Nebraska agriculture leaders outline principles for property tax reform

Leaders of Nebraska agriculture organizations who represent tens of thousands of Nebraska farmers, ranchers, and livestock feeders have come together to outline principles to guide actions on comprehensive tax reform for Nebraska. The principles are targeted at addressing Nebraska’s current tax system, which has led to an imbalance and overreliance on property taxes to fund government services.  The Agriculture Leaders Working Group principles for tax reform state: 1. Tax reform, whether through legislation or ballot initiative, should seek a more balanced tax system to fund government services and education and benefit all property owners, including agriculture, residential, and commercial property. Collections from property, sales, and income taxes shall share the burden with none of the three individually exceeding 35 percent of the tax liability. 2. Agricultural property owners currently pay a disproportional amount of the total property tax liability. All future property tax relief produced at the state level must seek to reduce this proportional share. 3. Tax reform should encourage fiscal responsibility and be revenue neutral. Actions to achieve such measures may include new tax sources or modify existing revenue sources to provide dollar for dollar reductions in property taxes. 4. Reform must ensure adequate funding for high quality education for Nebraska students, but reduce the reliance on property taxes for educational funding.