{"id":37183,"date":"2025-01-29T16:40:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37183"},"modified":"2025-01-29T16:40:40","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:40:40","slug":"bill-seeks-to-limit-local-rent-control-ordinances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=37183","title":{"rendered":"Bill seeks to limit local rent control ordinances"},"content":{"rendered":"

A measure that would prohibit local government entities from imposing rent controls was considered by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee Jan. 29.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Robert Dover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB266, introduced by North Platte Sen. Robert Dover, would prohibit any Nebraska municipality, county or other political subdivision from enacting or enforcing an ordinance that would have the effect of imposing rent controls on private property.<\/p>\n

The bill would not apply to programs meant to increase affordable housing or a program entered into voluntarily by a property owner.<\/p>\n

Dover said Nebraska is one of only 13 states without a law prohibiting rent control, a policy that he said \u201cthrows off market dynamics\u201d and disincentivizes housing development. Builders choose not to take on new projects if they don\u2019t see the potential for a return on their investment, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith that in mind, prohibiting rent control may foster housing development and help address housing supply shortages,\u201d Dover said. \u201cA free market approach allows prices to reflect the actual value of housing based on location, amenities and demand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Testifying in support of the measure was Lynn Fisher, president of the Statewide Property Owners Association. He said association members in Omaha are concerned that rent control may be part of the city\u2019s long-term plan to address a lack of affordable housing.<\/p>\n

Fisher said a recent rent control ordinance enacted in St. Paul, Minnesota, is now being rescinded because new property development ceased and housing costs climbed as property owners raised rents to the maximum amounts allowed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen government at any level adds more regulation and chooses winners and losers in the economy, everyone loses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Also supporting LB266 was Dennis Tierney of the Metropolitan Omaha Property Owners Association. Rent control has been used as a means to encourage affordable housing, he said, but research has shown it to have the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to keep private property rents market driven rather than government determined,\u201d Tierney said.<\/p>\n

Testifying in opposition to the measure was Erin Feichtinger, policy director for the Women\u2019s Fund of Omaha. Calling LB266 a \u201csolution in search of a problem,\u201d she said there are no political subdivisions in Nebraska currently proposing rent control policies.<\/p>\n

Omaha\u2019s affordable housing action plan does not recommend rent controls, she said, but merely mentions in a report that the concept was raised during a community engagement process mandated by the state law that requires cities to develop such plans.<\/p>\n

Feichtinger said the lack of affordable housing is a \u201ccrisis\u201d across Nebraska, but not one that should be solved by a one-size-fits-all approach imposed by the state. Housing instability and housing needs look different in each community, she said, and lawmakers shouldn\u2019t preemptively remove from consideration any tool that might prove useful.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal government is the best government because it\u2019s closest to the people,\u201d Feichtinger said.<\/p>\n

The committee took no immediate action on LB266.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A measure that would prohibit local government entities from imposing rent controls was considered by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee Jan. 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37180,"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":[11],"tags":[277],"class_list":["post-37183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-robert-dover"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/LB266Dover1-29-25a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37183","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=37183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37186,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37183\/revisions\/37186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}