The not-so-special-session of the Legislature ended on Tuesday, August 20. Sen. Loren Lippincott of Central City described the mood of the session by writing: “Unfortunately, the biggest scarcity seems to be the political courage to do what is right on behalf of the people.” Sen. Lippincott’s statement profoundly described exactly what happened during the special session of the Legislature, which ended without passing any kind of meaningful or significant property tax relief.

What the Legislature passed was not very original or new. It took 17 days for the Legislature to adopt a resolution which I had previously introduced as an amendment to another bill back in April. The reason I introduced that amendment was to help those who were not claiming their property tax credit on their income tax return. Back in April my amendment had received 23 votes, but it needed 25 to pass. Four months later and after 17 days of the most unorganized and confusing session I have ever been involved in, we passed the same amendment with 40 votes.

I knew back in April that passing that amendment would not stop property taxes from increasing. What the Legislature passed during the special session through LB34 amounts to nothing more than a slight decrease in the amount of the increase that taxpayers will see on their future property tax statements. While the amendment will help the 45 percent of property owners who have not been filing the necessary paperwork to get the property tax credit on their income tax returns, the credit itself has been available ever since LB1107 passed back in the year 2020, so it does not really count as property tax relief.

In addition to front loading the property tax credit already made available to the taxpayers since 2020, LB34 also placed a cap on local units of government. The cap applies to their budgets. The cap will restrict increases to zero or the inflation rate, whichever is higher; however, the cap may be overridden whenever there is a threat to public safety or by a vote of the people during the month of May in odd numbered years.

One issue that a lot of people don’t understand is how their property taxes pay for many requirements that the State has placed on local units of government. From time to time the State Legislature passes bills that force counties, cities, and schools to pay for things that the state does not pay for. These kinds of bills are called “unfunded mandates”. Unfunded mandates cost property owners hundreds of millions of dollars every year in the form of higher property taxes. Unfortunately, State Senators often do not take into consideration how these unfunded mandates will affect the taxpayers when it comes time to vote on the bill.

I was part of the working group that the Governor selected to work on property tax relief earlier this year. That group met seven times during the early summer months. It has been said that this committee almost unanimously agreed with the plan that the Governor introduced. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was never a time when a vote was taken, nor were the members of the working group ever asked if they agreed with the plan. There was no method for determining any kind of consensus. What the Governor came up with was his own personal plan. The Governor had been advised not to call for a special session until he had 33 votes to pass his plan in the Legislature. He ignored that advice and has now discovered the hard way that there are three separate coequal branches of government.

The Governor has the authority to call for a special session of the Legislature, but he has no authority to keep State Senators there. Earlier this spring the Governor had stated that he would continue to call for special sessions, even if it took until Christmas to get meaningful property tax relief. Now he is saying that unless he has the votes, he won’t call the State Senators back to the Capitol. Gov. Pillen stated many times that his goal was to deliver a 50 percent reduction in property taxes. The bill passed by the Legislature is only a three percent reduction and now he is calling that a great first step. In the final analysis, what the Legislature passed amounts to nothing more than a decrease in the amount of the increase.