2018 Legislative Session–The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Every January, members of the Nebraska Legislature introduce over 700 bills at the start of each legislative session; and each year, LIBA goes through these bills to sort through the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The 2018 legislative session was no exception. LIBA was able to prevent bills from becoming law during the last session that would have:

  • Instituted a sales tax on your business loan, businesses revolving line of credit, real estate loans, and auto loans. We cannot imagine paying a 7% sales tax on your business and personal loans. (LB52);
  • Allowed the City Council to add assessments (a type of tax) to homes & businesses in a neighborhood to pay for lighting, green space, parks, public bathrooms, and bus stops, among other items that we already pay for via our property taxes. This new assessment could have allowed thousands of dollars to be added to the cost of your business or home every year (LB986);
  • Allowed the city to add a “Tourism Surcharge” or a tax onto your business in order to try and create new tourism (LB1067);
  • Required additional workers compensation payments and would have likely increased your businesses’ worker compensation insurance costs (LB928);
  • Created higher income taxes (LB1074);
  • Created a new 1% tax on all real estate transactions (LB1075).

In 2018, LIBA supported several bills that protected the interests of Lincoln businesses by promoting good governance, including bills that would have:

  • Placed a temporary freeze on Property Taxes thus protecting businesses, home owners, and renters from massive increases coming from property re-evaluations (LB576);
  • Reduced the amount of non-voter-approved debt in Lincoln by limiting installment contract bonding (LB510);
  • Required more transparency and the disclosure of the true costs to pay off bonds, including the interest to be paid on the bond, when a bond is put to a vote of the people (LB850);
  • Provided a higher standard for voting on increases to local budget authority by requiring 75% of all members of the City Council to vote in favor of an additional 1 percent increase in budget authority (LB887).

As LIBA gears up for the start of the new legislative session in January, we continue to look for bills that we can support or oppose for the benefit of businesses. With that in mind, if you have any business-related issues that would require a legislative change, please let LIBA know immediately.

Would you like to join us at LIBA? Business memberships start at only $275 a year. For more information on joining LIBA, please call me at (402) 466-3419. You will also find more information about LIBA by visiting our website at www.liba.org. You can also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LIBA.lincoln.


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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.