LINCOLN — As lawmakers were settling into debate on Thursday Senator Justin Wayne shared his feelings on the session with some word’s from the late Patrick Swayze.
“I can’t look in her eyes, she’s out of my league. That’s what it comes down to. We have talked about property tax for eight years and every time we get close you feel the breath of her right on your face, it’s so close,” said Wayne.
While lawmakers might be feeling like property tax relief could be right around the corner they aren’t much closer to actually debating a property tax bill than they were at the start of the week.
Significant changes to LB1 and LB9, the tax and education portion of the current Governor’s plan, have senators re-thinking the timeline for school tax relief.
Originally LB9 was going to reduce levies over a decade but the Revenue Committee has chopped that down to just one year.
“That’s real property tax relief. At the same time we are protecting all the school districts. There is a lot of talk about EPIC but EPIC doesn’t do anything to protect schools,” said Senator Mike Jacobsen.
LB1 has also seen its fair share of changes as well, especially amongst the targeted tax exemptions.
Originally Pillen had promised that every exemption was on the table but in recent days negotiations have taken some exemptions off the table, notably home and vehicle repairs.
But those changes aren’t swaying opponents who argue that sales tax exemptions don’t address wasteful government spending that is at the heart of the property tax crisis.
“We might be giving relief to people like Ted Turner, Bill Gates and Jim Pillen. But working Nebraskans will be left paying more and that’s why im gonna fight this plan every step of the way,” said Senator Julie Slama.
Many opponents to the current plans have suggested adjourning the session and picking the issue back up in January when they have had more time to go over the proposed plans.
But many senators were quick to remind their colleagues that there is an election between now and next year. The senators won’t be the same, meaning no one can be sure if a plan in January will have a better chance of passing than one in August.
“I was the first one who sent a long email saying, it’s less than 24 hours we don’t know when we are coming and we don’t know the call. I was really pissed off about it. But here is what I would tell people today, we are down here. Let’s try to find a solution,” said Wayne.
