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Law360 (April 15, 2020, 5:19 PM EDT ) A petition drive for a Nebraska ballot measure that would lower state property taxes by giving taxpayers a 35% property tax rebate has been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, its backers said.
TRUE Nebraskans LLC formally suspended on Monday its petition drive for a ballot measure that would establish a constitutional amendment allowing taxpayers to receive 35% of their property tax bills each year as credits or refunds on their Nebraska personal or business income tax returns. The organization said that federal social distancing and limits on gatherings pushed the group to make the decision to cease gathering signatures.
"With public gatherings and even personal contact limited, there is no reasonable expectation that we can finish the task without needless risk to the health and safety of our circulator network and to Nebraskans in general," TRUE Nebraskans said in a statement.
With its effective property tax rate of 1.65%, Nebraska has the eighth-highest effective property tax rate in the United States, according to the Tax Foundation. TRUE Nebraskans' hope was that the ballot measure would force the Nebraska Legislature to provide long-term property tax relief before the election so the constitutional amendment wouldn't be necessary, according to its website.
The proposal was supported by Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard, who in January 2019 introduced L.R. 3CA, which TRUE Nebraskans' proposal is based on. Erdman said that because he anticipated that measure would die in the Legislature's Revenue Committee, he began working with residents last year to launch a petition drive to put the measure on the ballot.
"Our property taxes are higher than other high property tax states, such as New York, Rhode Island and Michigan," Erdman said in a May 2019 blog post. He added that Nebraska had higher property taxes than any of its surrounding states.
Erdman did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Nebraska has made some strides on property tax relief, with Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts last May signing into law a two-year budget that allocated $272 million a year to the state's property tax credit cash fund.
However, other legislation providing property tax relief has failed to advance in the Legislature. In May, the unicameral Legislature declined to vote on L.B. 183, introduced by Sen. Tom Briese of Albion, which would have imposed sales tax on bottled water, soda, candy and certain services to provide property tax relief and fund schools.
Another measure, L.B. 289, introduced by Revenue Committee Chair Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, would have increased the state's sales tax and eliminated certain exemptions, with the revenue earmarked for the state property tax credit cash fund. That measure did not receive sufficient support to advance.
Representatives for Linehan, Briese, Ricketts and TRUE Nebraskans did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
--Editing by Vincent Sherry.
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