Omaha World Herald on Feb 15: Midlands Voices: School funding vital in property tax plans
In Nebraska, it’s hard to have a serious conversation about property taxes without talking about school funding.
Some property tax proposals before the Legislature recognize this relationship, as well as the need to protect our investment in schools. Others don’t.
Every major study of Nebraska taxes since 1962, including the 2013 Tax Modernization Committee study, noted our high reliance on property taxes to fund schools. Presently, about 48 percent of Nebraska K-12 funding comes from property taxes.
That reliance is largely a result of historically low state financial support for schools. When our current school funding system was enacted in the 1990s, we ranked 49th in state support as a share of K-12 funding. More than 20 years later, we still rank 49th.