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NEFB outlines priorities for Nebraska legislative session in 2022
The Nebraska Farm Bureau says state tax policy is its top priority this legislative session.
President Mark McHargue tells Brownfield the entire tax structure needs rewriting because farmers and ranchers pay the largest percentage of property taxes. “Whether we should do that through the consumption tax or the EPIC tax as described or overhauling it a different way.”
He says there has been relief through the Property Tax Incentive Act. It grew from $115 million in 2022 to nearly $550 million this year and that allows producers to receive an income tax credit based on property taxes paid to their local school district.
He says they’re also monitoring how lawmakers will allocate federal infrastructure dollars. “We know that our roads and bridges and our transportation system has been underinvested in,” he says. “We’re going to have to do though is make sure those dollars get appropriated in the right spots out in our states and communities.”
And, he says federal tax policy is their national priority. “Holding the exemption of that we have on the stepped-up basis in the Build Back Better bill. We’ll watch that very closely and see if that gets put back in but fundamentally unless there’s major, major restructuring of the Build Back Better deal, we’re not in favor of it.”
State lawmakers are scheduled to reconvene in Lincoln on Wednesday to kickoff the 2022 legislative session.
McHargue spoke with Brownfield during the Nebraska Farm Bureau Convention.
