I have introduced sixteen bills this session. This is my second in a series of updates where I want to explain what these bills are about. Last week I discussed my State Meat Inspection bill, and my bill to end applying income tax to social security payments. This week, I want to devote this update to LR13CA.  

LR13CA is a legislative resolution to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot for the voters to ratify in 2022. This requires 30 votes (not the normal 25) to pass. I have introduced a version of this every year I have been in the legislature. This resolution is designed to lower property taxes by addressing the root cause of the problem. High property taxes are a very easy problem to understand, yet one of the most difficult to solve. Nebraska has some of the highest property taxes in the country because we rely upon them to fund public education far too much. Nationally about 40% of the funding for K-12 schools comes from property taxes. In Nebraska, that’s about 60% and in some school districts it is much more. We are 47th in the nation in terms of how much the legislature appropriates and spends on K-12 education. 46 other state legislatures provide more funding for K-12 than we do.

LR13CA places a limit in the constitution on how much property taxes can be used to fund schools. The resolution says no more than 33% of the funding for our public schools can be derived from property taxes. If this was the law today and spending was at the same level, the legislature would have to come up with about $670M in a new general fund appropriation. The question, “How are you going to pay for it?” kills a lot of bills and this is no exception. Soon the debate turns to what spending would senators vote to cut? What tax would they vote to raise? Very quickly discussing the merits of the bill is replaced by arguments over revenue sources and the bill dies (again.) 

The fact remains that having no limit in our constitution for how we fund “the free instruction in the common schools” is the root cause of our high property tax problem. I’m confident the people would pass this proposed amendment by a comfortable margin were it ever put on the ballot. But there are quite a few people and groups who would prefer to never give the public that opportunity. Forcing this body to find an extra $670M would cause a historic political fight because of the massive spending cuts in other programs that would be required. If the past fifty years is any guide, it’s clear that as long as the legislature can continue to pass-off the lion’s share of the funding for schools on to the school districts to fund themselves with property taxes, they will continue to do so.