During his visit to Alliance on Sept. 20, Governor Pete Ricketts highlighted a range topics, addressing a room filled with people at the Knight Museum.
Ricketts kicked off the town hall by talking about taxes, noting that during his time as governor, he kept the growth of the state’s budget to an average of 2.8 percent. Ricketts explained that the state’s cash reserves have grown throughout the course of his administration to a record high of roughly $1.7 billion.
“That gives us a pretty healthy cushion to be able to do some of the projects we’re going to be talking about today,” said Ricketts. “That’s also going to allow us to do some tax relief.”
Ricketts cited high property taxes as problematic for the state’s future growth.
“High taxes are like weeds, they choke out growth,” Ricketts said. “If you think about what high property taxes mean here, it makes it hard for homeowners to buy a home, makes it hard for young farmers and ranchers to get into agriculture, and it makes it, just in general, harder for folks who are in agriculture to be competitive.”
He urged property to take advantage of a refund on state income taxes as part of a targeted property tax relief. The relief can still be provided for 2020 and 2021 taxes.
“We had a real breakthrough in 2020 when we passed LB 1107,” said Ricketts. “LB 1107 was to create a refundable income tax credit, so it’s a credit you apply for when you fill out your Nebraska State Income taxes. It allows you to get back money, basically a rebate, for whatever you pay into your local K-12 school district.”
The rebate provided a six percent rebate on taxes in 2020, which increased to more than 25 percent in 2021. Ricketts explained that for 2022, the rebate will grow to 30 percent.
“You’ll get 30 percent back of what you pay in to your local property taxes,” Ricketts said. “In addition to that, we’re adding on a new credit to community colleges. We’re going to give you 30 percent of whatever you pay into your local community college.”
Ricketts explained that many people have not yet taken advantage of the program, encouraging them to file the forms, which can be located at revenue.nebraska.gov.
“What does that mean for somebody here in Alliance? Well, the average home in Alliance is valued at $108,000. Just the ballpark property taxes on that are going to be about $2,100. The taxes on your school district and community colleges will be about $1,300. That means that you will get back, from this refundable income tax credit, about $390. Add that to the $115 you’re going to get from the property tax credit relief fund, and you’ve got a grand total of $505. So, you will get back about 23.5 percent, almost 24 percent, actually, back of whatever you’re paying into your local property taxes, you get back from the refundable tax credit from the state. This is significant. This will help people make their house payments.”
Next, Ricketts laid out a plan to expand broadband throughout the state of Nebraska in an effort to help the state grow. He emphasized broadband expansion as crucial tool for expansion of the state.
“Broadband is basic infrastructure,” said Ricketts. “When you think about all the things we do with high-speed internet access, especially during this pandemic, we found out about remote work, education, think about telehealth, e-commerce, entertainment. We can see when we have access to broadband it helps us grow our state.”
Ricketts compared broadband expansion to the rural electrification and rural telephone efforts, noting dedicated the state’s work to provide access to broadband. He explained that they have offered grants to telecommunications companies fill the gaps in access. The state of Nebraska utilized $30 million of funds from the CARES Act, which provided money for pandemic relief, to grow access to broadband by 17,600 households in 2020. The State Legislature passed the Rural Broadband Bridge Act in 2021, allocating $40 million, $20 million for each of the next two years, to connecting 30,000 more households throughout the state of Nebraska.
“We have this as a basic part of what we do as far as our society,” Ricketts said. “The state has to help make sure that we can get every Nebraska household connected. That’s our goal.”
Ricketts said the grants have had a local impact on connecting households throughout the county.
“Specifically here in Box Butte County, Mobius, from some of those original grants, has gotten about $1 million to connect households here, and I think they have like $2.3 million pending in grant applications. So, lots of opportunities to start making those connections to those homes and businesses.”
Ricketts explained that through the passage of the American Rescue Plan, Nebraska will receive additional federal money, which Ricketts said will be allocated expanding broadband throughout the state. He noted roughly $87.7 million will be used for more grants to telecommunications companies through the Public Service Commission. He explained that through a broadband equity fund, the state will allocate $7 million to educate people about the internet and workforce development.
Another program, the Broadband Equity Access and Development program, will make funds available for the state to plan to connect every household in the state. The funding will be linked to the needs of the state, which is why, Ricketts explained, the state is planning to conduct their own studies to create their own maps to show that need.
“We don’t want to build for what we need for yesterday,” said Ricketts. “We want to build for what need for tomorrow.”
Ricketts emphasized that expanding broadband will take several years to complete.
Also during the town hall, Ricketts showcased a plan to improve water conservation and access by constructing a canal in Perkins County, leveraging a compact approved by the Nebraska Legislature, Colorado Legislature and the U.S. Congress in 1923 regarding water rights on the South Platte River. More on this issue will be available in the next edition of the Alliance Times-Herald.