Nebraska

Latest NE property tax plan would add sales tax to another 70-plus goods and services • Nebraska Examiner

Published

2 hours ago

August 13, 2024

Latest NE property tax plan would add sales tax to another 70-plus goods and services • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Nebraska lawmakers are officially set to debate a tax relief package Tuesday that will include consideration of ending nearly 70 sales tax exemptions to provide funding for property tax cuts.

One month ago, a draft property tax plan indicated lawmakers might begin taxing sales of 120 more goods or services. That number has been incrementally reduced in successive rewrites, and at this point has been cut nearly in half.

The proposal

Some of the main components of the tax plan include:

Lowering the maximum school district tax rates for operational expenses to 40 cents per $100 of valuation for fiscal year 2025-26; 35 cents in 2026-27; and 30 cents in 2027-28 and beyond. The current maximum rate is $1.05.
Capping the annual increase in property tax collections by municipal and county governments at the rate of inflation or at 0% in times of deflation.
Crediting taxpayers for property taxes paid to their natural resources district (beginning at 50% in the next fiscal year).
Reimbursing county jail expenses (beginning at 25% in the next fiscal year).

Revenue Committee advances NE property tax relief package, with debate to start Tuesday

Most funding will come from retooling existing property tax reduction programs, such as tax credits and the portion of homestead exemptions no longer needed as school tax rates come down.

The other major area of financing will come from the newly taxed goods and services and increases to “sin” taxes, such as on spirits, cigarettes, oral nicotine pouches, vapes, cigarettes, keno and cash devices.

Legislative Bill 34, as originally introduced by State Sen. Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska, would freeze property valuation increases over four years. He has described it as a “backup plan” or “fail-safe.”

‘They don’t fix the problems’

State Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn, vice chair of the Revenue Committee, said he is “cautiously optimistic” heading into Tuesday’s floor debate after he and the committee chair, State Sen Lou Ann Linehan, and others “listened to parties on all sides.” Von Gillern said committee members tried their best to build the bill around concerns raised.

State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln at a listening session on property taxes in Lincoln. July 22, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

State Sen. George Dungan of Lincoln, the lone “no” committee vote on LB 34, said the package remains “inherently regressive” and would hurt low-income residents. He said it would also not provide relief to renters, who live in about 50% of the housing units in Dungan’s district.

“I understand there are certain parts of it that are intended to help low-income individuals, but on the whole, when you balance those against the other portions of the bill, I simply think they don’t fix the problems,” Dungan said.

State Sen. Eliot Bostar of Lincoln, who was “present, not voting” on Monday’s committee vote, said afterward: “It’s just not there yet for me.”

The Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but votes sometimes split along ideological lines. On Monday, the six Republican committee members supported the package. Dungan and Bostar are Democrats.

Municipalities have raised concerns about the proposed sales tax changes on two fronts. One is with the state collecting an additional 12% in local sales tax revenue each year. The other involves how businesses can request future refunds for economic development and workforce incentive programs, such as the Nebraska Advantage and ImagiNE Nebraska Acts.

Those tax incentive programs utilize local sales taxes, but with the municipalities not collecting the full tax base, some have said it could further complicate planning for those future refunds.

Von Gillern pointed to a provision of LB 34 ensuring that cities or villages do not collect less sales tax revenue than they did in 2023-24, plus a 1% annual increase.

“There is a floor built into the bill, so they’re not going to get hurt on any of that,” he said.

‘We’ve got to get to 30’

State Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn. July 29, 2024. (Zach Wendling/Nebraska Examiner)

Von Gillern also pointed to an independent study from Ernie Goss, a regional economist and professor at Creighton University, contending that all taxes are regressive but that high property taxes are the most detrimental to economic growth.

“We’ve done as much as we can to take as much out that would have impacted the lowest income people, and I think we’ve done a good job of that,” von Gillern said. “We listened to the opponents, and we tried to modify as much as we could.”

He also pointed to internal legislative modeling, which was done on a previous tax package, where families with modest income would see a net benefit. He said that “seems to be forgotten in this discussion.”

Linehan said she thinks she has 31 votes but that getting to 33 votes on some bills to break a filibuster, particularly on proposals related to taxation, is “very, very partisan.”

“We’ve got to get to 30,” Linehan said. “I think we’re at about 31 right now.”

Many provisions of LB 34, if passed, would take effect Oct. 1. That would require 33 votes not only to end debate but also to pass the bill to take effect within three calendar months. Sales tax exemptions or repeals can only occur at the start of a calendar quarter.

First-round debate on the package will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday and can last up to eight hours.

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Nebraska

Breaking down the cost of Nebraska’s ‘most expensive’ special session

Published

9 hours ago

August 12, 2024

Press Room

Breaking down the cost of Nebraska’s ‘most expensive’ special session

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Nebraska’s current special session is shaping up to be the costliest one in the state legislature’s history.

According to Clerk of the Legislature Brandon Metzler, it has cost just under $127,000 since it began on July 25.

“It’s, on a daily basis, the most expensive special session,” Brandon Metzler, Clerk of the Legislature, said. “It’s certainly somewhere in that ten to fifteen thousand dollars a day.”

Much of how the money has been spent can be broken down into three main categories:

Per diem for senators, which has totaled over $86,000 so far.
Salaries for employees such as pages and sergeants working the session specifically- that has been just under $23,000.
And the cost of printing each paper, for each bill and it’s amendments, for each senator. So far, more than $14,000 has been spent on that alone.

“We’re talking about 100, 150 pages,” Metzler said. “And every time it’s a rewrite, that’s another printing of the same 150 pages. So they add up very quickly.”

LB4, the Nebraska bill introduced at the beginning of the session to set aside tax-payer money to cover the session’s expenses, planned for a session lasting 10 days. Monday was the tenth day, and the end date is still unknown.

“You have an ongoing special session with undetermined costs at this point,” Metzler said. “And yet we have a bill with a hard cap on what that costs.”

He said that there are still enough funds to cover the session for around another week. Going longer than that could mean having to bring LB4 back onto the floor, where it can be amended to allocate more funds to cover the session’s cost.

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Athlete of the week: Abbey Schwarz, raising the bar for Nebraska soccer

Published

16 hours ago

August 12, 2024

Press Room

Athlete of the week: Abbey Schwarz, raising the bar for Nebraska soccer

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The Nebraska women’s soccer team had a magical season in 2023, and senior forward Abbey Schwarz hopes to lead the Huskers to an even greater campaign in 2024.

Schwarz enters her senior season with an already loaded resume.

Big Ten Distinguished Scholar (2023, 2024), Academic All-Big Ten (2022, 2023), Big Ten Freshman of the Week (Oct. 26) and the Tom Osborne Citizenship Team (2022, 2023, 2024) are just a few awards to her name.

The Huskers kicked off preseason soccer last Monday.

Schwarz made her presence on the pitch known with two goals to help give Nebraska a 5-1 win over Kansas City.

“Finishing off some of those scrappier goals is one of my goals,” said Schwarz. “It was good, it was a good little confidence boost.”

The Huskers experienced a run unlike any in recent memory last season, winning the Big Ten regular season title and making it the Elite 8 in the NCAA Tournament.

“Last year was such a great year and I think one of the best things is that we were so present to the moment,” said Schwarz.

Looking ahead to this season, Nebraska comes into the year pre-ranked 6th in the nation.

Starting out sixth.
️ https://t.co/VgzgcwRVIF | #GBR pic.twitter.com/vq2fW6MvJn
— Nebraska Soccer (@HuskerSoccer) August 7, 2024

“Seeing where we’re at now and setting our sights on Big Ten regular season, tournament championships, and national championships things like that,” said Schwarz. “There’s been a shift, I think, in just the perspective of not only on the individuals on the team but the team collectively.”

Nebraska finished with a 1-1 record in preseason games following a 1-0 loss to Oklahoma on Friday.

The Huskers kick off the year at Hibner Stadium versus Oklahoma State on Thursday, Aug. 15 at 7:05 p.m.

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Veterans club in NE's oldest prison is saluted at Vietnam vet reunion • Nebraska Examiner

Published

24 hours ago

August 12, 2024

Press Room

Veterans club in NE's oldest prison is saluted at Vietnam vet reunion • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN — Every year, a wreath is placed on the grave of Beryl Zich.

It has been a solemn tradition since her death in 2005, a way to pay tribute to her love and dedication for her son, Larry, a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War, who was listed as missing in action until his remains were identified in 2022.

The flowers aren’t from a traditional veterans organization, but from a group of inmates at the Nebraska State Penitentiary.

Within the walls of the Nebraska State Penitentiary meets a veterans/inmates betterment group. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

For more than 40 years, a “veterans club” has been among the betterment groups allowed to form at the state’s oldest prison.

Her boys

Along the way, the 25-40 inmates/veterans who gather twice a month behind prison walls got interested in the MIAs and prisoners of war from the Vietnam War. Eventually, they connected with Beryl Zich, the mother of an MIA, who began coming to the State Pen for their meetings.

She eventually referred to the veterans club members as “my boys” as the years passed, and as her son — who disappeared during a mission in 1972 — remained missing.

“Sometimes, I think those boys are the only ones who care,” she once remarked.

Jaime Obrecht and Roy Schoen, two long-time volunteers for the inmate club, related that story and others about the prison veterans organization at the 39th annual Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion held this past weekend at the Marriott Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln.

The first motto for the State Pen veterans’ organization was “Forgotten and Disowned,” which, Schoen said, was how a lot of veterans felt back in the 1980s.

“We had a chip on our shoulder for quite a few years for how we were treated,” said Schoen, an Army veteran and a retired counselor with the veterans center in Lincoln.

Jaime Obrecht, left, and Roy Schoen are long-time volunteers with the veterans club at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and were co-chairs of the 39th annual Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion this weekend in Lincoln (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

He and Obrecht, a retired Lincoln teacher, first began volunteering with the prison group back in 1984, shortly after it was formed.

A war that ended 49 years ago

The Nebraska Vietnam Veterans Reunion began in 1985, Schoen said. It was organized by a group of vets who felt that a gathering would be helpful, not only to share stories and common experiences, but learn more about veterans benefits and organizations.

“There wasn’t much going on back then for (Vietnam) veterans,” he said. “Things have changed quite a bit. Slowly.”

About 300 veterans and their spouses registered for this year’s reunion, which included presentations about the State Pen’s Veterans Club, Agent Orange, a book about fallen veterans from Norfolk (see sidebar) and the evacuation from Afghanistan. The state office of Veterans Affairs also offered remarks.

There were a lot of dark-blue “Vietnam Veteran” ball caps among the participants, as well as MIA/POW shoulder patches and veterans’ reunion T-shirts. Some aging vets used canes to walk, or carried small tanks of supplemental oxygen, a testament to the advancing age of soldiers who served in a war that ended 49 years ago.

The reunion serves many of the same needs as the veterans club at the State Pen, said Schoen and Obrecht — bringing those with common experiences, and challenges, together.

The veterans club at the Nebraska State Penitentiary has produced more than 511,000 red, paper poppies for the America Legion Auxiliary, which sells them prior to Memorial Day. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner)

The State Pen’s club has several projects besides the annual wreath on the grave of Beryl Zich, said Obrecht.

Club members have made more than 511,000 red, paper poppies for the American Legion Auxiliary, which distributes them as a tribute and fundraiser on the Friday before every Memorial Day, he said. More recently, club members have been crocheting hats and scarfs for residents of the state veterans home in Kearney.

Special housing unit

But club members have also served as mentors that “police themselves” in the sometimes challenging world of prison, Obrecht said. At times, they’ve served as informal counselors for inmates/veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress syndrome, Schoen said.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to live (in prison) … but the club gives them something to take pride in.

– Jaime Obrecht, volunteer with the veterans club at the Nebraska State Penitentiary

In 2016, the state corrections department established a special housing unit exclusively for military veterans, which the two volunteers said has been greatly appreciated by the inmates who live there.

“It really was a remarkable change,” Schoen said. “They were more relaxed, they didn’t have to deal with all the craziness in the rest of the prison.”

Obrecht said the club meetings at the State Pen are much like the meetings held by the Legion or VFW — there’s a business meeting, followed by reports on projects and then an hour for visiting.

The club holds annual programs on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, and purchased the black MIA/POW flags that fly on the flagpole at the State Pen. They also helped obtain new headstones for inmate/veterans buried at the State Pen’s cemetery outside the prison walls atop Grasshopper Hill.

He said they especially like contributing to causes that help veterans on the outside, such as the annual wreath for Beryl Zich.

“I can’t imagine what it’s like to live (in prison) … but the club gives them something to take pride in,” Obrecht said.

Not just names on The Wall

Research into the military service of his father and other relatives helped inspire retired social studies teacher Keith Walton to write about the nine soldiers from his hometown, Norfolk, who died in Vietnam.

Walton, now 71 and living in Montana, gave a presentation this weekend on his book, “The Last Full Measure: From America’s Heartland to the Battlefields of Vietnam. Remembering the Fallen from one Nebraska Town.”

Walton, who taught 27 years at Chadron, said that he’s always admired the way documentary film producer Ken Burns presented history — through the eyes of “average people,” not the generals or presidents.

So after producing papers on his father, a World War II medic, and a couple of other relatives, Walton embarked on telling the stories, in separate chapters, of the nine fallen soldiers Norfolk, “so they’re not just names on The Wall.”

He said he knew the names of a couple of the nine, but like many residents of Norfolk, didn’t know all of them — Jerry Allen, Dennis Anderson, Jerome Chandler, Roger Hunt, Jerold Meisinger, Thomas Scheurich, Steven Strube, Claude Van Andle and Michael Wemhoff.

Walton uncovered some remarkable, as well as understandably sad, stories.

Two soldiers were “enlisted by judges” who told them if they didn’t enlist, they would be going to jail for offenses.

One soldier’s mother drove weekly from Norfolk to the ordinance plant in Grand Island to put in a week of work producing bullets for war before commuting back. She continued to work even after her son perished.

Scheurich — who realized a life-long dream of being a pilot — is still listed as missing in action, although the remains of his bombardier were identified a few years ago after exploration of the 1968 crash site on an island off the coast of North Vietnam.

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