Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen called a special legislative session, starting on July 25, to try to win lawmakers’ support for his property tax reform plan. 

The plan involves funding Nebraska’s K-12 schools through sales taxes — eliminating certain sales tax exemptions and raising taxes on advertising, cigarettes, vaping products and alcohol — rather than through property taxes, according to comments by Pillen in his monthly radio call-in show, the Nebraska Examiner reported. 

Pillen’s property tax reform push bears some similarities to property tax relief efforts in Texas and in Colorado that succeeded. But Pillen’s previous attempt, a bill known as LB388, failed in the state Senate in April.

A spokesperson for Pillen did not respond to requests for comment. The sponsor of LB388, state Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, did not respond to a request for comment.

The bill would allow municipalities to increase property tax requests above the maximum by the amount budgeted for bond debt service.

It would also exclude from its definition of “school district taxes” any property taxes levied for bonds.

For cities and counties, bonds were outside of the cap that was negotiated, according to Lynn Rex, executive director of the League of Nebraska Municipalities.

Still, the legislation, which included the Property Tax Growth Limitation Act, the Property Tax Relief Act and the Advertising Services Tax Act, drew an onslaught of lobbying by a wide range of groups. 

LB388 would have levied a 20% tax on vaping products, a $1 per pack tax on cigarettes and a 25% tax on CBD and hemp products. It would levy a 7.5% tax on firms doing business in Nebraska whose combined gross advertising revenue exceeds $1 billion. It also would tax lottery tickets, storage services, dry cleaning and veterinary services for household pets.

According to lobbying disclosures, groups in favor of the bill include the Nebraska Association of County Officials, the League of Nebraska Municipalities, the American Cancer Society and Nebraska Cattlemen.

Lobbying against it were the Nebraska Vape Vendors Association; the Cannabis Factory; Phillip Morris; Meta; Google; TechNet, a trade group representing technology CEOs and senior executives; Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group linked to the Koch brothers; the Association of National Advertisers; Walmart; and the Lincoln and Greater Omaha chambers of commerce.

Also opposed was the Nebraska State Education Association, a public school teachers’ union, which did not respond to a request for comment.  

“There was an incredibly misleading campaign at the last minute against LB388 from the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association,” said Rex. “They led the effort against it … Senator after senator was getting pummeled with emails. They said, ‘This is going to tax food.’ … It would have added a sales tax on pop and candy. I don’t know of anything more flagrant in terms of an effort of misrepresentation against a bill.”

Ansley Fellers, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, said the group’s main concerns were the “increased cost of doing business” and that the bill was not a net tax reduction.

“One, soda and candy are food, they’re edible products,” she said. “[The bill] will hit lower-income individuals hardest. It’s also hard to justify taxing any food product right now given the kind of inflation we’re seeing.”

Fellers added, the way the bill was written would have taxed granola bars but not licorice, kettle corn but not Kit Kats.

“The governor has said that he’s looking more at the state taking over funding for public schools,” she said. “That’s an expensive proposition. … That would be a several-billion-dollar shift [onto sales taxes].”

According to Rex, exemptions added over recent decades have chipped away at sales tax revenues and property tax revenues in Nebraska. All were “legitimate exemptions at the time for Nebraskans to compete with other states,” she said, but there was a problem: other states’ legislatures then put together reimbursements for local governments through state aid programs as they narrowed the tax base through exemptions. In Nebraska, it all got shifted over to property taxes.

In March 2011, “they got rid of the one and only reimbursement to municipalities” in Nebraska, Rex said. She added, Nebraska voters have been confused by rhetoric about rising valuations. The problem, she said, isn’t increased valuations — “that’s the basis on which we get loans,” she noted — but consistently rising property taxes.

From fiscal 2022 to 2023, the total valuation in Nebraska increased by 11.44%, and the taxes levied during that period rose by 5.7%. 

“It is critically important that the state legislature … try to address the incremental shifts over to property taxpayers that have happened over the last four decades,” Rex said. “It’s so important to make sure that local governments have the revenue that they need to do their jobs. … Just because your valuation goes up, doesn’t mean your taxes have to go up.”

The governor and his team are working with state senators to come up with a package that can pass the legislature during the special session, she said. 

LB388 would have changed the current lid on restricted funds for municipalities and counties to 3% or the change in the consumer price index, whichever is greater: “That is a lid on basically all sources of revenue for municipalities and other political subdivisions except schools,” Rex said.

The schools are not under the current 2.5% lid on restricted funds. They have always had a different lid.

“Municipalities, counties, everybody else — we’re just hanging in the wind,” Rex said.

The procession began quietly, with just the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel. The air was thick with incense, heavy with east Nebraska’s summer humidity and dust from the road. 

The silence was soon broken with the sound of bells and the voices of pilgrims and processors as they sang, “O Sacrament most holy, O Sacrament divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine,” and followed Christ in the Eucharist. 

The procession — part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage taking place across the United States —  traveled from Cloisters on the Platte, an Ignatian silent retreat center near Omaha, to the Shrine of the Holy Family, a wayside chapel beloved by locals and travelers alike.

The route followed a gravel road, visible from Interstate 80, which crossed through cornfields amid the distant hum of semitrucks and cars. Travelers on the Midwestern highway would find the spectacle an unusual sight — well over 500 Catholics quietly following a priest holding the Eucharist aloft under its canopy.

The pace was quick considering the summer heat and despite stops at the occasional water bottle stations set up along the road, and the nearly five-mile procession was arduous. A voice would frequently call out loudly for the crowd to move to one side to allow a car or truck to pass.

At the end of the procession, Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, known by his faithful flock as “our Star Wars archbishop,” joked that while he began thinking of the pilgrimage as payment for his sins, he didn’t realize “just how many there were.”

The procession was part of the Junipero Serra Route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which began on the California coast more than a month ago. It is one of four national pilgrimages moving across the nation with the Eucharist, set to meet in Indianapolis in July for the National Eucharistic Congress.

It was also the meeting of two brother dioceses — parishioners from both Lincoln and Omaha gathered together for the pilgrimage. Bishop James Conley of Lincoln carried the monstrance, passing it on to Archbishop Lucas at the foot of the steep hill leading to the shrine in a ceremonial exchange marking the edge of his diocese.

Bishop James Conley (center) of Lincoln, Nebraska, passes on the monstrance to Archbishop George Lucas (foreground) of Omaha during the Eucharistic procession southwest of Omaha, Nebraska, on June 21, 2024. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

“We expect heat this time of year,” Lucas told CNA after the procession. “I was just thrilled that so many people were willing to bear the heat and walk — it was over four miles.”

“It reminds us of the heroic efforts of the pilgrims that are helping us have these processions. They’re all across the country, starting from the West Coast,” he said. “I’m really grateful to them.” 

One attendee, lifelong Catholic Timothy Swan, came to the pilgrimage after attending all-night adoration the night before at Risen Christ Cathedral in Lincoln. As it grew late and the initial crowd thinned, Swan recalled the cathedral becoming uncomfortably cold.

“Jesus is good,” he said. “It was great. The only thing is, I bet Jesus was cold … There were a couple of times I did go out to my car and turn on the heat. But it was a lot of fun.” 

Swan has been joining parts of the Junipero Serra Route from his hometown in the northeast corner of Colorado to where he grew up in Omaha, attending events in Sterling and Fort Morgan, Colorado, as well as Lincoln and Omaha. 

“People have said that this must have been similar to the time when Jesus [lived] when the people followed him in large crowds, and then the woman with the hemorrhage just wanted to touch him,” he said of the processions. 

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage western route passes southwest of Omaha, Nebraska, on June 21, 2024. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

With heavy limbs and tired feet, the pilgrims made their way to the top of the hill to reach the end of the procession at the Shrine of the Holy Family, an unusual-looking building of cedar and glass that overlooks the surrounding fields and freeway, its latticed roof reaching into the clouds. 

The chapel is a repose for travelers, who may find solace in prayer by stopping in the wayside chapel, as well as travelers in spirit. 

Archbishop Lucas carried the monstrance along a narrow dirt path lined with wildflowers and tall grass, making a final loop around the hilltop shrine. He entered the pleasantly cool shrine followed by a small number of processors who were able to fit inside.

The Eucharistic procession reaches the Holy Family Shrine, led by Bishop James Conley (center), as participants follow along the pathway around the shrine on June 21, 2024. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

Built in 1993, the intricately designed hilltop chapel was the inspiration of four Catholics who each (independently) shared a dream to build a roadside chapel for travelers.

The Eucharistic procession reaches the Holy Family Shrine near Omaha, Nebraska, on June 21, 2024. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

An eye-catching archway of interwoven trusses forms its structure, while within its glass walls, a unique water element meant to reference baptism is built into the flooring.

The entrance to the shrine is marked by a cracked path with a pebbled waterway just under the surface. Small pools of water mark each pew, while a larger pool sits beneath the altar. 

The entrance of the Holy Family Shrine near Omaha, Nebraska, is marked by a cracked path with a pebbled waterway just under the surface. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

The Holy Family’s image is etched in the largest window above the altar so subtly the image almost merges with the sky on a partly cloudy day like this one. As they reflect or pray, the glass walls offer visitors broad vistas of green fields stretching out in every direction. 

All was quiet except for the sound of trickling water flowing underneath the holy place, along with the murmur of song heard as the bishop brought the monstrance forward, blessing the processors with a final Benediction.

To those outside the chapel, Christ was still visible, seen through the glass walls. With the sunlight reflecting on the golden monstrance, the pilgrims inside and outside the shrine knelt before Jesus for an hour of adoration. 

Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha raises the monstrance in Benediction at the Holy Family Shrine on June 21, 2024. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

One young woman inside the chapel bowed low before the altar, touching her face to the cool stone floor in reverence.

Just beyond the altar, the line of pilgrims and processors could be seen outside, waiting to enter into the small shrine.

One or two at a time, the processors left, taking a dirt path that led to a shuttle driven by a jovial driver, which took them back to their parking spots to make the ride home for the evening.     

Processors wait outside Holy Family Shrine at the conclusion of the pilgrimage on June 21, 2024, near Omaha, Nebraska. Credit: Kate Quiñones/CNA

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Jonah Tran, 22, is a young adult leader in his local chapter of the Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Lincoln, Nebraska. He said the end of the procession was “breathtaking.”

“Being from Lincoln my whole life, I’ve been to this church many times before, but the only times I’ve gone have been just on my own personal trips, so just seeing it by myself,” he said.

“But now actually being here, seeing hundreds of people come here together and going into the church … It’s breathtaking, going in, seeing the church actually filled this time,” he said. 

“It’s amazing to see, especially being in Nebraska,” Tran said of the procession. “Being able to see individuals like myself who are Vietnamese, having this all in common — but [that it’s] not only within the Vietnamese community, [we’re seeing] how diverse things can be, but yet we’re all here for the same belief.”

“The thing that I noticed is that the average age of the group today was young,” Lucas said after the procession. “And so, as a person who’s not so young anymore, that makes me feel really good and very hopeful for the future.”

“It just reminds me how many friends the Lord has here and how close he wants to be to all of us,” he said. 

SIDNEY, Neb. (KNOP) – Karsyn Leeling was named 2023-2024 Gatorade Nebraska Girls Track and Field Player of the Year. The Sidney High School athlete had a senior season to remember in track and field. In May she wrapped up her high school career with three Class B state championships claiming titles in the long jump, triple jump and the high jump. She would also break a state record in the high jump back in April.

Leeling went on to win a national title in the high jump at Nike Outdoor Nationals clearing six feet even to earn All-American honors.

She maintained a 3.66 PGA in the classroom and will continue her track and field career at the University of Nebraska this coming fall.

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