Gov. Ricketts stops in Sidney, talks budget, property tax relief

Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts flew into the Sidney Municipal Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 18 as part of a string of stops around the state. After disembarking his plane and spending a few minutes mingling with the crowd, the governor delivered a speech to a group of local residents and city officials. The address focused on several issues that Ricketts had recently put before the Nebraska Legislature, many of them related to the state budget and taxes.

Two weeks ago, Ricketts proposed budget modifications for the current fiscal year, which are undergoing hearings at the capital. Finalizing the current year's budget is important to lay the foundation for the upcoming year's financial plans, Ricketts said.

The governor has already presented his recommendations for the next biennium, which he said would continue to constrain spending and continue funding crucial services like K-12 education, and on Jan. 18, he touched on a few points contained within his proposals.

Included in those recommendations is a proposal to move from the market-based assessment for agriculture land to an income potential assessment system.

"It will be more fair, because it will tie those ag land property tax values more closely to the income potential of the land," Ricketts told the crowd at the airport. The governor added that other states with heavy agriculture use this method of land valuation.

"In fact, if this had been implemented in 2017 in Nebraska, you would have seen ag land valuations decrease about 2 percent," Ricketts said.

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