Community college limits removed from ag land tax credit bill

A bill that would increase the amount of property tax credits for agricultural landowners advanced to the final round of debate April 7.

Introduced by Grand Island Sen. Mike Gloor on behalf of Gov. Pete Ricketts, LB958 as amended would grant $224 million in property tax credits for tax year 2017, a continuation of credits offered last year totaling $204 million. Gloor said $20 million of this year’s credits would go specifically to agricultural and horticultural landowners.

Gloor introduced an amendment on select file, adopted 36-0, which removed provisions that would limit the amount of unused restricted funds that community colleges could carry forward from year to year. That component faced strong opposition from some senators and would threaten the passage of the bill, he said.

Sen. Al Davis of Hyannis said something needed to be done to reduce the amount of property taxes collected by community colleges. He said the current amount is unsustainable, amounting to an increase from $90 million to $205 million over the past decade. Central Community College’s property tax asking increased from $18 million to $51 million during that period, Davis said, and Northeast Community College’s went from $10 million to $30 million.

“It’s time the state started reining in the spending of the community colleges,” he said.

Davis introduced an amendment that would reduce the cap on community colleges’ levying authority.

Gloor said he understands Davis’ frustration but that community colleges are evaluating their funding models and are expected to report to the Legislature on their findings next year. If they don’t, Gloor said, they can expect to see limits similar to those in Davis’ amendment proposed next session.

Sen. Paul Schumacher of Columbus supported the amendment. He said some community college boards, instead of reducing their property tax levies in response to increasing agricultural land values, took advantage of the influx of property tax revenue by increasing their spending. Schumacher said it is unfair that the bulk of the funding for community colleges—whose goal he said is to train workers for industry and business—comes from property taxes on agricultural land.

The amendment failed on an 8-18 vote and senators advanced the bill to final reading on a voice vote.