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Legislature passes 19 bills as county-related measures advance
Summary
This week the legislature passed 19 bills and committees advanced measures affecting county responsibilities, property-tax limits, renewable-energy tax incentives and state reimbursement for jail medical costs, a legislative report said.
The legislature passed 19 bills this week and advanced several measures affecting county responsibilities, property taxes and reimbursement for county jail medical costs, the reporter said.
Many measures would shift or clarify county duties and local revenue rules. LB 58 would eliminate obsolete filings of jewelers' liens in county clerks' offices, and LB 126 would allow counties that sell bonds on a competitive basis to extend the call period beyond five years. Senators gave first-round approval to bills that would allow counties to award larger grants from county visitors improvement funds and to permit road vacations without requiring traffic studies.
Committees also considered competing proposals on daylight saving time. The revenue committee heard bills to change how nameplate capacity taxes are distributed to community colleges and to increase payments to counties that agree to cede zoning authority for renewable-energy facilities. The committee considered three bills to increase and reallocate documentary stamp taxes, and discussed moving the 'pink postcard' joint public hearing from September to July and a bill that would cap levy increases so political subdivisions cannot raise more property-tax dollars than the previous year.
On county-state relations, the reporter said committees heard bills to remove statutory requirements for counties to provide office space for the Department of Health and Human Services and for probation offices. According to the report, counties have provided such space since 1983 and currently supply more than 80,000 square feet; counties provide more than $4,000,000 worth of space annually for probation and nearly $4,000,000 worth of technology support.
The revenue committee will also take up a bill addressing refundable income tax credits that were replaced last summer with direct credits on tax statements. Lawmakers discussed a proposal to limit annual growth of property-tax bills for individual parcels to the lesser of the consumer price index or 3%, and a separate property-tax circuit breaker measure was introduced. A proposed constitutional amendment was noted that would eliminate the uniformity clause and limit valuation growth.
The government, military and veterans affairs committee will hear a bill requiring two hours of zoning education per term for county boards and planning commissioners; county attorneys would develop and present the material. LB 663 would bar county boards from conditioning county permits on applicants obtaining separate federal, state or local permits, limiting permit decisions to county zoning rules.
The committee is scheduled to hear LB 636, which would require the state to reimburse counties for eligible medical costs for county jail inmates; the reporter said state appropriations for that program would be capped at $21,000,000. The same measure would increase several civil fees collected by sheriffs, including fees for service of process and delivery of distress warrants.
Committees have scheduled several of these bills for hearings next week; no final vote breakdowns for individual bills were reported in the legislative summary.
