To download the full “Nebraska’s Path to the Top Ten Report” click here. Summary Nebraska entered 2022 with one of the least-competitive tax systems in a highly competitive region. But then a structural surge in tax revenues was utilized by lawmakers to perform Nebraska’s two-year tax transformation. Across two governors and two years, Nebraska lawmakers...
Writing in the pages of National Review, Platte CEO Jim Vokal and I described Nebraska’s 2023 tax reform as the best in the nation. Property taxes and income taxes were both cut and reformed in 2023. And that’s not all. Coupled with meaningful reforms in 2022, the total two-year tax relief will be worth $3000...
Nebraska policymakers are being called upon to address a problem that afflicts nearly every state across the country. Rapidly rising property values are stressing homeowners, particularly when property taxes rise proportionate to property values. As a result, homeowners are turning to public officials for solutions. It is fair to say that this problem exists in...
Nebraska led the states with the nation’s best tax reform in 2023, overhauling its income tax and property tax in one fell swoop. Nebraska’s individual and business income tax will both fall to 3.99% in coming years, boosting the state’s competitiveness in the nation’s most tax-competitive region. Nebraska’s fiscal accomplishments in 2023 will naturally leave...
Property owners in southeast Nebraska should brace for sticker shock ahead of next year’s property tax bills. The Board of Governors for the Southeast Community College system (SCC) voted on Tuesday to raise property taxes by roughly 40% across the 15-county service area, according to coverage by the Lincoln Journal Star. Tuesday’s preliminary approval will...
Many Nebraskans (this writer included) took big gulps when they opened their property valuation notices this past week. In Crete, our valuations went up 23%. While we can understand the increase in valuations because property sales have risen, and property valuations are based on market value, these increased values also have the possibility to significantly...
State and local governments are on the front lines of providing core government services. They are also on the front lines of competing for jobs and economic growth. Therefore, state fiscal policy should produce revenue for core government services by applying low, competitive tax rates to a broad tax base with limited exemptions. That is...
Nebraska lawmakers have laid out an ambitious goal of achieving historic income tax and property tax relief in 2023. Income tax reforms in LB 754 would accomplish Nebraska’s most significant tax improvements in generations. In addition, lawmakers are advancing property tax relief in LB 243, sponsored by Senator Tom Briese, an amendment to which incorporates...
North Carolina made state tax history in 2021 by passing a law to eliminate the state’s corporate income tax by the end of 2026. Although the Tarheel State will be the first to repeal its corporate income tax, it probably won’t be the last. In fact, Missouri is advancing a bill to slash its corporate...
Nebraska has a progressive state income tax. This means that higher income earners pay a greater portion of their income in taxes than do lower income earners. If Nebraska lawmakers enact LB 754, a comprehensive income tax reform bill, the state will still have a progressive income tax. Nebraska’s top income tax rate of 6.64%...
Nebraska’s Revenue Committee advanced an amendment to LB 754 out of committee on a 7-1 vote last week, bringing Gov. Pillen’s income tax reform plan to the full Unicameral for debate. The bill is a tour de force of income tax reforms. The individual and corporate income taxes are both overhauled by the bill, with...
Mississippi lawmakers advanced legislation to enact full expensing this week, with separate bills passing in the legislature’s House and Senate. H.B. 1733 passed Mississippi’s House on an overwhelming 112-3 vote, while S.B. 3101 passed the Senate on a 51-0 vote. The bills both make full expensing the permanent tax treatment for qualifying investments in both...
At the writing of this blog, the 108th Nebraska Legislature is entering the 7th week of its 90-day session. A massive 812 bills were introduced in the first 10 days of the new session, each receiving a public committee hearing before full-day floor debates begin. Striking this year is the attention the Governor and legislative...
A recent story about Geraldine Tyler in Reason went something like this: 94-year-old Tyler fell behind by $2300 on her property taxes. Interest and fees came to $15,000. The government foreclosed, sold the home for $40,000, and kept the remaining $25,000. Right or wrong, most of us know that government can seize property to collect...