On Friday May 3, 2024 citizens concerned about Nebraska’s overly burdensome tax system packed the Warner Chamber at the Nebraska State Capitol Building in Lincoln to hear an honest debate and exchange of ideas about the EPIC Option Consumption Tax.  While we invited numerous representatives from those organizations who openly oppose the EPIC Option Consumption Tax, such as the Open Sky Institute, the State Chamber of Commerce, the League of Municipalities, the Nebraska Farm Bureau, and No New Taxes Nebraska, none of these organizations accepted our invitation to the debate.  So, instead we invited a few select citizens who oppose our plan to represent and defend the most common arguments against the EPIC Option Consumption Tax. So, today I would like to give my response to the three most common complaints we hear about the EPIC Option Consumption Tax.

The first complaint that we often hear is that the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would require a consumption tax rate of 22 percent, instead of a rate of 7.5 percent as per the Beacon Hill Institute.  We invited Dr. Ernie Goss, Nebraska’s most renown economist from Creighton University to be on the panel. Dr. Goss fielded that question and argued that the reports of 22 percent made by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and the Tax Foundation were based on erroneous assumptions about the EPIC Option Consumption Tax and are wrong.  Although Dr. Goss could not say with precision exactly what the consumption tax rate would be, he insisted that it would be much closer to 7.5 percent than the 22 percent which is being advertised by the Open Sky Institute, the State Chamber of Commerce, the League of Municipalities, and No New Taxes Nebraska.  So, both the Beacon Hill Institute, which did the only dynamic study on the EPIC Option consumption Tax, and Dr. Ernie Goss both agree that the consumption tax rate would be somewhere around 7.5 percent.

The second complaint we often hear is that the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would result in the loss of local control.  Under the EPIC Option Consumption Tax local units of government would maintain control over their budgets.  However, their budgets would be capped in the following way: Budgets would be determined by a five-year average of a government entity’s budgets plus two percent. This would require local units of government to begin living within their means.

Under the current tax system numerous government entities have the authority to raise property taxes.  These government entities with tax asking authority include local school boards, county boards, and Natural Resources Districts (NRDs). Consequently, a concerned citizen wishing to voice their opinion about their property taxes would have to attend the meetings of each of these different boards.  Moreover, the current tax system has proven to be a failure because according to the organization tax-rates.org, Nebraska ranks as the fourth highest state in the country for its median property tax rate.

A third complaint we often hear is that the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would no longer collect revenue from billionaires, such as Bill Gates, who now owns 20,000 acres of farmland across Nebraska. Because the EPIC Option Consumption Tax would eliminate property taxes altogether, it is true that Bill Gates would no longer have to pay property taxes in Nebraska.  However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was founded to promote programs addressing sustainability and climate change.  Reducing the number of farms and ranches are some of the foundation’s core principles.  If their long-range goal is to donate these lands to non-profit organizations, then these acres would be taken off the property tax rolls and other landowners would have to make up the difference.   So, the argument that Nebraska would no longer collect revenue from billionaires is a short-sighted argument and is really based upon greed, rather than on what is best for the State of Nebraska.