Property Tax Alert About one-third of the state budget — in the area of one billion dollars — is returned to local governments in one form or another. If this amendment passes, the state will fund its own state level institutions first and it will reduce state aid, which will increase property taxes and this will be bad for the state of Nebraska. — State Sen. Chris Beutler, Lincoln Although Initiative 423 only applies directly to state spending, state and local spending are very closely linked, and you can’t significantly limit state spending without affecting property taxes. — Greg Lemon, former legislative budget analyst and legal counsel to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee Over 33 percent, a third of state government spending, goes to local school and government aid, directly offsetting property tax dollars. The vast majority of that local aid goes to support K-12 education. If 423 is implemented, shortfalls in needed aid to education will result in higher property taxes. — Greg Lemon, former legislative budget analyst and legal counsel to the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee Initiative 423 has the potential to place school districts, communities, Nebraska families, Nebraska children and all Nebraskans in a public financing box from which there appear to be limited escape routes: Ask taxpayers to increase their school property taxes, adjust school property tax limits upward, or accept some of the more poorly funded public schools in the nation. — False Choices and Bad Choices: Initiative 423 and Public Education in Nebraska, a report by the Center for Rural Affairs. The Stop Over Spending proposal would cause many state-funded services to be shifted to the local level, where the result would be increased property taxes. The proposal would cut state spending, but it has no power to reduce local spending. — Keith Olsen, president, Nebraska Farm Bureau This amendment would increase property taxes, strangle economic development, and do long term damage to our streets and roads. We need realistic solutions to our tax and budget issues, not gimmicks that sound good but don’t deliver. — Curt Beck, executive director, Associated General Contractors-Nebraska Chapter