Proposal to expand county sales tax uses narrowed to public safety

A proposal to expand the authority of counties to enact sales taxes was narrowed in scope during general file debate April 26.

Current law allows counties to enact sales taxes up to 1.5 percent to support public services provided by a public safety commission or an agreement executed under the Interlocal Cooperation Act or Joint Public Agency Act. County voters must approve such sales taxes, which cannot be levied in municipalities that have a local option sales tax.

LB106, introduced by Ogallala Sen. Ken Schilz, would have extended the use of county sales taxes to include public safety services and transportation infrastructure projects.

Schilz said LB106 would be a “reasonable expansion” of acceptable uses for county sales tax revenues. By removing the interlocal agreement requirement, he said, county sales taxes could be used in unincorporated areas such as Whiteclay.

A Revenue Committee amendment, adopted 31-0, removed transportation projects from the proposal and clarified that public safety services include crime prevention, offender detention and police services.

Ellsworth Sen. LeRoy Louden offered an amendment to the committee amendment to further expand public safety services to include firefighter, police, medical, ambulance or other emergency services and permit the use of sales tax revenues to finance such services.

Louden said counties could use county sales tax revenues to support fire and emergency services under his amendment. Such revenues could help counties that are close to their levy lid, he said.

Lawmakers voted 30-0 to approve Louden’s amendment and 31-0 to adopt the Revenue Committee amendment. The bill advanced from general file on a 26-3 vote.