Personal property tax exemption advanced

Lawmakers gave first-round approval to a bill May 4 that would provide a tax exemption on the first $10,000 of personal property.

LB259, as introduced by Grand Island Sen. Mike Gloor, would have exempted the first $25,000 of personal property for each personal property tax return filed with a county assessor. Gloor said that the genesis of the exemption came from the Legislature’s 2013 Tax Modernization Committee.

“We’re one of a few states that still taxes agricultural personal property,” he said. “This is a modest attempt at property tax relief and will provide some degree of help to small businesses and farmers.”

A Revenue Committee amendment, adopted 27-1, reduced the exemption to the first $15,000 of personal property. It also prohibited the inclusion of tangible personal property valued at less than $1,000 from any exemption filed.

Gloor introduced an amendment to the committee amendment, adopted 27-0, that further reduced the exemption to the first $10,000 of personal property. As amended, the average exemption would be $162.

Columbus Sen. Paul Schumacher supported the bill, saying that incremental changes in the right direction are better than taking no action at all.

“There isn’t a great deal of flexibility in the system for tax relief unless there is some associated cut in spending on the other side of the equation,” he said. “This is not an earth-shattering tax relief package, but it is a tax break that extends to all businesses and disproportionately helps small businesses.”

Following the adoption of a technical amendment, senators advanced the bill to select file on a 29-0 vote.