LINCOLN, Neb. – At their summer board meeting, the Nebraska Farmers Union (NeFU) Board of Directors supported the petition drive to put a repeal of LB753 — the controversial law passed in the 2023 legislative session that uses dollar-for-dollar income tax credits for individual and corporate donations made to private and parochial school scholarships-before the voters in the fall election.
The top five reasons for opposing LB753 and supporting the repeal of it before the voters listed by the NeFU Board of Directors were:
- LB753 blurs the line between church and state funding by allowing public income tax credits to be used for select private and parochial school scholarships. The separation of church and state line gets blurred when public tax dollars are used to fund private and church schools. LB753 sets bad public policy precedent. Public schools should be publicly funded, and private schools should be privately funded.
- Private schools that would directly benefit from tax payer funded income tax credits would not be subject to the same accountability and reporting requirements as do public schools. If private schools take tax payer money, then they should comply with public accounting standards.
- Private schools that would directly benefit from tax payer funded income tax credits are not required to serve all students. If private schools want public money, they should serve all children.
- Nebraska ranks near the bottom of all states in the amount of income and sales taxes it uses to fund public education. LB753 will make Nebraska’s property tax dependent education funding system worse by siphoning off public tax dollars for private gain and use. Year one costs will be $25 million and will grow to $100 million annually, or potentially more depending on what future Legislatures decide to do.
- LB753 will have an extremely negative effective on charitable giving and all the good works non-profits do to improve the quality of life for all Nebraskans. The most profitable corporations and richest Nebraskans will go to the place that gives them the most income tax bang for their buck. LB753’s dollar-for-dollar income tax credit is simply too lucrative compared to other incentives.
For information on where to get petitions and how to properly circulate a petition, go to “Support Our Schools” website at: https://supportourschoolsnebraska.org/.
— Nebraska Farmers Union
