{"id":40188,"date":"2026-02-25T17:01:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T23:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=40188"},"modified":"2026-02-26T08:07:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T14:07:36","slug":"protection-from-trespass-charges-sought-for-county-assessors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=40188","title":{"rendered":"Protection from trespass charges sought for county assessors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 25 on a bill that seeks to protect county assessors from trespassing charges in the course of their work.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Myron Dorn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under LB1019, sponsored by Sen. Myron Dorn of Adams, no county assessor could be prosecuted for trespass while performing his or her official duties unless they enter an enclosed building without the express permission of the property owner or occupant.<\/p>\n

Dorn said the bill was introduced following a recent attorney general\u2019s opinion indicating that real property assessors could be held liable for trespass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat opinion replaced a long-standing opinion that assessors had relied upon that allowed them to enter property, but not homes, without being held liable for trespass,\u201d Dorn said. \u201cWithout the ability to access property, assessors cannot evaluate the quality of the property and see whether the property owner has improved or changed [it].\u201d<\/p>\n

Drones and aerial photography are helpful in the assessment process, he said, but are costly options. He noted that the Nebraska Association of County Officials estimates that it would cost $14 million to assess property through those means on a statewide basis.<\/p>\n

NACO Executive Director Jon Cannon testified in support of the measure, which he said is necessary to provide clarity to county attorneys so that assessors can perform their duties without fear of prosecution.<\/p>\n

County assessors have a legal obligation to review and assess all real property in the county at least every six years, Cannon said, and that duty can be satisfied only through an accurate physical inspection. He said drones and aerial photography are more expensive and less accurate alternatives and are meant to supplement on-site evaluations rather than supersede them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that exempting someone from the law of trespass is a big deal and property rights are a huge deal to people in Nebraska,\u201d Cannon said. \u201c[But] is the solution to a property tax crisis in the state to make assessment less accurate and\/or \u2026 more expensive for the taxpayer?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also testifying in favor of LB1019 was Johnson County Assessor Terry Keebler, representing the Nebraska Association of County Assessors. He said members of the organization received \u201cvery muddy\u201d responses from their respective county attorneys regarding what is allowed in the wake of the AG opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re requesting this statute change so that we all have clarity and [the rules are] consistent,\u201d Keebler said. \u201cWhat the assessors are trying to do is to be fair and equitable in assessing the value of property. We\u2019re trying to do it correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to LB1019 and the committee took no immediate action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee heard testimony Feb. 25 on a bill that seeks to protect county assessors from trespassing charges in the course of their work.<\/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":[11],"tags":[250],"class_list":["post-40188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-myron-dorn"],"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\/40188","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=40188"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40191,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40188\/revisions\/40191"}],"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=40188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}