Nebraska lawmaker calls proposed homestead exemption ‘universal’ relief for homeowners
(Nebraska Examiner) An alternative tax relief measure to be considered by state lawmakers would exempt from property taxes the first $100,000 of a Nebraskan’s home value.
State Senator John Cavanaugh of Omaha described his homestead exemption proposal as targeted tax relief to Nebraska homeowners and not, as he said, “big out-of-state property owners” such as Ted Turner and Bill Gates.
“If we are serious about giving relief to homeowners, and not large wealthy landowners, this is a possible solution,” Cavanaugh said on social media.
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He introduced Legislative Bill 22 Friday, the second day of the special legislative session called by Governor Jim Pillen to try to alleviate property tax burden for Nebraskans. The Legislature will be entertaining and debating various ways to achieve that goal.
Cavanaugh told the Nebraska Examiner that he sought to focus on the problem people are talking about: Nebraskans, including older people on fixed incomes, who are getting priced out of their own homes because property taxes are rising so high.
He said state funding would cover the loss resulting from the exemption laid out in LB 22, which he estimated might cost roughly $900 million the first year. He estimated that it would offer an individual household in Omaha a $2,200 annual break.
Possible ways to cover the cost, Cavanaugh said, could include pausing income tax cuts or repealing the Perkins County Canal project and directing funds toward property tax relief. The Legislature appropriated $574 million in 2023 toward the controversial canal initiative, still in its planning phase, that would ensure Colorado sends water Nebraska is owed based on a century-old South Platte River Compact.
LB 22, Cavanaugh said, is aimed at owner-occupied homes. (Separate legislation, he noted, has been introduced already that aims to provide relief to renters.)
He described his proposal as a more “universal” homestead exemption that would not replace, but rather add to the current Nebraska homestead exemption program. The existing program is a property tax relief program only for certain categories of homeowners, including income-eligible people over 65 years of age, qualified disabled individuals and qualified totally disabled veterans and their surviving spouses.
“This would be meaningful tax relief to most Nebraskans,” Cavanaugh said.
State Senator Jen Day of the Omaha area on Friday also introduced a proposal related to homestead exemptions. Her Legislative Bill 30 focuses on expanding benefits to certain other levels of disabled veterans and surviving spouses.
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