{"id":28100,"date":"2020-07-21T15:18:46","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T21:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=28100"},"modified":"2020-07-24T13:11:08","modified_gmt":"2020-07-24T19:11:08","slug":"revived-land-bank-bill-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=28100","title":{"rendered":"Revived land bank bill advances"},"content":{"rendered":"

A bill that would expand the use of land banks advanced from general file July 21.<\/p>\n

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

LB424, introduced by Grand Island Sen. Dan Quick, was debated last year but did not advance from general file after a failed cloture motion. It again stalled Feb. 25 when lawmakers moved on without a vote after three hours of debate.<\/p>\n

The bill 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.<\/p>\n

Currently, only municipalities in Douglas and Sarpy counties are eligible under state law to create land banks. As introduced, the bill would allow only metropolitan class cities to create a stand-alone land bank. Omaha is the state\u2019s only metropolitan class city.<\/p>\n

During a previous round of debate, senators adopted an amendment that would create a system to remove land bank board members for neglect of duty or misconduct.<\/p>\n

Quick said blighted properties are costly and time consuming for municipalities to address.<\/p>\n

\u201cCities across the state have been asking for the ability to create and join land banks for several years,\u201d Quick said.<\/p>\n

Gering Sen. John Stinner supported LB424. He said expanding land bank authority to smaller communities would provide a means to improve dilapidated properties that negatively affect the value of nearby properties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a solution to a growing problem,\u201d Stinner said.<\/p>\n

Also speaking in support of the bill was Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue. She said LB424 would lower municipal expenses by reducing the need to respond to trespassers or put out fires in abandoned buildings. A land bank could address properties in which developers will not invest, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese properties have serious financial or legal barriers,\u201d Blood said. \u201cThere\u2019s back taxes; there\u2019s clouded titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lincoln Sen. Mike Hilgers opposed the bill. He said LB424 was too broadly written and that land banks would not be accountable to either the state or the municipalities where they would be located.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we give the authority to people to manage other people\u2019s money, there will be problems,\u201d Hilgers said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard also spoke in opposition, saying the government shouldn\u2019t be involved in selling real estate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese land banks are trying to circumvent what private investors should be doing,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t work for the private sector, it won\u2019t work for the government to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Omaha Sen. John McCollister said that Omaha\u2019s land bank has worked well, without fraud or conflicts of interest, since it was created in 2014.<\/p>\n

Quick offered an amendment to address opponents\u2019 concerns, which was adopted 37-0. The amendment would prohibit a land bank from issuing bonds, prevent a land bank from investing in a property that could financially benefit a board member, their businesses or their immediate family members, prevent a land bank from receiving property tax revenue from an agreement under the Joint Public Agency Act and allow an entity that creates or joins a land bank to withdraw from the agreement by a two-thirds vote.<\/p>\n

An Urban Affairs Committee amendment, adopted 30-0, would allow a primary class city to create a stand-alone land bank. Lincoln is the state\u2019s lone primary class city.<\/p>\n

Following adoption of the amendments, LB424 advanced to select file 26-11. Twenty-five votes were needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A bill that would expand the use of land banks advanced from general file July 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28088,"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-28100","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\/2020\/07\/LB424Quick7-21-20a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100","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=28100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28184,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28100\/revisions\/28184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}