By Fred Knapp 
, Reporter/Producer Nebraska Public Media
Jan. 17, 2023, 4:52 p.m. ·
Governor Jim Pillen revealed an ambitious, multi-billion dollar education and tax reform plan Tuesday.
When he was campaigning for governor last year, Pillen often said the way the state distributes school aid is unfair. Of the roughly one-billion dollars in state aid for K through 12 education, most of it goes to larger, more urban schools. These are school districts with less local property tax potential than rural school districts with lots of agriculture real estate. And that’s a perpetual bone of contention in a system that bases state aid on property valuation.
Pillen wants to address this by sending state aid of $1,500 per student to school districts, regardless of their property tax situation. He also wants the state and federal governments to pay a lot more of the special education expenses. At the same time, he wants to ensure no school district receives less aid than it currently gets.
All that costs money – an estimated $270 million this year, on top of the $1 billion in state aid already being distributed. Pillen was asked how he reconciles such increased spending with campaigning as a fiscal conservative.
“As a fiscal conservative, there’s a big difference between spending and investing. These are investments into the future of our kids and these are investments that will also allow us to have a great impact on cutting property taxes across the state,” Pillen said.
Sen. Tom Briese is onboard. He plans to sponsor legislation limiting school funding increases to 3 percent a year.
“If we’re trying to get dollars into the hands of our property tax payers, it’s imperative that we put some sort of a cap or mechanism in place to ensure that that occurs,” Briese said.
The governor’s plan includes an Education Future Fund – essentially setting aside $1 billion this year, and another $250 million in each of the next six years, totaling $2.5 billion. The money would be used to pay for things like retention bonuses for teachers, career and technical education programs, and increased mentoring programs for K-12 students.
Pillen said the money would be transferred from the state’s general fund, currently flush with cash due to COVID relief spending and inflation. He was asked if that level of expenditure is sustainable.
“We’re going to have the money to be able to invest in our kids and cut taxes,” Pillen declared.
But Sen. Lynne Walz, former chair of the Legislature’s Education Committee, isn’t quite so confident.
“I do have concerns about the sustainability. A billion dollars sounds like a lot. But as we both know, a billion dollars can go away pretty quickly,” Walz said.
Walz pointed to recent times when the Legislature has had to cut a billion dollars from the state budget. She said she’d prefer to have a dedicated source of education funding, similar to the quarter cent of the sales tax that is set aside for roads.
“I still think that we need to have some type of a percentage of our revenue going to schools. A half cent sales tax that’s not a new sales tax but using a half cent of our sales tax, for example, to fund public schools, because that would be an ongoing and sustainable source of revenue,” she said.
Pillen’s package will be doled out in numerous bills, bills that will be heard first in committees.
Also Tuesday, Sen. Julie Slama introduced legislation to implement the voter photo ID requirement Nebraskans approved last November. The bill allows using state, federal, tribal or military IDs, and says if people don’t have a driver’s license, they can get a free state photo ID to be able to vote.
And Sen. Kathleen Kauth introduced bills to prohibit gender altering medicines or surgeries for people under 19. She also wants to require schools to restrict restrooms, locker rooms and athletic teams to students according to their birth gender. Sen. Megan Hunt immediately filed motions to kill both of Kauth’s bills.
Under current legislative rules, that gives Hunt the right to speak first on the issue, with Kauth having to follow. The Rules Committee is recommending changing that.
Chairman Steve Erdman said other, more controversial proposed rules changes, including open voting on committee chairmanships and excluding the media from executive sessions, will have to go through another public hearing if they are to make it to the full Legislature for debate.
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