Today we completed day fifty-two of our sixty day session. With time growing shorter, so are tempers. I do not think I have ever seen this many filibusters used in a session. Because of all the time spent doing this, quite a few bills will never get a chance to be placed on the agenda and heard. Senators are upset by this and I don’t blame them.

Every session I have been here I have watched scores of good bills to lower property taxes die. By “lowering property taxes” I do not mean some accounting trick a politician can claim is property tax relief. I mean actual relief where next year your property tax bill will be lower than it was this year. I have watched a number of bills die this session for want of just a few votes to end a filibuster. 

I am happy to report that a grand compromise might have been reached. LB 853 is a priority bill from Senator Curt Friesen. Language from a number of different bills has been amended into it. Senator Linehan’s bill to lower income and corporate taxes is in it. Senator Lindstrom’s bill to eliminate income tax on social security is included. Provisions from Senator Briese’s property tax reduction bill is in it. Also, Senator Clements has passed LB 310 which will phase-out Nebraska’s inheritance tax. All and all, almost $1 billion in property, income, and corporate tax reductions are in the bill. If this passes, it will be the most tax relief I have ever seen in the six years I have served in the legislature.

In other news, our federal congress has introduced a bill to require the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative to reinstate mandatory country of original labeling (MCOOL) for beef raised and slaughtered in the USA. This is a great idea I strongly support. This bill joins a companion bill already introduced in the Senate, the American Beef Labeling Act of 2021, S. 2716. 

Our U.S. Senator Deb Fischer announced the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act bill introduced in the senate. The bill would facilitate price discovery and address the lack of transparency in cattle markets. Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) joined Fischer in announcing the compromise legislation.

Closer to home, LB 1014, one of the bills to spend the federal ARPA funding, includes $20 million to expand beef processing capacity, $10 million for small and medium processors through the Independent Processors Assistance Program, $4 million for water quality programming, $75 million for workforce housing grants, and $60 million to be divided equally among Nebraska’s six community college areas for capital or programs that support workforce development. Nebraska’s “rural” senators have done a good job making sure greater Nebraska was considered when sorting out how to spend this money.