Property Tax Fighters: Petition Drive on Track, Numbers a Secret

From small towns to big towns several state lawmakers want you to know they’re working to cut your property taxes.

Some 500 million dollars over the next three years but don’t tell that to Paul Von Behren, president of TRUE, Tax Relief Unites Everyone.

NCN: Not good enough for you?

Paul Von Behren: Two problems with that. Is it real? No it’s not and secondly is it permanent, no. Any relief that is just shifting taxes from another source or temporary revenue is no relief at all.

Von Behren’s answer a slew of petitions, the so-called 35 percent solution that with some 120 thousand signatures would go to the voters in November.

Paul Von Behren: It’s going quite well.

How well? We asked…no answer.

Paul Von Behren: We’re not releasing those numbers.

NCN: Why not release some numbers so people have a better sense of where things are going?

Paul Von Behren: We’ve tried it both ways and found that no matter how well or not you’re doing your opponents will use it against you.

NCN: Governor Ricketts is opposed. Senator Lou Ann Linehan the Chair of the Revenue Committee says you're gutting the state budget by one-point-four billion dollars.

Paul Von Behren: Leave one-point-four billion dollars in the economy and you’ll generate in sales and income taxes alone should be about three or four hundred million dollars, plus another 250 million dollars in property tax relief. Those two things right there and you’ve got half the thing covered.

As for the other half he’s counting on some better budgeting and a key unknown.

Paul Von Behren: There are some relatively big name people who see this as a way to attract business to Nebraska.

Von Behren says he’s tried to talk to the governor about all this but has heard nothing.

That despite his resume… A veterinarian by trade with a masters in business administration and get this…a slot on the Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education, one of 11 commissioners overseeing Nebraska colleges including the University of Nebraska, appointed by none other than this governor and confirmed by the Legislature.

Those same folks trying to stop the petition drive in its tracks.

Ricketts: I would not encourage Nebraskans to support the petition.

Linehan: I’m not signing the petition.

So what if, still a big if, what happens to the petition drive if the Legislature and Governor come through this year.

Paul Von Behren: It will give them the opportunity to say they provided property tax relief.

But Von Behren says it won't be real tax relief and while it will slow the petition drive down he says it won't stop it.