A status update and some opinion pieces on the LB 461 tax package

By |2018-03-02T13:42:02-06:00April 25th, 2017|Blog, Home Featured, Nebraska, OpenSky, Revenue|0 Comments

A status update and some opinion pieces on the LB 461 tax package

Nebraska lawmakers debated on LB 461 – the revenue committee’s tax-cut package – for three hours on Friday without voting on moving the bill to second-round debate.

The bill –- which has several amendments pending — may return to the floor for further debate after this week’s discussion about the Appropriations Committee budget proposal.

Before debate began on LB 461 on Friday, OpenSky Executive Director Renee Fry wrote about the bill in the Omaha World-Herald, noting that, “Nebraskans we have talked to lately have been shocked when they learn legislators are considering tax cuts for the wealthy in the face of a large budget gap that is forcing funding reductions for higher education, health programs and other services middle-class Nebraskans need.”

On Thursday morning, the World-Herald’s editorial board wrote that LB 461 raises serious concerns, particularly regarding the complexity of its proposed property-tax changes, the budget impact of revenue losses and potential negative effects on education funding. The World-Herald editorial follows a Lincoln Journal Star piece from earlier this month that raised concerns about the lack of information about the impact of LB 461.

In an op-ed that appeared in multiple outlets across the state, former Sens. John Harms, Kathy Campbell and Don Pederson wrote that with lawmakers facing a large budget gap and other important challenges, this is not a good time to be considering the tax cuts proposed in LB 461.

The former senators also noted that it’s important that any talk of tax cuts be offset with talk of what services will need to be reduced to fund the tax cuts. “Unfortunately, such a discussion is not being held in relation to LB 461,” the former senators wrote.

Harms and Campbell are both members of OpenSky’s Board of Directors and Legislative Alumni Advisory Committee. Harms and Pederson both served on the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee with Pederson serving as the committee’s chair from 2005 to 2007.

OpenSky will continue to provide information and analysis of LB 461 while it remains under consideration by the Legislature.

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