Zach Wendling
LINCOLN — What was intended to be a simple, rare Saturday meeting of the Nebraska Legislature began with flared emotions but ended with key senators making nice to save the very legislation their fight had imperiled.
At the center of the debate was Legislative Resolution 2CA, a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature, if voters approve, to set a different valuation process for owner-occupied housing. Most Nebraska property is valued at or near 100% of actual market value, with the exception of agricultural land, which is currently valued at 75%. Voters in 1984 authorized the Legislature to value ag land differently.
State Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth, a farmer, said he got the idea for LR 2CA while on his tractor, frustrated at how the Nebraska Constitution is “locked up so tight,” and he wanted to see a specific change.
State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, the Revenue Committee chair, noted at least 19 states value residential property differently than other types.
“There’s no smoke and mirrors here,” Brandt said Thursday after his measure was unanimously voted out of the Revenue Committee. “It simply is something the Legislature can do.”
Owner-occupied housing statewide
Logan County, at 85%, has the most owner-occupied homeownership among Nebraska’s 93 counties.
The other highest nine counties, all at 83%, are:
- Boyd.
- Cass.
- Deuel.
- Franklin.
- Gosper.
- Greely.
- Harlan.
- Nance.
- Pawnee.
Hooker County has the least owner-occupied homeownership, at 45%.
The other lowest nine counties are:
- Cherry (58%).
- Lancaster (59%).
- Thurston (61%).
- Douglas (62%).
- Hall (62%).
- Sioux (62%).
- Dawes (63%).
- Cheyenne (65%).
- Dakota (65%).
Source: Legislative Research Office
Debate postponed to Tuesday
Lawmakers left without advancing the measure Saturday but allowed it to limp along until Tuesday, with about one hour of debate remaining. That’s because lawmakers voted 25-7 to postpone debate, at Brandt’s request, for a chance to win more support and have more senators in attendance.
Had lawmakers gotten to a vote on the measure itself Saturday, it likely would have needed 33 votes. Only 36 senators were in attendance and a number of them were opposed, including some who voted to give Brandt a fighting chance.
On Tuesday, Brandt will likely again need 33 votes (he would need 25 if debate ended before the four-hour mark). To pass during final reading, it would need at least 30 votes in order to appear on the 2026 ballot, and at least 40 votes to appear on the November 2024 ballot.
Brandt said he’s unsure if he’ll have 40 votes but is more confident about the smaller threshold.
Speaker John Arch of La Vista confirmed he’ll schedule LR 2CA on Tuesday. The earliest day final debate could come is Thursday. Should the tax package and budget-related bills pass Tuesday, lawmakers could also just vote to go home and end the session.
‘Picking between our friends’
The postponement was a strategy brokered between Brandt, Linehan and Omaha State Sen. Justin Wayne, with flared tensions among them spawning the audible to begin with. State Sen. John Cavanaugh of Omaha offered the prevailing motion to regroup Tuesday.
Wayne was the first to speak Saturday and drew his line in the sand, telling Brandt, “This is what happens when you play political games with people’s lives.”
On Friday, lawmakers fell one vote short of a procedural motion that could have led to a vote on whether to exempt residential electricity from sales taxes as part of Legislative Bill 3. Brandt was one of 17 senators to oppose Wayne’s procedural move to determine the amendment was relevant, or germane, and able to be amended onto LB 3. Wayne had 21 supporters, but he needed 22.
“Let’s just say ‘to hell with the individual’ and focus on profits over people, because that’s what we’re doing,” Wayne said Saturday.
Linehan saw anger also aimed at her because she was “present, not voting” on that LB 3 fight, unaware her vote could have been the deciding one. She said even if she had known, it might not have made a difference as she was following the lead of Appropriations Committee chair State Sen. Rob Clements of Elmwood.
“The hardest thing we do here is picking between our friends,” Linehan said, visibly frustrated and wiping her eyes with a tissue while speaking.
Wayne and Linehan, both elected in 2016, are in their last year in the Legislature. They have often been on opposing sides of issues but have a close friendship and frequently help one another, even when diametrically opposed.
This session, Wayne has fought to have the Legislature try for more than currently contained in the core tax package, LB 34, even though he opposes the current version and opposed the original package contained in LB 1, which Linehan introduced on behalf of Gov. Jim Pillen.
Wayne has helped stall debate to give Linehan and others time to negotiate. He helped draft ideas. He took political hits for her. It was often his progressive colleagues who declined to budge.
Ag leaders ‘need a partner’
Linehan, speaking angrily on the floor Saturday, recounted how many times in her eight years the Legislature has helped agriculture, only to see multiple senators from more rural districts opposing LR 2CA.
“I’m not mad at anybody in here today,” Linehan said. “I am furious with the Farm Bureau, texting us this morning and saying that 2CA is hard for ag.”
Brandt said the organization told him Friday night it was in favor of his constitutional amendment, but by Saturday morning the Farm Bureau had flipped. He shared an email the organization sent to him and State Sen. Jana Hughes of Seward, with what Brandt said were “fantasy numbers.”
Linehan pointed to a major property tax proposal passed in 2020, LB 1107, that had lawmakers negotiating in the State Capitol for a three-year funding stretch while the Farm Bureau was busy making a deal with lobbyists for a five-year proposal. She said “they threw us under the bus.”
That moment wasn’t a one-off exchange, Linehan added, arguing ag has been “really lucky” and “the angels have been with them.”
She sees LR 2CA as a chance for agricultural interests to join with residential landowners and find a “partner,” which she said the Farm Bureau currently lacks. As a result, Linehan argued, ag land might soon return to being valued at 100% of market value.
“You have to understand, Ag: if you ever want to move the ball, you’re going to need a partner, and the partner you ought to be holding hands with is the homeowners,” Linehan said. “And if you don’t want to, I can’t feel sorry for you anymore.”
‘Whack-a-mole’ for other property types
State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte repeated criticism he lobbied at the measure Friday, saying that it was “way too early” and “not ready for primetime.”
Jacobson said LR 2CA doesn’t have 40 votes and might fall short of 33. He’s promised to filibuster the bill either way to prevent unintended consequences.
“Without pay-fors, this is whack-a-mole,” Jacobson said. “One goes up, others go down. One goes down, the other one or two classes [of property valuations] go up.”
Others, including State Sen. Brad von Gillern of Elkhorn, Revenue Committee vice chair, expressed similar concern for renters and multi-family units in commercial properties.
Brandt and Wayne, after moving past their differences, suggested using property tax credits to buy down the cost of lowered valuations for owner-occupied properties, which they said could already be done now, without a constitutional change. That would be different from ag land, where counties are affected by a shift in valuations, Brandt said.
Looking ahead
State Sens. Julie Slama of Dunbar and Mike McDonnell of Omaha, who also won’t return to the Legislature next year, differed over whether to continue the special session to tackle other ideas. Slama opposed LR 2CA; McDonnell supported it.
Slama said for ag to accomplish any victories, it often includes negotiations that mean urban areas have to get something, too. She said the special session has amped up emotions in a compressed timeline to an “11” but that if lawmakers fail, “it’s not for lack of trying.”
“You are on duty 24/7, 365, but that doesn’t discount the sacrifices that people are making to be here,” Slama said of the session, pointing to lawmakers with personal health issues or whose journeys to Lincoln include leaving “ailing” family members at home.
McDonnell said that suggestions from Jacobson and others to wait until January aren’t good enough and that senators can’t just say, “We tried.” He suggested an up-or-down vote on various proposals after one hour of debate, and then if a bill doesn’t have 33 votes, it’s dead for the session.
“I don’t believe we should stop until we’ve exhausted every idea, had every discussion possible, because if we’re saying we’re going to wait until next year, there’s people out there that can’t wait,” McDonnell said. “There’s people out there making life-changing decisions today — where they’re going to live, and what they’re going to eat.”
Lawmakers will meet from 9-9:30 a.m. Monday for a check-in day. Debate is scheduled to resume Tuesday on LB 34 (the core tax package), LB 2 (budget cuts), LB 3 (cash fund transfers and fee increases) and LR 2CA. Special sessions continue until lawmakers vote to go home.