LIBA Legislative Update
The Lincoln Independent Business Association (LIBA) has been reviewing bills up for consideration during the 2018 Legislative Session. We wrote about several of those bills last month. Today I will share one that LIBA’s Board of Directors is very concerned about.
LB1084 is a new tax plan in the Legislature that contains sweeping tax increases, while attempting to lower property taxes. Please read the details below and consider emailing the Revenue Committee. Changes under this tax plan, LB1084, include:
Increases the state sales tax from 5.5% to 6%. The Lincoln sales tax rate would increase to 7.75%.
Realtors would collect a new sales tax from home buyers. This tax would be on the realtor’s commission.
Add a sales tax on personal care; i.e. haircuts, nail services, storage & moving services, taxi, other hired driver services (Uber/Lyft), interior decorating, travel and tour operators, lawn and gardening care, music and dance lessons, golf lessons, tanning service, telefloral, remodeling and restoration or repair on owner-occupied housing.
Taxing used car trade-in value.
Adding a sales tax on school lunches and the prices paid for admission to school sporting events.
Adding a sales tax to painting services, repair and cleaning of clothing and pet services.
Subchapter S corporations will have to include more income in their Nebraska taxable income.
All of the new taxes collected would be dedicated to funding property tax relief. However, the relief plan has so many loopholes, it would likely not result in long-term lower property taxes for those living in Lincoln.
The Senator who brought this bill is a good Senator and we appreciate his desire to lower property taxes. He has also made everyone think about the different ways taxes are levied in our state. These are good conversations to have. However, LIBA urges you to contact the Revenue Committee members below and ask them to produce a plan that does two things: 1) Lowers property taxes for everyone; 2) Does not dramatically increase other taxes.
LIBA studies and promotes these types of issues that are important to businesses and our community. If you have an interest in joining LIBA, please call me at (402) 466-3419. LIBA membership is not restricted to just businesses. We also have “individual” memberships for those who want to help influence our local government decisions.
For more information on LIBA, visit Liba.org.