Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — Some lawmakers sent a warning to Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen on Friday by voting to send the core of his property tax relief proposal to a more unfavorable committee than anticipated.
The Revenue Committee is usually the destination for bills dealing with taxation and property taxes. All introduced bills and policy resolutions must get a public hearing and must be sent to the “appropriate committee,” per the Legislature’s internal rules.
When it came to Legislative Bill 1, introduced by State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn on Pillen’s behalf, the internally selected, 10-member Executive Board took a different approach. Five of the nine voting members determined the best destination for the 139-page proposal would be the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.
Their reasoning: It touches various aspects of government overall, not just taxes.
“Logically, it could have been sent to 10 different committees,” State Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, an Executive Board member, told the Nebraska Examiner. “The key for me was that the overarching theme is the authority of government.”
Possibly less friendly committee
During debate on a previous Pillen-led tax package this spring, the Government Committee chair, State Sen. Tom Brewer of north-central Nebraska, was the only committee member who voted for the bill. Seven other members opposed or otherwise did not vote for the bill.
State Sens. Ray Aguilar of Grand Island and John Lowe of Kearney are members of both the Government Committee and the Executive Board, where they serve as chair and vice chair.
The committee shift is likely to be short-lived as Aguilar and Lowe both said they’d reverse their votes come Monday. Still, it sends a strong message to the first-term governor, who already faces an uphill climb to get enough votes for the property tax relief ideas he’s worked on all summer.
In addition to Aguilar and Lowe, State Sens. Merv Riepe of Ralston, Tony Vargas of Omaha and Slama agreed to the Government Committee pick. State Sens. John Arch of La Vista, Beau Ballard of Lincoln, Eliot Bostar of Lincoln and Mike Jacobson of North Platte voted against.
‘This is about taxes’
Arch, the Legislature’s speaker, who sets the daily agenda, noted that there would likely be a committee amendment before LB 1, or any other major tax proposal this special session, makes it to the floor.
He encouraged his colleagues to consider which committee would be the most qualified to craft that compromise to deal with Nebraska’s tax issue.
Linehan joined Brewer on Friday in requesting that the Executive Board’s vote be reconsidered.
“The subject matter of this bill — pertaining to the assessment and collection of taxes — is best heard in the Revenue Committee,” Brewer and Linehan wrote in a joint letter.
Linehan has the option to force a floor vote to send the bill to her committee if the Executive Board members do not reconsider. She said she is “not the least concerned.”
“Everybody in the whole state knows this is about taxes,” Linehan told reporters, referring to LB 1.
“I don’t think Nebraskans would be very happy when they find out that a handful of senators have decided that we should go home, enjoy the rest of our summer and not worry about the crisis of property taxes in the State of Nebraska.”
Lowe, asked how he would vote Monday, said he has “always honored the chairmen.”
Slama said even if an introducer has a preferred committee, she and the top-ranking board must “look at the text of the bill and not the personalities involved.”
Another bucks committee suggestion
Another bill had been suggested, based on its content, to be sent to the Education Committee but ultimately found a home in the Revenue Committee: LB 9, from State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward.
Hughes’ bill, the bipartisan product of work with four other lawmakers, is an alternative K-12 school funding model to reduce general fund property tax rates for districts over 10 years. It also addresses the main state aid funding formula for the state’s 244 school districts.
Lawmakers voted 5-3 to send the bill to the Revenue Committee, rather than to the Education Committee.
LB 9 is one of the first bills up for legislative hearings this Monday, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. That will also be the final day of bill introductions for the special session. As of Friday, 35 bills and six constitutional amendments had been introduced so far. The Legislature will not meet Saturday as initially scheduled.