The report for August 2020 state General Fund tax revenues was released today, September 15, and the state looks to be recovering from the recession we entered just a few months ago. According to the Nebraska Department of Revenue, the actual tax revenues are 6.4% higher for the fiscal year than projected by the state’s...
Restaurants in the City of Omaha have received some good news. On September 3, Mayor Jean Stothert announced that the city’s Finance Department has been directed to forgive late fees on restaurant tax payments due from March through the end of 2020. Nebraska’s first positive COVID-19 case hit the Omaha metro on March 6. As...
There are only six states in the nation that levy an inheritance tax, and Nebraska is one of them. In fact, Nebraska has the highest top rate at 18%. According to a local law firm, “When a person dies a resident of Nebraska or with property located in Nebraska, the Nebraska county inheritance tax will...
There’s a common argument that Midwest and Plains states like Nebraska have high property taxes because they’re larger states with relatively small populations. The idea is that pooling our limited resources for more miles of roads and school buildings naturally means property taxes will be higher. It sounds sensible, but there are other possibilities. Nebraska...
In 2019, Nebraskans started paying sales tax on most of their online purchases. Little did we know back then that this policy would help the state weather the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank, “e-commerce retail sales totaled $211.5 billion in Q2, an increase of $51.1 billion or 31.8% from the...
The 13th edition of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s national ranking of states was released, and Nebraska ranks 19th out of 50 on economic performance. (1 = best, 50 = worst) You might be asking yourself; how do they measure economic performance? Well, it looks backwards on how the state has performed in three different...
As part of a last-minute compromise in LB1107, Nebraska state senators have given final approval to a new property tax relief program (not, as Sarah Curry notes, property tax reform). The new program expected to be signed into law is called the Nebraska Property Tax Incentive Act, which will join the list of other state...
It is no secret there are economic consequences to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some figures might be misleading policymakers and people’s perception of state revenues and the economy. While Nebraska is weathering the pandemic’s economic storm relatively better than many states, there is still reason to pause when looking at the revenue numbers. The federal...
At our fifth and final Virtual Property Tax Town Hall of the summer, Omaha area voters and taxpayers had the chance to weigh in on a number of online straw polls on property tax issues. While most of these poll questions were asked of previous participants, the Legislature’s recent advancement of LB1107 gave us the...
This video is also available for viewing and sharing on Facebook and YouTube. Click here to read online poll results from this town hall.
On August 5, Nebraska lawmakers debated and advanced LB1107, a comprehensive tax and economic package including new property tax relief measures. The Legislature previously debated a separate plan, LB1106 in July, which failed to receive the required 33 votes to overcome a filibuster. LB1107 is a compromise in every sense of the word. Both Republicans and...
Participants in the Platte Institute’s Southeast Nebraska Virtual Property Tax Town Hall voted in five online straw polls on property tax issues. The totals below may not add to 100% due to rounding. While these voters expressed similar sentiments to previous respondents on the impact of COVID-19 on their priorities, and a desire to see...
This video may also be viewed and shared on Facebook and YouTube. Click here to read the online poll responses from this town hall.