{"id":26245,"date":"2019-05-10T03:22:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T09:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=26245"},"modified":"2019-05-10T06:31:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-10T12:31:51","slug":"cloture-attempt-on-land-bank-bill-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=26245","title":{"rendered":"Cloture attempt on land bank bill fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill that would allow municipalities throughout Nebraska to create or join land banks did not advance from general file May 9 after a motion to end debate failed.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Dan Quick<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB424, as introduced by Grand Island Sen. Dan Quick, would allow any municipality in Nebraska to join an existing land bank\u2014a tax-exempt political subdivision that acquires, manages and develops vacant and tax-delinquent properties\u2014under the Nebraska Municipal Land Bank Act. Currently, only municipalities in Douglas and Sarpy counties are eligible under state law to create land banks.<\/p>\n

The bill also would specify that a land bank is prohibited from levying property taxes.<\/p>\n

Under LB424, only a metropolitan class city could create a stand-alone land bank. Currently, Omaha is the state\u2019s only metropolitan class city. Other municipalities wishing to create a land bank would be required to join together using the state\u2019s Interlocal Cooperation Act.<\/p>\n

A pending Urban Affairs Committee amendment would allow cities of the primary class to form their own land banks. Lincoln currently is the only primary class city in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

Quick said there are around 200 blighted properties in Grand Island that are too costly and time consuming for private investors to rehabilitate. Those properties not only are eyesores, he said, but the city must pay to mow lawns and provide police and fire protection for the buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are taxpayer dollars that are going into those structures,\u201d Quick said. \u201cThe cost is becoming too high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Matt Williams of Gothenburg said he supported LB424 because land banks could increase the amount of workforce housing in Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the private sector was stepping up and taking care of this we wouldn\u2019t have this problem,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

Also in support was Gering Sen. John Stinner. He said a number of officials he\u2019d spoken with in his district want to use land banks to address blighted properties in their towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cRural Nebraska needs this bill more than Omaha,\u201d Stinner said. \u201cThis legislation has been developed over years. It\u2019s been tested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Mike Hilgers of Lincoln opposed the bill, saying he feared a land bank could compete unfairly with private developers and allow board members to profit from land sales.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The Land Bank Act] provides an absolute smorgasbord of powers to the land bank,\u201d Hilgers said. \u201cUltimately, this Legislature has given a land bank so much power and it is reliant only on the good faith and goodwill and benevolence of those running the land bank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also in opposition was Kearney Sen. John Lowe. He said a land bank represents government overreach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe it is the government\u2019s position to own property or develop property,\u201d Lowe said. \u201cProperty should be developed by private citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

After three hours of debate, Quick offered a motion to invoke cloture, which would end debate and force a vote on the bill and any pending amendments.<\/p>\n

The cloture motion failed 31-10. Thirty-three votes were needed. A failed cloture motion results in debate on a proposal ceasing for the day. LB424 is unlikely to be placed on the agenda again this session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would allow municipalities throughout Nebraska to create or join land banks did not advance from general file May 9 after a motion to end debate failed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26236,"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":[23],"tags":[181],"class_list":["post-26245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-urban-affairs","tag-sen-dan-quick"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/LB424Quick5-9-19a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26245","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=26245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26255,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26245\/revisions\/26255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}