The Legislature is working to get as many hours of debate in as possible. This has included some late evening sessions, going past 10 pm once this past week. Good conversations have taken place, interspersed with discussion to purposefully use up time. When this occurs, we are able to have brief meetings and get other work done, so despite the efforts of those filibustering, all is not lost, nor is time completely wasted.

 LB 243, which was amended to include parts of seven other bills, is part of the Governor’s proposal to deal with education and property taxes. The package includes the Education Future fund, and would increase the amount of property tax relief through direct income tax credits. The credits offset part of what a taxpayer paid in property taxes to their school district during the previous year. 

The act will grant roughly $315 million in relief this year and would increase to $388 million for tax year 2024. The fund for these credits would continue to increase annually, reaching $560 million in tax year 2029. After that, it would grow by the percentage increase in the total assessed value of all real property statewide over the prior year.

Some concerns raised during debate questioned whether the amount in the Education Future Fund, combined with other proposed income tax cuts, could leave the state unable to meet obligations to pay for education and tax credits in the future. 

An amendment offered by Sen.Tom Brandt led to some of our best conversations on the floor regarding school funding. It included the $1500 per student foundation aid; but also changed different classes of property for taxation, such as lowering agricultural land down to 42%. The amendment was ultimately defeated.

In LB 243, every school will get $1500 per student and more special education funding, up to 80% of those  costs. The TEEOSA formula will see some changes, but nearly every district should see a decrease in property taxes. There will be an increase in reporting requirements from school districts and a cap lid of 3% with various ways to raise that cap (a super majority of a school board, or 60% approval in a vote of the people). So local control remains, but there is also a great deal more funding coming from the state. 

Funding for special education will grow to more than $250 million, which is nearly double the current amount.. The $1 billion education fund will grow over the next few years, and we will see if that fund is adequate to fulfill  educational needs or if it will need additional appropriations to keep pace with the needs of education in the future.

Another measure amended into this package was LB 783 which ends or limits the community college system’s ability to levy property tax. With removal of that authority, there will be a 3.5% growth rate increase every year of state funding. In this new proposal there will be no property taxes collected for operations. There are still some bonds that will remain, but going forward, most of the costs of community colleges will be picked up by the state.

I visited several times with Dr. Paul Illich of Southeast Community Colleges to gauge the impact on our schools in Beatrice and Lincoln. The bill represents a large amount of property relief for Nebraska, in the amount of $275 to $300 million.

Another major bill, LB 683, would create a broadband office. We have heard several times that federal dollars will not be available to Nebraska unless we have this agency. Amounts vary from $100 million to $400 million from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program that our state could be using to build out to the people who really need it. So many areas in the state are severely limited in connectivity; and this is not necessarily restricted to rural areas, even parts of Omaha have this problem. Covid really revealed this lack of broadband when we turned to remote learning, working from home, telehealth, and so on. 

A new broadband office would bring interests together to develop a plan for infrastructure, operation and maintenance. It would also advocate for Nebraska at the federal level in matters of mapping, speed data and regional networks.

LB 683 was also amended with other bills from the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. Among them were clarifications to grant applications for broadband and prohibitions to using state subsidies for any company that uses equipment from the Chinese company Huawei, which could pose a threat to national security. 

With the resignation of Senator Geist to be able to focus her energy on running for mayor of Lincoln, we welcome new Senator Carolyn Bosn to the Unicameral. She was appointed by Governor Pillen to serve out the remainder of the term in District 25. I wish both of them well as they take on these new responsibilities.

Contact me at any time via email at mdorn@leg.ne.gov or call my office at 402-471-2620.  Easter blessings to you all!