Last week my bill, LB372, passed through Final Reading by a vote of 47-0. Sen. Chambers and Sen. Hughes were excused from the Chamber and did not vote on the bill. This means that LB372 will now proceed to the Governor’s desk to be signed into law.

LB372 is a bill which will require the Property Assessment Division to use all of the land capability groups provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) when valuating agricultural land and horticultural land for property tax purposes. In the past, the Property Assessment Division has acquired the very bad habit of using only dryland classifications for valuating other kinds of agricultural lands and horticultural lands, such as irrigated cropland. This practice has led to many inaccurate valuations of agricultural lands and horticultural lands.

Once LB372 gets signed into law, the Property Assessment Division will begin the process of classifying agricultural land and horticultural land according to their specific land capability groups as provided by the NRCS. These land capability groups can be found online at: www.nrcs.usda.gov.

One of my primary goals since becoming a Nebraska State Senator has been to make agricultural land and horticultural land valuations fair and accurate. LB372 represents a significant step in that direction. However, while LB372 will certainly move the valuating process further in the direction of fairness and accuracy, it will not completely solve the problem. The reason is that market sales will continue to plague the valuation process.

The fact of the matter is that the Property Assessment Division will continue to valuate agricultural land and horticultural land based on market sales, instead of using only the productivity of the soil. Therefore, I am waiting for the Legislature’s Revenue Committee to advance my other bill, LB483, out of committee and onto General File. LB483 is my priority bill for the year, and this bill will overhaul the entire system and change the way we valuate agricultural land and horticultural land for property tax purposes. LB483 will tie agricultural land valuations and horticultural land valuations exclusively to the productivity of the soil. Ultimately, this is what farmers and ranchers in Nebraska need in order to make their valuations fair and accurate.

On a similar note, on Thursday, March 14, a public hearing will be held on my bill, LB707. The Legislature’s website has erroneously published the date of this hearing for March 13, but the hearing will actually be held by the Revenue Committee on March 14 beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Room 1524 at the State Capitol Building in Lincoln, Nebraska.

LB707 is a bill that will make the process of protesting the valuation of your agricultural or horticultural property much easier. It used to be the case that board members of the Tax Equalization & Review Commission (TERC) would hold hearings in Scottsbluff. However, the TERC board no longer holds hearings anywhere in Western Nebraska. Consequently, anyone wishing to protest the valuation of their agricultural land or horticultural land has to drive to Lincoln in order to present their case before the TERC board, and I believe this practice puts an undue burden on folks living in Western Nebraska.

LB707 would change this. LB707 would eliminate the burden of driving all the way to Lincoln by allowing TERC hearings to be held by way of video conferencing or by way of telephone conferencing. So, this is a common sense bill that would save folks living in Western Nebraska from the needless hassle of having to drive all the way to Lincoln just to protest the valuation of their land.