Hello Neighbor,

My priority bill, LB 585, was debated and passed the first round of debate. This bill would create the Renewable Fuel Infrastructure Program. The purpose of the bill is to increase the number of locations across Nebraska so that consumers are able to fill their tanks with higher blends of ethanol – from E-15 all the way up to E-85. If funded, the program would distribute up to a million dollars a year in grants to gas stations, allowing those stations to install, replace, or convert infrastructure for ethanol. I see the  economic opportunities with this program and what it does to promote ethanol use across the state. I am certainly disappointed that we are not able to fund this program in the current year and get moving on working with gas stations to install blender pumps across the state.  However, we all understand with the current fiscal strain on our resources, we are not able to do everything we would otherwise do. It is my hope that building this program now will better position us for funding the program in the very near future.

We should see a property tax relief plan from the Revenue Committee very soon. More and more details are emerging as to what will be in the final package. It looks like every school district will get an increase in state aid, something that will be a big help in lowering property taxes, as school funding is where most of our property taxes go. Many of you have contacted my office concerned about property tax relief, and I am going to do everything I can to make sure we get meaningful relief. It has been a long road for the members of the Revenue Committee to try and come up with a plan to get to 33 votes. The Revenue Committee met last week but a package bill did not come out of committee. The final version will not be everything that any group wanted, but it should be a compromise so that we can achieve some form of relief for the property tax payers. Senator Lindstrom’s LB 303, proposed on behalf of the Governor, was advanced to General File. This bill would add $51 million a year to the State’s Property Tax Credit Fund.

The Legislature also passed LB 512 by Senator Linehan. This was mostly a technical bill, but it also included an amendment by Senator Erdman that I wholeheartedly supported. The amendment would make property tax payments more fair for those people whose homes are destroyed during a natural disaster. They would not be taxed on the assessed value of the home for the full year. Instead, it changes the valuation to a formula that assesses the value of the property based on the value and percentage of the year the home was standing, and add it to the new valuation of the property based on the value and percentage of the year the home was destroyed. If, for instance, a home was destroyed exactly halfway through the year, current law would still tax the property based on its value with the home intact. The new bill would assess the value of the property with the home intact for half, and the value of the property with the home destroyed for half. This would reduce the property tax bill and give a little help to those who have been affected by a natural disaster.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact my office by email at dmurman@leg.ne.gov, by phone at 402-471-2732, or on my Facebook page.