{"id":36765,"date":"2024-08-05T14:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T20:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=36765"},"modified":"2024-08-05T14:00:56","modified_gmt":"2024-08-05T20:00:56","slug":"constitutional-limits-on-taxation-and-spending-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=36765","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional limits on taxation and spending proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Aug. 3 on a collection of proposed amendments to the state constitution intended to give Nebraskans more control over how much they pay in state and local taxes.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Julie Slama<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LR7CA through LR22CA, sponsored by Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, would allow voters to prohibit the state and its political subdivisions from levying new taxes, increasing tax rates, extending expiring taxes or increasing spending beyond a limit based on inflation and population change without voter approval at a general election.<\/p>\n

Slama said a similar taxpayer bill of rights, or TABOR, measure approved by Colorado voters in 1992 has kept a \u201csteady cap\u201d on tax increases despite the state\u2019s rapid population growth. She said TABOR requires the government to refund taxes paid in excess of the limit, making it \u201cvery popular\u201d with Colorado taxpayers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe components of the bill of rights are designed to safeguard against unanticipated financial burdens on Nebraska taxpayers and ensure that significant financial decisions made by the government actually reflect the people\u2019s will,\u201d Slama said.<\/p>\n

Jon Cannon testified in opposition to the proposals on behalf of the Nebraska Association of County Officials. He said TABOR runs counter to basic principles of American government, in which the people elect representatives to make decisions on their behalf.<\/p>\n

Also in opposition was Lynn Rex, speaking on behalf of the League of Nebraska Municipalities and the Nebraska Association of Schools Boards. She said most Colorado municipalities, counties and school districts opted out of TABOR with voter approval after residents realized its negative effect on public programs and amenities.<\/p>\n

Brad Young, a former Colorado lawmaker, testified in opposition to LR19CA, which includes the proposed limit on state spending.<\/p>\n

In Colorado, he said, a similar limit has acted as a \u201cconstant government shrinking device\u201d because it does not allow government spending to keep up with overall economic growth, resulting in lower spending on public education, health care and road maintenance.<\/p>\n

No one testified in support of the proposals and the committee took no immediate action on them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Aug. 3 on a collection of proposed amendments to the state constitution intended to give Nebraskans more control over how much they pay in state and local taxes. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36725,"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":[17,21],"tags":[257],"class_list":["post-36765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","category-special-session","tag-sen-julie-slama"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/UpdateBlogPhoto-4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36765","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=36765"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36771,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36765\/revisions\/36771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}