Sen. Myron Dorn weighs in, ahead of special session

BEATRICE, NEB. - Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen's special legislative session is set to begin on Thursday. 

As the session nears, senators across the state are gearing up. News Channel Nebraska spoke with District 30 Sen. Myron Dorn who represents Gage County and parts of rural Lancaster County. 

As the issue of escalating an increasing property tax looms, a key objective set forth by Pillen is 50% reduction is property taxes. Dorn provided his thoughts on that becoming a reality. 

"I call it the part of implementing it and knowing how to do it... Most of us could come to some sort of an agreement," Dorn said. "It's the revenue to fund that much of a reduction. That's what the challenge is, it was the challenge in regular session last year, we couldn't come to an agreement to fund that revenue that we need to back fill in that property tax relief, that will be the challenge again."

Dorn has also received local feedback of eliminating several sales tax exemptions. 

"The feedback, generally, is no we don't want them," Dorn said. "But, property taxes, in the last 5-7 years, the governor has showed us they've increased by over $2-billion in the state."

Dorn, an area farmer, also has experience as a county board member and board chairman. When asked if deep cuts into property taxes are sustainable long term for county governments, Dorn says one thing becomes more important than all else. 

"Most people I've listened to, and a lot of the senators I've listened to, the main way we're going to get property tax relief is by decreasing spending," Dorn said. "Spending has gone up 5%-7% these last 5-10 years, when we've had 2% inflation, we've still had 5%-7% increases in spending each year, so the only way to get true property tax relief is to decrease our spending."

Special session is set to begin on Thursday, July 25.