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Articles written by Sam Crisler


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  • End of the Legislative Session: What Was - and Wasn't Accomplished

    Sam Crisler, Nebraska News Service|Jun 5, 2019

    LINCOLN--The 2019 Nebraska unicameral session had its ups and downs, but it ended May 31 marked by little action on two of the Legislature’s biggest priorities at the session’s outset. Rural senators stressed the importance of property tax relief over the course of the session, but their two main proposals — introduced by Sens. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn and Tom Briese of Albion, respectively — failed to resonate with urban senators and Gov. Pete Ricketts. Both proposals involved using new taxes...

  • Time Clicking Down on Legislative Session

    Sam Crisler, Nebraska News Service|May 22, 2019

    LINCOLN--Time is running out for Nebraska state senators to get their bills passed before the last day of the current legislative session, recently announced by Speaker Jim Scheer as May 31 — four days shy of the regular 90 days in odd-year legislative sessions. Now it’s crunch time for the state’s budget plan and for bills offering property tax relief. Catch up on last week’s developments in the unicameral below. New property tax bill proposed in place of stalled LB 289 The main legislative vehicle which lawmakers hoped would create propert...

  • Revenue Committee Hears Ag-Focused Property Tax Bills

    Sam Crisler, Nebraska News Service|Feb 27, 2019

    LINCOLN - With the nation’s seventh-highest property tax rates, many Nebraskans are looking for any sort of relief. And according to Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte, farmers are feeling the burden more than others. On Feb. 21, Groene presented LB 530 in front of the unicameral’s Revenue Committee, explaining that the bill would drop the valuation at which agricultural property is taxed from 75 percent to 65 percent. The last time the tax valuation on Nebraska agricultural land decreased was in 2006, when LB 968 dropped it from 80 percent to...