{"id":31458,"date":"2022-02-08T14:42:27","date_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31458"},"modified":"2022-02-08T14:42:27","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:42:27","slug":"cap-on-school-district-property-tax-increases-stalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=31458","title":{"rendered":"Cap on school district property tax increases stalls"},"content":{"rendered":"

A proposal to limit annual increases in the amount of property taxes collected by public school districts stalled Feb. 8 after a failed cloture motion.

\"Sen.
Sen. Tom Briese<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

Under LB986, introduced by Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, a district\u2019s property tax request \u2014 the amount of taxes requested to be raised through its levy \u2014 could not exceed its property tax request authority, which the state Department of Education would calculate annually. <\/p>\n

A district\u2019s property tax request authority would increase each year by 2.5 percent or the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Consumers, whichever is greater. It also could increase based on growth in student enrollment or the number of limited English proficiency students or poverty students. <\/p>\n

The resulting amount then would decrease by an amount equal to the increase in a district\u2019s non-property-tax revenue, which includes certain state sources. If revenue from those sources decreases, a district\u2019s property tax request would increase by an equal amount. <\/p>\n

Briese said most school districts have held their property tax request increases to a \u201creasonable\u201d 3.4 percent over the past four years, but some outliers have increased theirs at a higher rate. LB986 would protect taxpayers from extreme increases while allowing school boards to override the limit if they have a good reason, he said. <\/p>\n

The limit would not apply to the portion of a district\u2019s property tax request needed to pay the principal and interest on approved bonds, and a district could carry forward unused property tax request authority to future years.<\/p>\n

LB986 would allow a 75 percent majority of a school board to exceed a district\u2019s property tax request authority by 4 to 7 percent depending on the number of students enrolled. A district also could exceed its property tax request authority by an amount approved by 60 percent of legal voters at a special election.<\/p>\n

A pending Revenue Committee amendment would replace the bill. <\/p>\n

Elkhorn Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, the committee\u2019s chairperson, said the amendment would allow a district\u2019s property tax request authority to grow by a three-year average annual percentage increase in the CPI to account for spikes in inflation. She said it also would clarify that a district\u2019s non-property-tax revenue would not include grants and donations. <\/p>\n

Linehan supported LB986, saying the proposed limit is \u201cmore like a warning flag\u201d than a lid on school taxing authority because school boards could override it in an emergency. <\/p>\n

She said the measure is intended to slow the growth in school property tax requests to ensure that they do not outstrip what the state spends on various property tax relief programs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not trying to hurt anybody or tie somebody down,\u201d Linehan said. \u201cIt\u2019s just trying to make sure that the billion dollars we\u2019re now doing on property tax relief actually results in property tax relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Matt Hansen of Lincoln opposed the bill and introduced an amendment that would strike its main provisions. Although school boards could vote to override the limit, he said, LB986 would allow smaller districts to exceed their property tax request authority by a higher percentage than larger districts. <\/p>\n

This would unfairly limit fast-growing districts like Lincoln Public Schools, Hansen said.<\/p>\n

Also in opposition was Lincoln Sen. Adam Morfeld, who said local school board members are responsible for their district\u2019s tax asking and spending decisions. If voters disagree with those decisions, he said, they will hold board members accountable at the next election. <\/p>\n

Sen. Lynne Walz of Fremont also opposed LB986, saying school boards generally are financially responsible. She said it would be \u201cappropriate and prudent\u201d for lawmakers first to understand why a few school districts have higher property tax increases than others before imposing a limit on all districts. <\/p>\n

\u201cNot knowing or really understanding why a school may be over or under budget authority is a concern,\u201d Walz said. <\/p>\n

Briese said he would introduce an amendment on select file to address a concern that his proposal would limit a district\u2019s overall revenue growth and affect school districts differently depending on how much state aid they receive.<\/p>\n

Rather than cap property taxing authority, he said, the amendment would limit school districts\u2019 total state and local revenue growth. That approach would limit tax asking increases, allow taxing authority to \u201cfloat\u201d with fluctuations in state aid and eliminate disparities among districts, Briese said. <\/p>\n

After eight hours of general file debate over several days, Briese filed a motion to invoke cloture, which would end debate and force a vote on LB986 and any pending amendments. <\/p>\n

The motion failed on a vote of 28-21. Thirty-three votes were needed. A failed cloture motion results in debate on a proposal ceasing for the day. The bill is unlikely to be placed on the agenda again this session.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal to limit annual increases in the amount of property taxes collected by public school districts stalled Feb. 8 after a failed cloture motion. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31453,"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":[185],"class_list":["post-31458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-tom-briese"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/LB986Briese2-8-22a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31458","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=31458"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31460,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31458\/revisions\/31460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}