Property tax refund fiasco undermines faith in government

First the state took away our money illegally, and now it doesn't know how to give it back.

Is there any wonder most of us don't have much faith in our government?

State Sen. Mark Christensen told Republican River NRD officials Monday that the funds in question are caught in limbo between Gov. Dave Heineman, the Legislature, the NRDs and the courts.

After LB701 was passed in 2007, the Friends of the River successfully challenged a special property tax designed to pay for water to send to Kansas to keep Nebraska in compliance with the Republican River Compact.

The "Friends" argued, successfully, that the special property tax was unconstitutional because it created a closed class of taxpayers and was a local tax for a state purpose, interstate compact compliance.

They have yet to win a lawsuit challenging another part of LB701, an occupation tax on irrigated acres, but it seems likely they will; a hearing is set Dec. 14 in Lancaster County.

Heineman has asked for LB681 to be introduced to address the issue specifically, rather than reverting to the Legislature's apparent stance that the problem could be handled under some unidentified current law.

What wouldn't be fair is denying refunds to taxpayers who didn't file a written protest within the required 30 days of paying the overturned property tax. That law assumes the underlying statute is constitutional, which it wasn't.

LB681 should be passed to avoid further travesty.

We may have a little extra time to deal with the issue, thanks to a relative abundance of water in the Republican River Basin, Jim Schneider, a senior groundwater modeler for the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources told the managers Monday night.

That specifically includes Harlan County Lake, which can be used to ensure Kansas receives its allotment of Republican River water.

Irrigators depending on Red Willow Dam are inadvertently doing their part, giving up irrigation this year because of significant cracks and other possible problems with the dam. Hugh Butler Lake has been drained to 26 percent of full while officials decide what can be done.

The Lincoln Journal-Star, naturally enough, said the burden of complying with the Republican River Compact should rest on the irrigators in the river basin. That stance overlooks at least two factors: One, conservation practices enacted as national policy are largely responsible for the reduced Republican River streamflows into Kansas. Two, Republican River irrigators didn't sign the Republican River Compact.