107th Nebraska Legislature Second Session
The Second Regular Session of the 107th Nebraska Legislature convened on January 5, 2022. As of January 17, there are 49 days left in the session, which concludes on April 20, 2022.
Bill introduction concludes on January 20, 2022. Following days one through seven of bill introduction, we identified 45 bills warranting particular attention. Below are summaries of those bills:
LB 695 (Blood) proposes to amend statutes relating to conditional use permits and zoning exceptions. This bill prohibits counties from issuing conditional use permits or zoning exceptions to persons who are delinquent on their real property taxes. This bill also requires any authority seeking development proposals to decline contracts with redevelopers who are delinquent in paying property taxes. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 699 (Kolterman) proposes to appropriate $1,000,000 to enhance innovation and technology infrastructure. The money, allocated from the federal American Rescue Plan of 2021, goes to the Department of Economic Development, which would use it to encourage the creation, expansion, and upskilling of Nebraska’s workforce. This includes increasing wages for Nebraska workers, boosting innovation and productivity across the state’s business sectors, and attracting and retaining investment capital in the state. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
LB 701 (Williams) proposes to amend certain deadlines in the Nebraska Job Creation and Mainstreet Revitalization Act and the Nebraska Advantage Research and Development Act. The deadline to file a new application under the Nebraska Job Creation and Mainstreet Revitalization Act would be December 31, 2027. Businesses could claim credits on their tax returns or similar filings until December 31, 2032. This bill also extends the Nebraska Advantage Research and Development Act by one year. Businesses could credit until December 31, 2023. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee.
LB 713 (Flood) proposes to amend the Community Development Law to prohibit the use of tax-increment financing for any redevelopment project that includes a casino or licensed racetrack enclosure. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 724 (M. Hansen) proposes to amend the Local Option Municipal Economic Development Act. The bill funds an affordable housing action plan as part of an economic development program. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on January 18, 2022.
LB 725 (M. Hansen) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. The bill authorizes a city or authority to develop guidelines for the approval of redevelopment projects financed through tax-increment financing. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 726 (M. Hansen) proposes to amend provisions relating to sanitary and improvement districts. This bill allows a municipality to contract with a district in that municipality’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction. A municipality could also impose reasonable requirements on a district to ensure that it develops in accordance with the municipality’s planning documents. If the district is in the extraterritorial jurisdiction of multiple municipalities, it must abide by the regulations of the largest of those municipalities. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 727 (M. Hansen) proposes to amend the procedure for election of the board of trustees to sanitary and improvement districts. Consisting primarily of clean-up provisions, the bill corrects the statute when referring to elections by reaffirming elections occur every six years after the first election of trustees and at each election thereafter. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 731 (J. Cavanaugh) proposes to amend the Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act. This bill would require wireless providers to notify adjacent landowners before they install wireless facilities. This bill would also require providers to certify that their new and modified utility poles in a right-of-way comply with the federal Americans With Disabilities Act and do not obstruct or hinder traffic. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on January 24, 2022.
LB 742 (Erdman) proposes to amend the Open Meetings Act. This bill allows public entities to keep minutes as electronic records. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee.
LB 743 (Erdman) proposes to amend the Open Meetings Act. This bill extends closed session requirements to subcommittee meetings of any public body. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee.
LB 789 (Groene) proposes to amend provisions under the Municipal Density and Missing Middle Housing Act. This bill permits cities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants to not submit affordable housing reports to the Legislature every two years. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 790 (Groene) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. Under this bill, redevelopment plans that receive expedited review would no longer have a 10-year restriction on tax-increment financing. This bill also expands expedited review to include redevelopment plans involving a vacant lot inside a substandard and blighted area platted at least sixty years ago. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 791 (Lowe) proposes to broaden the duties of certain county surveyors. Under this bill, in any county with 100,000 to 150,000 inhabitants, a county surveyor who qualified as a professional engineer or registered land surveyor could also serve as the ex officio county engineer. This would expand that threshold. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee.
LB 796 (Urban Affairs Committee) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. Under this bill, tax-increment financing reports need to state the amount of outstanding indebtedness and expected-paid-in-full date. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 797 (Urban Affairs Committee) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. This bill provides a process whereby areas could remove their designations as substandard and blighted or extremely blighted and substandard. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 798 (Urban Affairs Committee) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. This bill limits area designations as extremely blighted to 25 years. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 799 (Urban Affairs Committee) proposes to amend the Municipal Density and Missing Middle Housing Act. The bill updates income limits in accordance with the Housing and Urban Development Income Limits Documentation System as they existed on January 1, 2022. It also requires reports on the percentage of areas within the corporate limits of a city that permit the construction of multifamily housing and middle housing. Such reports need to include information about zoning and about whether construction may proceed absent additional permit requirements. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on January 18, 2022.
LB 800 (Urban Affairs Committee) proposes to amend provisions in Nebraska Revised Statute chapter 14 governing cities of the metropolitan class. Consisting primarily of clean-up provisions, this bill corrects terminology and harmonize internal statutory references. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on January 18, 2022.
LB 804 (Hughes) proposes to increase the annual limits on compensation to the Nebraska Power Review Board’s members. Members receive compensation on a daily basis not to exceed a certain amount annually. The member who represents the Power Review Board on the Southwest Power Pool Regional State Committee receives $250 per day, and this bill would raise the annual limit on total pay for such compensation from $20,000 to $35,000. For board members’ Southwest Power Pool activities, this bill would also raise aggregate pay to $40,000. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Natural Resources Committee. The committee will hold a hearing on this bill on January 19, 2022.
LB 815 (McKinney) proposes to adopt the Diaper Changing Accommodation Act. Under this bill, any newly constructed or renovated place of public accommodation that has restrooms open and accessible to the public must contain a diaper changing station. This bill defines a diaper changing station as a table or other device suitable for changing the diaper of a child three years of age or younger. Affected entities may apply to their local permitting entity or building inspector for an exemption. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Business and Labor Committee.
LB 836 (Hunt) proposes to amend the Community Development Law. By July 1, 2024, the bill requires every city containing an area designated as substandard and blighted or extremely substandard and blighted for more than 30 years to determine if that area remains eligible for such designation. If not, the city must remove the designation. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 842 (Brewer) proposes to amend the Civic and Community Center Financing Act to include officially recognized tribal governments as eligible applicants. This bill defines tribal government as the officially recognized government of any Indian tribe, nation, or other organized group or community exercising self-government powers and eligible for federal services due to their status as Indians or any Indian tribe located in the state and recognized as an Indian tribe by the state. The term also includes any economic development corporation owned or chartered by a tribal government. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 860 (Pahls) proposes to amend provisions relating to revenue and taxation. Beginning in 2023, the state would tax all real property in the state except agricultural and horticultural property at 90 percent of its actual value. This bill also amends the definition of state aid value to mean 86 percent of actual value, except for agricultural and horticultural property. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee.
LB 891 (Lindstrom) Lindstrom, proposes to limit the maximum levy of taxable property valuation and raise the amount of relief granted under the Property Tax Credit Act. This bill also eliminates certain property tax credits such that revenue generated by eliminating those credits would go to the Department of Education in furtherance of the Tax Equity and Educational Opportunities Support Act. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee. That committee will hold a hearing on January 26, 2022.
LB 892 (Walz) proposes to change provisions of the Nebraska Real Estate License Act. This bill clarifies that only licensed real estate brokers, associate brokers, or salespersons may publicly market an equitable interest in real estate. It also repeals a provision allowing brokers to obtain a license by virtue of experience in a real estate related industry. On January 10, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Banking, Commerce, and Insurance Committee.
LB 908 (McDonnell) proposes to expand the use of virtual conferencing under the Open Meetings Act. Under this bill, a public body could hold a meeting by virtual conferencing so long as the meeting’s subject would also be the subject of a later in‑person meeting, no final action would occur at the virtual meeting, and the public received notice and an opportunity to participate. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Government, Military, and Veterans Affairs Committee.
LB 915 (Wayne) proposes to amend the Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Act. Under the bill, no nonprofit development organization that previously received funding under the Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Act could receive an additional grant unless the organization expended at least 75 percent of the funds from the previous grants. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 926 (Pahls) proposes to amend provisions relating to revenue and taxation. The bill provides a refundable income tax credit to any individual who rents a dwelling in the state as their primary residence beginning on or after January 1, 2023. Such credit would equal the greater of either 2 percent of the total rent paid or $50. The credit, however, could not exceed $500. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee.
LB 937 (Geist) proposes to appropriate $88,500 from the General Fund to the Legislative Council to purchase REMI Tax-PI economic modeling software. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
LB940 (M. Hansen) proposes to appropriate $200,000,000 for housing development. The money under this bill comes from the federal American Rescue Plan of 2021. Four increments of $50 million would go to the Rural Workforce Housing Investment Fund, the Middle Income Workforce Housing Investment Fund, the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority, and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
LB944 (McCollister) proposes to amend provisions relating to revenue and taxation. The bill introduces a new formula for calculating the sales tax levy on the furnishing of electricity services. Beginning July 1, 2023, the new formula will require each electricity service provider to determine and report its carbon intensity factor, pursuant to the Climate Registry’s Electric Power Sector Protocol, each year. The State Tax Commissioner will calculate the statewide carbon intensity factor and the sales tax levy for the next year will be set based on how the current year’s statewide carbon intensity factor compares to the statewide carbon intensity factor established on July 1, 2023. On January 11, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee.
LB 973 (M. Hansen) proposes to amend the Nebraska Investment Financing Authority Act. This bill clarifies that land, buildings, and other improvements can receive financing if they are in qualified opportunity zones designed as such under federal law. It also ensures that grants for rental or residential housing can also go to commercial facilities, provided those facilities do not constitute 20% of the housing’s total cost. Finally, this bill authorizes the Investment Financing Authority to contract with private parties to finance the development of affordable housing. On January 12, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Banking, Commerce, and Insurance Committee.
LB 977 (Slama) proposes to appropriate $29 million of federal funds to the Department of Economic Development to expand electrical system capacities and enhance redundancy and resilience. The money comes from federal dollars allocated by the American Rescue Plan of 2021. On January 12, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
LB 991 (Morfeld) proposes to appropriate $500,000 to the Department of Transportation to study whether a high-speed commuter rail between Omaha and Lincoln would be feasible. On January 13, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Appropriations Committee.
LB 998 (Wayne) Wayne, proposes to amend provisions in the Municipal Inland Port Authority Act. In any city or county that has not established an inland port authority, this bill would authorize nonprofit economic development corporations to instead create such an authority. This bill also authorizes inland port authorities to provide grants to businesses located within their districts. On January 13, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Urban Affairs Committee.
LB 1005 (DeBoer) proposes to change notice requirements attendant with tax sales. Under Neb. Rev. Stat. sections 77-1834 and 77-1835, the purchaser or assignee of property at a tax sale must publish notice regarding the sale. This bill additionally requires that purchaser or assignee to mail written notice to the owner of record. The Legislature has not yet referred this bill to a committee. On January 13, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Revenue Committee.
LB 1008 (Albrecht) proposes to prohibit a county, city, or village from restricting energy utility service. On January 13, 2022, the Legislature referred this bill to the Government, Military, and Veteran’s Affairs Committee.
LB 1026 (J. Cavanaugh) proposes to adopt the Unlawful Restrictive Covenant Modification Act. This bill allows a person or entity to file a restrictive covenant modification to remove an unlawful restrictive covenant from a property deed. The Legislature has not yet referred this bill to a committee.
LB 1041 (McDonnell) proposes to appropriate $21,000,000 in federal funds to the Nebraska Investment Finance Authority for grants and forgivable loans to develop affordable housing units. This money comes from the federal dollars allocated from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The Legislature has not yet referred this bill to a committee.