This past weekend, I attended the Cattlemen’s Ball that was held at the Howard and Linda Benjamin ranch north of Cozad this year. This event is held annually to raise funds for cancer research. It is a great event for a great cause; this year was no exception.

On Saturday, the Governor was on hand for a formal signing ceremony of my priority bill this year, LB525, the Agricultural Data Privacy Act. The event was held at the Scott McPheeter farm south of Gothenburg. I introduced this bill at the request of the Governor, and it is the first of its kind in the nation. The bill is designed to protect a producer’s raw data from being used without express written consent. As advances in AI and other technologies continue, this legislation should serve as a safeguard against exploitation of our farmers and ranchers.

Last week was the week when many of you received your new property valuation notices. Once again, many of you saw increases in your property value even if you made no improvements to your property. This is not surprising given the demand for housing and the ongoing inflation of pricing associated with new housing. As a result, existing housing prices are going up due to supply and demand. It is rare that realtors sell a home for less than the tax assessed value.

I know that many of you expect your property tax bill to increase at the same rate as the increase in your assessed value. Given the legislative changes that went into effect this past year, your city and county taxes should rise at a slower pace due to caps on “revenue” increases regardless of value increases. Unfortunately, we are still trying to solve the public-school funding model and place adequate limits on public school tax increases (which makes up the highest portion of your tax bill). I am hoping to work together with my colleagues on the Revenue Committee next year on a plan to move K-12 education funding to the state. I have been meeting with the major parties who influence tax policy to get them on board.

The challenge state lawmakers face in lowering property taxes is that they are set at the local level. Your locally elected boards develop the budgets for each taxing authority. If you want your property taxes to be lower, they need to either spend less, or we need to increase the property tax base. The property tax base is the cumulative total of all the property taxes in each taxing authority. If a new industry is brought to the area, we can increase the base very quickly. Sometimes this means being open to allowing these industries to be located here. That is not always easy.

I understand the concerns that people may have about various opportunities to grow our local economy. I would urge everyone to look for unbiased, factual information, as opposed to reading the latest concerns on social media and accepting them as fact. One of the greatest challenges going forward will be demand for electrical power. This is a significant challenge because permitting and building new electrical power is expensive and takes significant time to buildout. Meanwhile, new industries wanting to be located here want to move faster. This has always been a challenge when it comes to economic development.

Last year, we passed LB1261, which allowed private investment in power generation to take the pressure off NPPD and other public power districts to overbuild and increase rate payer costs. The bill would protect private investment in electrical power generation while also making certain that public power is still the power supplier. It also creates opportunities for public power to purchase excess private power at wholesale cost. I see this bill as a major step forward to helping bridge the gap in our energy capacity as larger power users enter the market.

I also believe that we have safeguards in place to protect our natural resources. Our industries and economies will continue to evolve. We need to be prepared to respond to opportunity and balance growth with appropriate protections. In the end, economic development is the best way to lower our property tax burden, and we should try to be open when we can.

It is a privilege to represent you in the Nebraska Legislature, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding issues that are important to you. I can be reached at 402-471-2729 or by emailing me at mjacobson@leg.ne.gov.