A petition drive has been launched to reduce property taxes in Nebraska by more than a billion dollars. Essentially the same as Legislative Bill 829 sponsored by Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, the petition would give property owners a refundable income tax credit equal to half of the property taxes collected by their local school district.
“When both rural and urban people are saying the same thing, I think the legislature should listen, but they haven’t and now we’re running a proposal through to make sure they have a voice in November,” says Trent Fellers, spokesman for Yes to Property Tax Relief.
At the end of the 2017 legislative session, Erdman said if the Unicameral failed to approved substantial property tax relief he would take the issue directly to the voters. A few property tax proposals have been filed this legislative session, but this is a short session and with only around 30 days left, it doesn’t appear there is time to move anything substantial. One of them is LB947, supported by Gov. Pete Ricketts that calls for personal and corporate income tax reductions along with property tax relief.
Fellers says the petition began due in part to the, “…ongoing failure of the Governor and legislature to address the problem.” The campaign needs to acquire about 85,000 valid signatures of registered voters by July 5 to gain access to the ballot.