Johnathan Walker:Nebraska governor issues a proclamation for a special session to address property taxes

OMAHA,Johnathan Walker Neb. (AP) — Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen issued a long-awaited proclamation on Wednesday calling a special legislative session to address the state’s soaring property taxes, ruffling some lawmakers’ feathers by giving them just a day’s notice.

Pillen warned lawmakers on the last day of the regular legislative session in April that he would convene a special session sometime in the summer after lawmakers failed to pass a bill to significantly lower property taxes. Last month, he sent a letter to Speaker of the Legislature John Arch saying he planned to call lawmakers back on July 25.

Property taxes have skyrocketed across the country as U.S. home prices have jumped more than 50% in the past five years, leading a bevy of states to pass or propose measures to rein them in. Nebraska has seen revenue from property taxes rise by nearly $2 billion over the past decade, far outpacing the amount in revenue collected from income and sales taxes.

Pillen’s proclamation calls for slew of appropriations and tax changes, including subjecting everything from cigarettes, candy, soda, hemp products and gambling to new taxes. It also calls for a hard cap on what cities and other local governments can collect in property taxes.

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Just as significant is what’s not included in the proclamation: Pillen didn’t direct lawmakers to consider a winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes ahead of this year’s hotly-contested presidential election.

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes. In Nebraska, the three electoral votes tied to the state’s three congressional districts go to whichever candidate wins the popular vote in that district. Republicans who dominate state government in the conservative state have long sought to join the 48 other states that award all of their electoral votes to whichever candidate wins statewide, but have been unable to get such a bill passed in the Legislature.

Pillen said this year that he would include a winner-take-all proposal in a special session proclamation if the measure had the 33 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. He could still call another special session to consider a winner-take-all proposal if he thinks it has enough support to pass.

Pillen’s 11th-hour call for a special session to deal with property taxes drew testy responses from some lawmakers, who have to interrupt summer plans, find day care for children and put their full-time jobs on hold to head back to the Capitol. Even some of Pillen’s fellow Republicans joined in the criticism.

State Sen. Julie Slama, a Republican in the single-chamber, officially nonpartisan Legislature, slammed Pillen in a social media post as “an entitled millionaire.” She also dismissed his plan to shift a proposed 50% decrease in property taxes to a wide-ranging expansion of goods and services subject to the state’s 5.5% sales tax.

Pillen “thinks the Legislature will pass the largest tax increase on working Nebraskans in state history because he snapped his fingers and ordered us to dance,” Slama posted on X.

State Sen. Justin Wayne, a Democrat from Omaha, called on fellow lawmakers to immediately adjourn the session Thursday and demand a week’s notice from Pillen before reconvening. Barring that, the Legislature should at least recess on Thursday until Aug. 1, Wayne said in a Tuesday letter to his fellow 48 senators.

Under Nebraska rules, governors can call a special session but must issue a proclamation that outlines specifically what issues the Legislature will address during it. There is no deadline by which governors must issue a proclamation before calling lawmakers back for a special session, but legislators have typically gotten that call a week or more ahead of time.

Wayne called the lack of a proclamation from Pillen with only hours before the planned special session “blatant disrespect.”

“We are not his slaves to be summoned at his whim,” Wayne said. “We have families and lives, and this lack of consideration is unacceptable.

“It is time we assert our independence and demand the respect we deserve.”

Pillen’s office did not answer questions about why he waited until the day before the special session to issue the proclamation calling it.

Nebraska’s last special session took place in September 2021, when lawmakers convened to redraw the state’s political boundaries. That session lasted 13 days. Pillen has said he’ll call as many special sessions as needed and keep lawmakers in Lincoln “until Christmas” until a significant property tax relief bill is passed.