LB 300 amends Nebraska school district laws to add a compensation limit for superintendents and educational service unit administrators, requiring their pay to comply with the existing Superintendent Pay Transparency Act. The bill defines "compensation" as salary plus benefits (like retirement contributions and insurance) and prohibits school districts from entering contracts that exceed this new limit. It directly affects all Nebraska school districts and educational service units when hiring or setting pay for these leadership roles. The key mechanism is amending multiple statutes (79-566, 79-567, 79-594, 79-1219, and 79-2401) to include this limit and clarify pay transparency requirements.
This bill reduces the tax rate on cash devices (like slot machines) from 15.5% to 15% of their net operating revenue. It also changes how collected taxes are distributed, reducing the portion going to the Nebraska Tourism Commission Promotional Cash Fund from 10% to 7.5% of total revenue. Cash device operators and distributors must pay quarterly taxes based on revenue, with funds remitted to the State Treasurer by specified dates. The changes take effect October 1, 2025, and repeal the original tax sections.
LB 275A appropriates $329,347 for Program 33 and $629,165 for Program 354 within Nebraska's Department of Health and Human Services for the 2026-27 fiscal year, with the latter amount designated as state aid to support Legislative Bill 275. It provides no funding for these programs during the 2025-26 fiscal year. The bill sets a $95,442 cap on salary spending for Program 33 in 2026-27 while prohibiting all salary expenses for Program 354. This funding directly affects how the Department of Health and Human Services allocates resources for these specific programs.
Nebraska bill LB 389 eliminates the ability of educational service units (ESUs) to collect local property taxes for funding. Instead, it requires the state to provide direct funding to ESUs according to specified formulas. This change affects ESUs and the school districts that previously contributed to ESU budgets through local tax levies. The bill modifies existing tax levy limits for school districts and ESUs to remove their authority to raise funds via property taxes, shifting responsibility to state appropriations.
Nebraska bill LB 597 modifies how public school districts receive state education funding under the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act. Starting with the 2025-26 school year, foundation aid will be calculated as the greater of $1,500 per formula student or 7.5% of each district's basic funding. It also reduces the percentage of foundation aid counted toward formula resources from 100% to 60% for future years and adjusts local effort rate calculations (reducing the deduction from property tax levies from 5 cents to 10 cents). These changes directly affect all Nebraska public school districts receiving state aid.
This bill (LR 11CA) proposed a constitutional amendment to ban all taxes in Nebraska except retail sales taxes and excise taxes, effective January 1, 2028. It would have prohibited state and local governments from imposing income taxes, property taxes, or other tax types. The amendment required voter approval in the November 2026 election and included specific ballot language. However, the bill was withdrawn on February 13, 2025, and is no longer active.
LB 354 prohibits cities of the first class (like Omaha) from receiving state aid from Nebraska's Municipal Equalization Fund. The bill amends the existing law to explicitly exclude these large cities from eligibility, removing them from the formula used to calculate state aid. Under the current system, aid is based on property tax levies and population, but this bill ensures first-class cities receive no aid under this program. The change directly affects the funding of Nebraska's largest municipalities, eliminating a specific source of state revenue for them.
LB 296A is a funding bill that allocates $0 from the State Department of Education Improvement Grant Fund for fiscal years 2025-26 and 2026-27 to support Legislative Bill 296. It specifies that total expenditures for salaries and per diems from these funds cannot exceed $160,197 for 2025-26 or $165,403 for 2026-27. The bill directly affects the State Department of Education by providing a procedural funding mechanism for another legislative act. This is a technical appropriations measure with no actual monetary allocation, solely establishing budgetary parameters for a related bill.
This bill proposes a constitutional amendment to ban Nebraska from imposing an inheritance tax. If approved by voters in November 2026, it would add a new section to the state constitution prohibiting both the state government and local political subdivisions (like cities or counties) from levying such taxes. The amendment would take effect immediately upon voter approval, eliminating the legal authority for any Nebraska entity to collect inheritance taxes. It does not create new taxes or affect existing tax structures beyond this specific prohibition.
This Nebraska constitutional amendment (LR 12CA) would limit property taxes on real estate to a maximum of 1.5% of a property's full cash value starting in 2027. It directly affects all Nebraska property owners, particularly homeowners, by capping annual tax rates on real property. Key provisions include allowing higher taxes for specific voter-approved bonds (e.g., school construction with 55% voter approval) but requiring strict accountability measures like annual audits for those projects. The amendment also updates tax valuation methods for agricultural land, motor vehicles, and other property classes while eliminating conflicting existing constitutional language.
