Nebraska has lost college-educated residents to other states since at least 2010, and the trend has only recently started to ease. The people leaving have changed, too. The largest group leaving is now ages 30 to 34, the years when families buy homes and put down roots.
According to the UNO Center for Public Affairs Research, job opportunities and housing costs top the list of reasons people leave, and property taxes make housing costs worse. Nebraska’s effective property tax rate is about 1.49 percent, higher than Iowa (1.39), Kansas (1.29), and South Dakota (1.06).
Thirty-one years in the Air Force taught me to set measurable goals and hold myself to them. When elected on November 3, I will fight for three reforms:
- A 5 percent annual cap on any homeowner’s property tax bill, starting the day you buy. For a young couple stretching to buy their first home, the bigger fear is not necessarily the chunk of investment for a down payment… rather, it is the tax bill that jumps unpredictably after closing while outpacing the CPI or any other measure of inflationary pressure. A hard cap lets them plan a mortgage with confidence while giving our sons and daughters that live out of state one less reason to stay away. To be sure, our neighbors are already acting with a sense of urgency on this issue. Iowa just capped local property tax revenue growth at 2 percent, and South Dakota limits growth in owner-occupied home valuations to 3 percent a year. My cap goes straight to what families feel: the bill itself.
- A long-time homeowner credit. Homeowners 65 and older who have owned their home for 20 years or more would get a credit of 0.5 percent of their home’s valuation, capped at $2,000.
- A modernized homestead exemption. Under current law, a married homeowner 65 or older gets full relief only with household income under about $43,400. I will raise the full-relief threshold to $60,000, phase it out gradually at $80,000, and keep it tied to the CPI.
Points two and three help seniors, and nearly one in three registered voters in LD20 is 65 or older. But they are brain drain policy too. When parents and grandparents sell the family home and move to a more tax-friendly state, their grown children lose one of the strongest reasons to come back. Every retiree we keep in Nebraska is a reason for the next generation to come home.
Nebraskans who worked, saved, and paid off their homes should not be punished for it, and their kids should be able to afford a home nearby. That is the good life worth coming home to, and one I will fight for in the Legislature. We need urgent relief and thoughtful attention to this issue with the same dedication I demonstrated fighting to defend our Constitution.