{"id":24903,"date":"2019-02-12T09:04:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24903"},"modified":"2019-02-12T09:04:45","modified_gmt":"2019-02-12T15:04:45","slug":"special-public-hearing-on-property-tax-hikes-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=24903","title":{"rendered":"Special public hearing on property tax hikes advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval Feb. 11 to a bill that would require political subdivisions such as counties and school districts to hold a public hearing before collecting additional property taxes generated by valuation increases.

\"Sen.
Sen. Lou Ann Linehan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Under LB103, as introduced by Elkhorn Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, if the annual assessment of property within a political subdivision would result in an increase in the total amount of taxes levied using the previous year\u2019s tax levy, the levy would decrease so that the political subdivision\u2019s property tax request is no more than in the previous year. <\/p>\n

If the governing body wishes to increase its property tax request, it could do so only after holding a public hearing called for that purpose and by passing a resolution or ordinance.<\/p>\n

Linehan said she has heard from many Nebraskans who are confused and angry when they see their property taxes increase after a tax rate cut. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very confusing,\u201d she said, \u201cand I think this just makes [the process] much clearer.\u201d <\/p>\n

A Revenue Committee amendment, adopted 35-1, would replace the bill. The amendment still would require a community college, county, educational service unit, learning community, municipality, natural resources district, sanitary and improvement district or school district to adjust its levy in response to valuation changes so that the current year\u2019s property tax request does not exceed the prior year\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The amendment would require notice to be published in a newspaper of general circulation at least five days before the hearing. A political subdivision with a budget of no more than $10,000 per year or $20,000 every two years could instead post the notice at the governing body\u2019s headquarters. <\/p>\n

The hearing notice would include the percentage increase or decrease in valuation, property tax rate and total operating budget from the prior year to the current year.<\/p>\n

Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson supported the amendment and the bill. LB103 would not reduce property taxes, he said, but it would make the process of setting a property tax request more transparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cA good board member who has done their job is going to justify that they have to raise taxes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Bayard Sen. Steve Erdman also supported the bill. A board\u2019s annual budget hearing might draw little public interest, he said, but a hearing notice that specifies a proposed tax increase would get more attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will stir people\u2019s curiosity to show up and share their opinions,\u201d Erdman said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Mark Kolterman of Seward supported the committee amendment but opposed the bill. He said every public board member understands that if property valuations increase but the levy stays the same, the amount of taxes collected will increase. Another hearing would be redundant, Kolterman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re supposed to be cutting back on what we do as government,\u201d he said, \u201cand now we\u2019re forcing people to have one more hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators voted 35-2 to advance the bill to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval Feb. 11 to a bill that would require political subdivisions such as counties and school districts to hold a public hearing before collecting additional property taxes generated by valuation increases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24890,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[190],"class_list":["post-24903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-lou-ann"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/LB103Linehan2-11-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24905,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24903\/revisions\/24905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}