Tax discussion held in North Platte

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - A tax discussion including multiple state senators and a tax expert was held in North Platte at Venue 304 on Tuesday.

The panel was put on by the Platte Institute and included State Senator Mike Jacobson, State Senator Tom Briese, Nebraska Revenue Chair Lou Ann Linehan and Platte Institute Senior Tax Advisor Michael Lucci.

The panel focused on some of the tax cuts that passed the 2023 Nebraska legislative session, including property tax cuts, property tax credits, education tax cuts and the estate tax.

A few dozen were in attendance and ended the meeting by asking specific questions about how tax money is used, as well as specific questions about property tax credits.

Briese was asked about the state cuts to education after the meeting and said he felt like the cuts were fair, and wouldn’t impact student education.

“Nobody in the legislature wants to impede the ability of school districts to educate our children,” Briese said. “We have a great public education system, we want to maintain that system, but I maintain that if you compare Nebraska to the states around it, we spend $1500 more to educate that student than 5 out of the 6 surrounding states.”

According to Education Data Initiative, the state next to Nebraska that spends more per student is Wyoming.

According to Scholaroo, Nebraska ranks 21 in education. The only surrounding states that rank lower are Missouri and Kansas, at 26 and 28.

Specific official information about how Nebraska ranks in education can be found here.

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