     About 80 people turned out at Chadron State College Thursday afternoon to hear Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen’s pitch for the property tax relief plan he will send to a special session of legislature that will begin July 25th.
       Pillen says the basics of his plan are set, but with more details being hammered out all the time – thanks in part to the more than 2-dozen town halls like the ones he held Thursday in Chadron and Alliance.
Pillen’s plan is based on the state paying 100% of K-12 education costs and eliminating property taxes for that purpose. School taxes are roughly 60% of all property taxes in Nebraska and the plan needs about $1.4-billion dollars in replacement revenue.
     The governor says $1-billion dollars would come from making the sales tax more broad-based by adding services and eliminating the vast majority of sales tax exemptions except food.
      He thinks the rest could come from new or higher taxes on such things as tobacco and alcohol, and he wants hard caps on spending by school boards and other taxing entities.
      Thursday’s Chadron town hall was scheduled to run 90 minutes and Pillen spent roughly the first third recounting his successes in cutting spending and providing more property tax relief, followed by a half-hour explaining how property taxes got so burdensome. He then spent 45-minutes on his property tax plan – running over by about 15-minutes.Â
Pillen fielded questions through the meeting, including several on the petition drive for the EPIC consumption tax, which would replace all other taxes in Nebraska. He said he’s opposed to it but emphasized his plan includes several EPIC-inspired sections
Gov Pillen emphatically encouraged the audience to contact all 49 state senators, not just their own, and encourage the lawmakers to support his plan. He also said if anyone at the meeting disagreed with his plan, he hoped they would work and come up with their own better version.