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Long Short Session Ends at Long Last
After a long day befitting the Legislature's 2012 session, senators completed business late Wednesday afternoon and adjourned for the year. Adjournment had been scheduled for the previous week, but the final day was postponed to allow for override votes on expected vetoes by the Governor.
Actions on day 60 included votes to sustain two vetoes and override two.
One of the overrides was LB 357, legislation introduced by Senator Ashford that will allow cities to increase local sales taxes by a half percent beyond the present 1.5 percent limit, subject to approval by the voters of the city.
Revenues generated by the additional tax are to be used for municipal infrastructure, though in the case of the City of Omaha, half of the new revenue would have to be used to reduce other taxes. In addition, in the case of Omaha, the city would have to enter into an interlocal agreement or form a joint public agency with another local government, and the agreement between the two governments would have to provide for a long-term effort aimed at unifying the governance of infrastructure projects.
In the end, 223 bills were approved, six were vetoed, and three vetoes were overridden.
Highlights of the session include:
LB 907 (Sen. Cornett): Income tax reduction.
LB 1118 (Sen. Cornett) is designed to attract very large date center projects to Nebraska (the minimum investment is $200 million).
LB 1080 (Sen. Cornett) allows data centers to open unique lines of work where data center equipment is assembled in Nebraska (by a Nebraska workforce) but used at facilities in other states.
LB 872 (Sen. Hadley), aligns taxation of the sale of intangibles with that of tangible goods. In essence, services and other intangibles would be taxed at the point-of-service rather than the point-of-origin.
LB 902 (Sen. Harr), clarifies that a public project financed through lease/purchase arrangements is exempt from property and sales taxes, just as is the projects' owners - cities, counties, schools, and other government subdivisions. In addition, this will require approval of the voters for any project costing more than six percent of a subdivision's property valuation. For Omaha, that represents a $165 million project.
LB 745 (Sen. Fischer), requires a public vote on implementing or increasing occupation taxes that raise more than a threshold amount for general spending purposes. For Omaha, the threshold is $6 million annually; for Lincoln it is $3 million; and for first class cities it is $700,000.
State Budget: Adjustments to the current two year budget include $80 million for University of Nebraska capital construction projects, including $50 million for the UNMC research and treatment facility in Omaha; $15 million for the University School of Allied Health Professions facility in Kearney; and $50 million for the UNL veterinary center that will be provided through annual payments spread over ten years.