concerns, or suggestions by calling my office at (402) 471-2716 or emailing me at jalbrecht@leg.ne.gov.