LINCOLN — A rare, low-key meeting of the Nebraska Legislature began Saturday with high emotions but ended with senators trying to salvage the very legislation their fight had put at risk.
He was at the center of the discussion. Legislative Resolution 2CAa constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature, if approved by voters, to determine Different evaluation process to Owner owned housingMost properties in Nebraska are assessed. At or near 100% of actual market valueExcept for agricultural land, which is currently valued at about 75%. Voters in 1984 allowed the legislature to Agricultural land values differently.
State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, a farmer, said he got the idea for LR 2CA while on his tractor, frustrated with the way the Nebraska Constitution was “tightly tied up” and wanted to see specific change.
Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, chairwoman of the Revenue Committee, noted that at least 19 states value residential property differently than other types.
“There’s no smoke or mirrors here,” Brandt said Thursday after his bill was voted on unanimously in the Revenue Committee. “It’s simply something the Legislature can do.”
The discussion has been postponed to Tuesday.
Lawmakers left the session without advancing the bill on Saturday but allowed it to advance until Tuesday, with about an hour of debate remaining. That’s because lawmakers voted in favor of the bill. 25-7 The debate was postponed, at Brandt’s request, to give him a chance to gain more support and have more senators present.
If lawmakers had been able to vote on the same measure Saturday, it likely would have needed 33 votes. Only 36 senators were in attendance, and several were opposed, including some who voted to give Brandt a fighting chance.
Brandt would likely need 33 votes again on Tuesday (he would need 25 if debate ends before four hours). To pass on the final reading, he would need at least 30 votes to appear on the 2026 ballot, and at least 40 votes to appear on the November 2024 ballot.
Brandt said he was not sure he would get 40 votes, but was more confident about the minimum.
House Speaker John Arch of La Vista confirmed he will schedule a second public debate for Tuesday. Thursday could be the earliest day for a final debate. If the tax package and budget bills pass Tuesday, lawmakers could also vote to go home and end the session.
“Choosing between our friends”
The delay was a strategy worked out between Brandt, Linehan and Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne, whose simmering tensions initially sparked the controversy. Omaha Sen. John Kavanaugh offered The prevailing movement To regroup on Tuesday.
Wayne was the first to speak out on Saturday and draw a line in the sand, telling Brandt: “This is what happens when you play political games with people’s lives.”
On Friday, lawmakers failed to get a single vote. Procedural movement This could have led to a vote on whether to exempt residential electricity from sales taxes as part of Legislative Bill No. 3Brandt was one of 17 senators who opposed Wayne’s procedural step to determine whether an amendment was appropriate or relevant and could be added to House Bill 3. Wayne had 21 supportersBut it takes 22.
“Let’s just say ‘to hell with the individual’ and focus on profits over people, because that’s what we do,” Wayne said Saturday.
Linehan saw the anger directed at her as well because she was “present, not voting” in the LB 3 battle, not realizing that her vote could have been the deciding vote. She said that even if she had known, it probably wouldn’t have made a difference because she was following the lead of Appropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood.
“The hardest thing we have to do here is choose between our friends,” Linehan said, looking visibly frustrated and dabbing at her eyes with a tissue as she spoke.
Wayne and Linehan, who were elected in 2016, in their home state. Last year in the Legislative CouncilThey have often been on opposite sides of issues but have a close friendship and often help each other, even when they are diametrically opposed.
This session, Wynne has fought to get the Legislature to try to get more than what is currently in the base tax package, House Bill 34, though he opposes the current version and the original package in House Bill 1, which Linehan introduced on behalf of Gov. Jim Belin.
Wayne helped stop the debate to give Linehan and others time to negotiate. He helped formulate ideas. And he took political hits for them. Often it was his fellow progressives who refused to budge.
Agriculture leaders ‘need a partner’
Linehan spoke angrily Saturday about how many times the legislature has helped agriculture during her eight years, only to see several senators from more rural districts oppose LR 2CA.
“I’m not mad at anyone here. “Today,” Linehan said. “I’m angry at the Farm Bureau, who texted us this morning saying 2CA is hard on agriculture.”
Brandt said the organization told him Friday night it supported his constitutional amendment, but by Saturday morning the Farm Bureau had flipped out. He shared an email the organization sent to him and state Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, with what Brandt called “fantastic numbers.”
Linehan pointed to a major property tax proposal passed in 2020, L B 1107She said lawmakers were negotiating at the state Capitol for three years of funding while the Farm Bureau was busy working with lobbyists to get a five-year proposal. “They threw us under the bus,” she said.
It wasn’t a one-time exchange, Linehan added, saying the agriculture sector was “really lucky” and “the angels were with them.”
Linehan sees LR 2CA as an opportunity for agricultural interests to join forces with residential landowners and find a “partner,” something the Farming Authority currently lacks. As a result, Linehan claims, agricultural land could soon return to 100% market value.
“You have to understand, Ag: If you want to move the ball, you’re going to need a partner, and the partner you’re going to need is the homeowners,” Linehan said. “And if you don’t want that, I can’t feel sorry for you anymore.
“Whack a mole” for other types of property
Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte reiterated his criticism of the measure on Friday, saying it was “too early” and “not ready to go live.”
Jacobson said LR 2CA does not have 40 votes and may not reach 33. He promised to block the bill by any means necessary to prevent unintended consequences.
“Without a push, it’s like whack a mole,” Jacobson said. “One goes up, the other goes down. One goes down, the other goes down in a chapter or two.” [of property valuations] “Come up.”
Others, including Sen. Brad Von Gellern of Elkhorn, vice chairman of the Revenue Committee, expressed similar concerns about tenants and multifamily units in commercial properties.
After overcoming their differences, Brandt and Wayne proposed using property tax credits to reduce the cost of reduced assessments on owner-occupied properties, something they said could already be done, without constitutional change. Brandt said that would be different from farmland, where counties are affected by a shift in assessments.
looking forward
State Senators Julie Salama of Dunbar and Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who He won’t come back To the legislature next year, they differed over whether to continue in special session to address other ideas. Salame opposed LR 2CA; McDonnell supported it.
Salama said that achieving any victories on agriculture often requires negotiations that mean urban areas have to get something, too. The special session has turned emotions up to “11” on a compressed timetable, she said, but if lawmakers fail, “it’s not for lack of trying.”
“You are on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, but that doesn’t diminish the sacrifices people make to be here,” Salama said of the session, referring to lawmakers who have personal health issues or whose trips to Lincoln include leaving “sick” family members at home.
McDonnell said the suggestions by Jacobson and others to wait until January were not enough, and that senators could not simply say, “We tried.” He suggested holding an up-or-down vote on various proposals after an hour of debate, and then if a bill did not get 33 votes, it would be invalid.
“I don’t think we should stop until we’ve exhausted all the ideas, had all the discussions possible, because if we say we’re going to wait until next year, there are people who can’t wait,” McDonnell said. “There are people who are making life-changing decisions today — where they’re going to live, what they’re going to eat.”
Lawmakers will meet from 9 to 9:30 a.m. Monday for the check-in day. Debate is scheduled to resume Tuesday. L B 34 (Basic Tax Package), For B2 (Budget cuts), LB 3 (Cash transfers and fee increases) and LR 2CA. Special sessions continue until lawmakers vote to return home.
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