NORFOLK, NE - Property taxes, state economic incentives, elections and updates on legislative bills were focuses at the Nebraska Farmer’s Union conference in Norfolk.

Much of Saturday morning’s discussion focused on property taxes and its crucial role in education funding in smaller communities.

"I thought it'd be good to have several of our partners, today, kind of give their view on where we are," Nebraska Farmer's Union president John Hansen said. 

According to Craig Beck with Open Sky Policy Institute, the state’s three-legged stool is out of balance. The three-legged stool refers to the three main sources of income for the state: income tax, sales tax and property tax. Together the three make up about 93 percent of all tax revenue for the state, but property tax is pulling most of that weight.

"The state funding is significantly low and the local funding of K-12 is significantly high," Beck said. "Those high property taxes, this is where they manifest themselves in K-12 education funding." 

Beck says Nebraska is second in funding k-12 education from local sources, and conversely 49th in funding k-12 education from state sources. Jack Moles the executive director of Nebraska Rural Community Schools Association says school budgets have gone up recently, causing some of the property tax increase, but the increasing budgets is not from irresponsible spending.

"[In Class C and D schools] almost 60 percent of the board of education members were out of the ag sector," Moles said. "The ag sector has been hit harder than anyone else with property taxes, and yet, those people are the ones making the decisions on school budgets, and I think they've done a pretty good job." 

Beck says Open Sky does not recommend going the route of the current ballot initiative that would cut property tax by 35 percent because of the drastic effect it would have on schools.

"At Open Sky we know property taxes are an issue and we support real and sustainable property tax relief," Beck said. "We caution support of the ballot initiative only because it would require the legislature to take drastic action."

When the legislature reconvenes in January, property tax relief will be high on their priority list.