The Legislature: Pay attention to the details

When the Nebraska Unicameral comes to town, don't be fooled by the big headlines and the issues that get the sound bytes on the tube.

Pay attention to the details. The little nuances and suggestions buried deep in the pages of issues that are seemingly routine and may just get passed through three rounds of debate and sent off to the governor for a signature. With 655 bills and 43 legislative resolutions and proposed constitutional amendments on the table, it's easy to be overwhelmed and swept away with the flow of others' thoughts about "the big issues."

Yes, it's important to track the progress of the governor's proposals to eliminate all Nebraska corporate and individual income taxes (LBs 405 and 406) while increasing sales taxes by eliminating exemptions on everything from farm equipment to hospital care and college dormitory rooms. But the issue has received a lengthy public hearing and will likely be subject to committee revisions and could become the subject of an interim study between the two sessions of the current Legislature. Or, it might become the catalyst for yet another lengthy look at the state's tax structure.

Do pay attention to other things. Bills like Senator Kate Sullivan's proposal (LB295) to use local option economic development funds, often called LB840 funds from the original bill number that presented the concept, to provide financial incentives to attract new residents to a community. Sullivan lives in Cedar Rapids (population 382) and has an obvious interest in such a measure. Not a bad idea, just an additional draw on a pool of funds that has been used for economic revitalization of a number of Nebraska communities.

Sullivan's colleague Senator Annette Dubas of Fullerton (population 1,307) has a bill (LB153) that would make changes to the Civic and Community Center Financing Act. She has succeeded in tweaking that measure several times in years past to allow the funding to be used for historic properties in the community's commercial core and to provide a statutory definition of what a community main street is all about.

The bill is an outgrowth of the so-called "Turnback Tax" which provides a certain percentage of the proceeds from big city arena's, such as Omaha's Century Link Center and the soon-to-be-completed Lincoln arena, to be used around the state to finance projects such as civic and community centers. This iteration of the bill adds "recreation centers" to the list of projects that could receive such funding.

Remember the details. On page 4, line 8, the measure gives an eligible community permission to use some of those funds for "the demolition of substandard and abandoned buildings." Bounce that one off your preservation friends. And on page seven it adds criteria to the selection process that allows a community to show how such a civic or community or recreation center would accomplish some of the same things that Sullivan seeks to accomplish with LB295.

The Dubas bill addresses: Retention Impact, the likelihood that the project will retain existing residents by developing, sustaining and fostering community connections and enhancing economic growth in a manner that will sustain quality of life; New Resident Impact by attracting new residents; and Visitor Impact by attracting visitors from inside and outside the state.

While not as high profile as a major shift in the state's tax structure, these are important issues to the day-in-day-out quality of life in a majority of Nebraska's communities. Pay attention and stay tuned.