Omaha World Herald on August 27: Legislative panels launch study of property taxes, school aid in Nebraska
LINCOLN — Figuring out how to reduce Nebraska’s heavy reliance on property taxes, especially for funding K-12 schools, has vexed state lawmakers for years.
Past solutions have involved funneling more state income and sales taxes into the state school aid formula.
Today, the Revenue and Education committees will launch a new effort to address the property tax burden.
But committee leaders were reluctant to predict whether this effort will lead to a proposal for boosting state spending on public schools — and potentially raising state income or sales taxes — to offset some of the property taxes going to schools.
“As to what is going to result from it, I don’t know,” said State Sen. Kate Sullivan of Cedar Rapids, the Education Committee chairwoman and a member of the Revenue Committee. “Do we have the political will to do some of these things?”