Friends of the River file lawsuit over LB701

A lawsuit filed today in the Nebraska Supreme Court challenges the constitutionality of the funding mechanisms of LB701, the legislative bill that taxes home and property owners in the Republican River Basin.

“Friends of the River” filed the lawsuit and contend that the real estate property tax provisions of LB701 violate Nebraska’s constitution.

“We regret having to take this action but taxes have only been levied against real estate in the Republican River Basin to pay for the State of Nebraska’s obligation the state created when it entered into the Republican River Compact,” the press release states.

One of the plantiffs in the lawsuit, Red Willow County landowner and homeowner Angus Garey, went on to say in the press release that “singling out the Republican River Basin to tax for compliance with this is not only unfair and unjust but also contrary to the Nebraska Constitution.”

Homeowners and property owners in the Middle Republican Natural Resourc-es District -- those in Red Willow, Frontier, Hayes Hitchcock and part of Lincoln counties -- will be levied an additional 5 cents per $100 valuation, for a total of 10.868 cents per $100 valuation. County assessors will send out tax statements in late November reflecting the new tax rate.

The money the NRDs will collect from these taxes, along with a tax on irrigated acres, will go toward paying off a $9 million bond the three Republican River NRDs will use for surface water buyouts as a way to comply with the Republican River Compact.

But this is a state issue and taxing local residents to meet conditions of the compact is unconstitutional, Garey maintained.

“By entering into the Republican River Compact, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas and the U.S. Government created a new law ... for each of the compacting states. Thus the State of Nebraska has not only the obligation but also the authority to comply with the Compact.

“The state has failed to do its duty and instead has sought to blame the local Natural Resources Districts for not assuring compliance with the state's obligation under the compact.”

Garey compared Neb-raska's responsibility in meeting the Republican River compact to when the state was found to have violated the Low Level Nuclear Waste Compact and had to pay more than $100 million in damages. All taxpayers footed this bill, he said, not just residents in Boyd County where the nuclear waste site was to be located.

“Just as in the low-level nuclear waste compact circumstances, all of Nebraska needs to share in the costs of the solution and not just the Republican River Basin,” Garey noted.

He said the lawsuit was filed in the Nebraska Supreme Court, instead of District Court, to save time.

“This is an extremely important issue that needs to be resolved as soon as possible,” Garey said. “If the case had been filed in one or more district courts, potentially differing outcomes and multiple appeals would have resulted. The confusion and delay could have hurt everyone involved ... filing in the Nebraska Supreme Court will result in the quickest and most efficient resolution of this critical question.”

Garey added that Friends of the River wrote and met with the Natural Resources District managers and their lawyer in an effort to prevent or mitigate any problems that might come if the NRDs sought to levy taxes authorized by the provisions in LB701.

Plantiffs in the lawsuit includes Garey, Claude Cappel and Tom Kiplinger, home and land owners in Red Willow County and residents in the Upper and Lower NRDs.

“We think we have a good case,” Garey said. “If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have done this.”

Funds are still need to complete this lawsuit, Garey said. Those who want to contribute or have questions can contact him at (308) 345-4693, (308) 350-1025, or at 38052 Road 717 in McCook.