Nebraska lawmakers end session, leaving taxes for later

Nebraska lawmakers adjourned Thursday knowing they’ll be called back by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen for a summer session to ease soaring property taxes.

A Pillen-backed sales tax expansion failed on the last day of the session after its author, Omaha Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, pulled it from consideration because it lacked support.

“Because of this legislature’s inaction this morning, Nebraskans will not see a penny of property tax relief this session,” Pillen told lawmakers as he announced the special session. “It’s unacceptable from my seat.”

The unique one-chamber, officially nonpartisan Legislature’s 60-day session began more collegially than last year, when a measure to greatly restrict gender-affirming care for transgender minors generated bitter acrimony and an epic filibuster before passing — along with a 12-week abortion ban.

This session, a lawmaker was reprimanded by the Legislature’s governing board after invoking the name of a colleague while reading a graphic account of rape on the floor.

Here’s a look at legislation that passed this session — and some that didn’t.

TAXES

Linehan’s bill would have shifted the state’s growing property tax burden to sales and other taxes, raising the sales tax by 1 cent and creating an array of new taxes on candy, tobacco, CBD products and digital advertising.

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