Sen. Hughes disappointed in lack of property tax relief

McCOOK, Neb. — Nebraska’s 2017 legislative session wrapped up Tuesday, leaving District 44 State Sen. Dan Hughes pleased with some of the progress made towards tax relief but ultimately disappointed with the lack of property tax relief.

“My biggest disappointment is that we did not pass any significant property tax relief,” said the third-year senator during a visit with the Gazette Thursday. On the flip side, legislators were able to get a tax relief bill out of committee and onto the floor for debate, something Sen. Hughes said hadn’t happened in quite some time. Ultimately, the bill failed to advance but tax relief advocates hope to build on the momentum it did make.

“Even though it did not pass, those of us in the body who want tax relief learned several lessons and those lessons will help us pass tax relief legislation somewhere down the road. I still wish we had cut our budget further and not balanced it by raiding so many cash funds. I am still fearful if our economy does not turn around within the next 18  to 24 months we will be forced to make much larger cuts in order to have a balanced budget,” said Sen. Hughes.

Six of the 11 bills introduced by Sen. Hughes this session became law. LB 89 and LB 90 were rolled into a bill introduced by Sen. John Stinner, LB 151. LB 89 reduces the public notification period (5-day to 4) required by the Nebraska Budget Act for proposed annual budgets submitted by governing bodies. LB 90 requires public entities to provide suitable accommodations for employees of the Auditor of Public Accounts conducting audits or examinations.

Sen. Hughes’ LB 182 changes powers and duties of the Department of Environmental Quality to amend the power to enter into loan forgiveness and financial assistance agreements with public water systems having populations of 10,000 inhabitants or less; to specify public water systems that provide service to 10,000 persons or less.

LB 535 provides an exemption for oil, gas or mineral leases from requirements to file a completed statement with the register of deeds. LB 317 extended authority to second class cities and villages to re-levy or reassess a special assessment found invalid, uncollectible, void by a court, or paid under protest and recovered by suit, among other scenarios. LB 318  added the Nebraska Brand Committee to the list of governing entities authorized to conduct meetings via telephone conference.

Four of Hughes’ bill failed to make it out of committee; LB 183, LB 275, LB 537 and LB 593; and one, LB 536, was introduced primarily as a placeholder for Natural Resource District issues that might have arisen.

Sen. Hughes said he plans to work on the bills stuck in committee, as well as housing and prison overcrowding issues in the coming months.

“As for this summer, I am working to refine the bills I still have in committee plus looking at housing issues for rural Nebraska. I was also appointed to the new LR 127 Committee continuing to look at how we can make our prisons less crowded, by providing the training and education to the inmates necessary to avoid the revolving door that is clogging our current system,” said Sen. Hughes.

Sen. Hughes will be in McCook on Tuesday, June 13, for a legislative wrap-up and the 10 a.m. Coffee with a Cop meeting at the Bieroc Cafe.