NASB LEGISLATIVE NOTES Tracking the 2021 Legislature from the Nebraska Association of School Boards

JANUARY 14, 2021 www.NASBonline.org #liveNASB #weLIVEhere

107th Legislature, 1st Session YOUR 2021 EDUCATION COMMITTEE DAY 7 - STATE OF THE STATE ... SEN. LYNNE WALZ, CHAIR In a little under 15 minutes, Governor Ricketts stood in front of the Legislature to deliver his annual SEN. JEN DAY State of the State address. As expected, property tax relief was one of priorities, specifically as it relates to political subdivisions including schools, and their tax requests. You can read his address SEN. LOU ANN LINEHAN here: https://governor.nebraska.gov/press/gov-ricketts-state-state-address-1 SEN. TERRELL MCKINNEY SEN. ADAM MORFELD In his speech, the Governor called for a constitutional amendment to set a 3% limit on growth of SEN. DAVE MURMAN property tax revenues for local governments, stating that property taxes have grown by an average of 4.46% annually over the last 10 years. The CA was subsequently introduced by Senator Linehan SEN. PATTY PANSING BROOKS and can be read here. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/bills/view_bill.php?DocumentID=43731 SEN. RITA SANDERS

DURING SESSION, THE EDUCATION WE LIVE HERE ... COMMITTEE MEETS ON MONDAYS NASB has been working hard to help you share your story and provide you the necessary data to show those within the Capitol that the locally elected community leaders serving on their school AND TUESDAYS IN ROOM 1525 ON board ARE making fiscally sound decisions for their districts, communities and for Nebraska. THE 1ST FLOOR OF THE CAPITOL School board members remain the best individuals to make decisions about their schools and communities, because YOU LIVE THERE! JOIN US ONLINE! LEGISLATIVE ISSUES CONFERENCE Nebraska ranks 49th in the nation in the percentage of school funding that comes from the state. FEBRUARY 1 | 9:00 AM TO 1:00 PM This means the local property tax payer in Nebraska is forced to pick up the tab. If the state was “WE LIVE HERE!” truly interested in addressing property taxes they would increase education investments, participate in the full funding of Special Ed. and reduce the unfunded mandates from the State.

REGISTER NOW AT School districts already operate under levy and spending lids imposed by the State. State spending https://nasb.enviseams.com/ has grown on average of 3.17% since 2011 while School Spending has averaged 3.00%.

State Senators are trusted with the responsibility to set a State budget with priorities. That’s what they were elected to do. School Board members should be given the same courtesy. After all, both STAY UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST are accountable to the taxpayers. ON ALL BILLS NASB IS FOLLOWING & DOWNLOAD YOUR COPY OF THE School board members are frustrated with property taxes as well. Nearly 75% of locally elected ‘ADVOCACY HANDBOOK’ UNDER school board members in Nebraska are connected to the agriculture industry. However, when the THE GOVERNMENT RELATIONS TAB state’s only focus is on lowering school spending and, instead, chooses to invest in new prisons we know our property tax problems will continue into the future. OF www.NASBonline.org More to come at this year’s Legislative Issues Conference, February 1 ... #weLIVEhere SHARE YOUR STORY Through Day 7, 450 bills and Constitutional Amendments introduced so far, with NASB following KNOW YOUR DISTRICT’S DATA around 60. Those can be viewed anytime athttps://nasb.enviseams.com/legislative-bills UNDERSTAND THE DATA THAT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE KEY DATES OF NOTE: • Senators are allowed to introduce bills for the first 10 working days, which is January 20 • The NASB Legislation Committee meeting is scheduled for January 22 NASB LEGISLATIVE TEAM • The annual NASB Legislative Issues Conference is February 1, and will be held virtually COLBY COASH, JOHN SPATZ, • Speakers include: Speaker Hilgers, Sens Walz, Flood, Lindstrom, Brewer & Briese • The final day of the 107th Legislature, 1st Session is currently scheduled for June 10 MATT BELKA & VICKI WALTER-WINTERS