LINCOLN — Frustrations with Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen’s push to prioritize the property tax relief proposals he and his hand-picked pod of senators favor over other lawmakers’ ideas boiled over into Wednesday’s floor debate.
State Sens. Danielle Conrad and George Dungan of Lincoln; Megan Hunt, John Cavanaugh, Jen Day and Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha; and Carol Blood of Bellevue questioned the governor’s approach of trying to wear senators down with an indefinite session.
Conrad took the session’s first real chance to discuss progress toward the governor’s push for property tax relief to publicly say what many of them had already acknowledged privately — that the governor’s original proposal was dead on arrival.
She said Pillen stretched the acceptable historical practice of calling a special session only during emergencies by calling one on property tax relief, an issue discussed during nearly every modern regular session of the Nebraska Legislature.
“As Nebraskans we have a proud and strong tradition of transparency and thoughtfulness in how we approach our work that has been thrown out the window … and it’s wrong,” Conrad said. “It’s wrong for this Legislature to facilitate an abuse of power by a governor intent on lining his own pockets.”
Pillen owns a massive hog operation based in Columbus, Nebraska. The Lincoln Journal Star and others have calculated that he and his business operations could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from any of the property tax relief plans he has supported.
Conrad and Hunt directed some of their harshest criticism at people they called Pillen’s enablers, including senators in a working group that met with the governor for months before sharing the work product with the wider Legislature.
Targets Pillen’s enablers
Conrad singled out the Revenue Committee, led by State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Omaha. Some senators are trying to find ways to rescue parts of Pillen’s plan and shoehorn them into another bill, Conrad said, so the governor can claim victory despite his defeat.
But she noted that lawmakers last session shot down Pillen’s push to raise sales tax rates and expand the number of items subject to the sales tax, criticizing the plan as regressive and would disproportionately land on the backs of the working poor and elderly.
She and Hunt said Pillen’s new plan was just a smaller version of the largest proposed tax increase in Nebraska history. Blood said the plan is changing so much day to day that senators often have to read news reports to know what’s in it.
Hunt said the Legislature was not treating the issue of property taxes with the seriousness of how they all campaigned on the issue. She said the lack of clear processes and efforts to rush a decision show disrespect for people who want a say.
She said Nebraskans are going to see their cost of living increase by more than most will feel in property tax relief, whether they rent or own homes. She said senators shouldn’t try to rewrite the tax code and school funding formula and cut the budget over the span of a week.
“How can we expect Nebraskans to take this session seriously?” Hunt asked, saying people are worried about getting their kids back to school. “We have not had time to deliberate this, and we have had good ideas.”
The Revenue Committee’s chosen vehicle is now Legislative Bill 9, introduced by State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, which is largely being loaded with pieces of bills from other senators who Linehan has included and negotiated with.
“Everything that I’ve learned about this special session, I learned from the media,” Blood said. “(Pillen) gets to do whatever he wants to do when he wants to do it … and quite frankly, I think our governor is a bully.”
Process questions
Dungan, who was in the governor’s working group and serves on the Revenue Committee, said he was no fan of the process that the governor and lawmakers had followed during the special session, saying colleagues and staff said this is not normal.
“My understanding is a special session is intended to address a finite issue,” he said. “It’s intended to be constrained as a response to an emergency situation.”
Dungan said when he talks to his constituents, they tell him they want property tax relief, too. But, he said, they tell him, “Not like this.”
Several senators expressed the need for the legislative branch to push back.
Pillen’s office had no immediate comment on senators’ remarks. Earlier this week, he pivoted from his own plan to saying he supported the Revenue Committee’s emerging proposal, which is expected to get voted out of committee Thursday morning.
Supportive senators defend Pillen
Several senators came to Pillen’s defense, including Linehan, State Sens. Ben Hansen and Kathleen Kauth of Omaha and Mike Jacobson of North Platte. Jacobson applauded the governor for proposing concrete ways to pay for property tax relief.
“Everything you’re hearing today is hyperbole,” Jacobson said.
Linehan said she is tired of proposing incremental changes without structural changes. She said that in her eight years as a lawmaker, the state has put $1 billion into property tax relief and yet property taxes have increased by $1.3 billion.
“If you think we’re not trying to fix it, that’s just false,” she said of addressing property taxes. “We can come here and do another decrease in the increase. Or we can take on the responsibility of all the kids.”
Linehan argued that the committee’s measure “wouldn’t increase sales taxes.”
It would not raise sales tax rates. However, it would raise more money from sales taxes by expanding the number of goods and services subject to the sales tax, based on the latest version of the proposal and its projected revenue estimates.
Hansen criticized his colleagues for complaining about being called away from their lives and full-time jobs for a special session. He said they need to be there because the issue warrants their full attention, and it needs to be solved.
Focus on the issue
State Sen. Mike Moser of Columbus said senators should focus on why they were called back, because “property taxes are too high and they’re out of balance with other forms of state revenue.”
Try as they might, he said, there is no way to reduce or offset property taxes without having revenue. That, he said, is the root cause of why senators have talked about the issue for decades and spent millions nibbling around the edges.
Kauth defended the work of the Revenue Committee, of which she is a member. She said the committee has been “very deliberative” in what it wants to tax. For instance, she said, the committee proposal would tax candy and pop, but not other groceries or food.
She criticized her colleagues for filing a number of motions and efforts to slow down deliberations and filibuster bills.
“Stalling an important issue is not ethical,” Kauth said.