YOUR AD HERE »

Nebraska Cattlemen set priority bills and resolutions

Property Tax Relief and private property rights headlined the recent meeting of the Nebraska Cattlemen (NC) Legislative Committee. Members of the committee reviewed and discussed almost 300 Nebraska Legislative bills and resolutions paying close attention to how proposed language can affect Nebraska beef producers.

For each piece of legislation, the committee compared NC’s member developed policy with the bill’s language to determine a position of support, oppose or monitor for each bill. An important part of this process is the selection of priority bills by the committee which the association plans to devote their efforts. This year the committee designated two bills and two issues for priority work.

The first priority issue is property tax relief for Nebraska beef producers. NC policy supports legislation to value agricultural land on its earning capacity rather than being assessed on its market value. While there are several bills that address this concept, LR 9CA, LB 33 and LB 439 were highlighted. Another priority bill is LB 181 which allows the Nebraska Brand Committee to establish a brand inspection surcharge under the Livestock Brand Act. The surcharge would give the Nebraska Brand Committee the flexibility to respond to rising expenses such as gas prices and labor costs. A third priority is LB 484 which clarifies producers who gather soil samples for proper crop and hay nutrient management are not required to call Digger’s Hotline for each sample. Finally, as horse processing has become targeted by extreme animal rights organizations in recent years, NC prioritized LB 305 and LB 306. These bills attempt to create a state meat inspection program and require that organizations who would prohibit horse processing be financially responsible for the care of unwanted horses.



For more information about a specific priority for Nebraska Cattlemen, please call the Nebraska Cattlemen office at 402-475-2333.