This year the Unicameral passed two exemptions to the Nebraska state income tax:
Are these a good ideas? Do they truly lower taxes?
Sometimes good intentions produce unwanted consequences. This is so true in taxation — especially when the action goes against the principles of taxation. Because of Dan Pilla, we know what those principles are. He listed ten of them. Number 8 is Broad Based. "Broad tax bases allow rates to be kept low, which in turn encourages voluntary compliance." The State of Kansas may learn this principle the hard way. It is a mistaken belief that exempting food creates progressivity. To learn more, check out this article from the Tax Foundation.
It eliminates all Income, Property, Inheritance, Sales, and Corporate taxes.
The EPIC Consumption Tax proposes significant changes to Nebraska's tax system, It:
E — Eliminates
P — Property
I — Income
C — and Corporate taxes.
The EPIC plan then replaces the Nebraska sales tax with a single rate consumption tax on discretionary purchases of new goods and services.
Want to understand the basics? See EPIC 101.
It never has been clearer that our tax proposal has engendered a conflict between the interests of the state and its legislatures and the will of the people! We are thankful for the seventy Nebraska taxpayers (picture to the left) that came to LIncoln on their own dime to support Sen. Steve Erdman and the other cosponsors of LR 264 CA! We also are grateful for those cosponsors and other courageous senators who voted for the resolution!
The proposed EPIC Tax resolution is the only measure that gives Nebraskans their property rights back. Our state senators put their own desire to prognosticate and play politics ahead of principle. Our country was founded on property rights. The original draft of the Declaration of Independence delineated "certain unalienable rights" as including, "Life, Liberty, and Property". Those three rights still are memorialized for posterity in the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment specifies that "No person... shall be deprived of life, liberty or property".
How can that be with Nebraska's confiscatory taxes on property and income? If our state senators were thinking about that, it did not show in their voting. Of course many of them do think about it. However, their fear of the current system is not as great as the unknown. Sadly, many of them felt as if they were in the unknown because they had not done their homework. Sen. Erdman has done a yeoman's job of making materials available to them as well as his time for any questions or concerns they had. Debate started with solid momentum with Senator Erdman sharing a letter from the Attorney General stating that the EPIC constitutional amendment language did meet the single subject rule requirement to be placed on the ballot.
That statement fell on deaf ears as the senators asked questions that showed they hadn't taken this truly major tax reform seriously. We ended up with:
The scoreboard looked like this:
We needed 25 Yes votes to win this first round of debate called "General File". Please contact these 19 Senators and tell them THANK YOU for voting YES for EPIC Consumption Tax Reform:
These 14 Senators voted NO:
Please contact them and ask why they voted NO and blocked taxpayers from voting on this constitutional amendment.
These 13 Senators voted Present Not Voting (PNV):
Please contact them and ask why they stood on the sidelines and did not vote to support EPIC Consumption Tax Reform. A PNV vote has the same effect as a NO vote.
You may use this table to look up these state senators.
You may find your own state senator by clicking here.
But we never will give up fighting for your property rights! In the future we will share our updated EPIC strategy. We are on the map, but we need many more people to know not just about us, but to understand our proposal and how it restores their property rights and freedom of choice. We have many more people to educate and get on board.
One critic claims that we do not include a rate in our proposal. While it is imprudent to include a rate in a constitutional amendment, our proposal LR 264 CA, we most certainly do include a rate in our implementation bill, LB 133. It was computed by the nationally recognized Beacon Hill Institute, using a "static" analysis. That means it did not take into account dynamic effects like changes in behavior because of the new policy. The rate included in LB 133 is 10.64%. That is nowhere near the rate claimed by The Open Sky Institute of "at least 20%", quoting the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That is a very imprecise number!
The good news is that we have commissioned a more sophisticated study from the Beacon Hill Institute, called a dynamic study, which does take into account the behavioral changes brought about by this change. The rate computed by that study is just 8.97%. As you can see, our analysis is performed thoroughly and precisely. There are good reasons why this legislation is not only feasible but right for all Nebraskans according to the natural principles of taxation that good taxation recognizes and honors.
There are additional specious criticisms of our work, which we will address soon. Stay tuned!
People are leaving Nebraska because of taxes.
The pandemic has changed the world forever. Money walks!
Keep up with this and other current events, like Dan Pilla's latest article on the SOTU, involving EPIC consumption taxation.
The former Congressman, Mayor, and Regent discusses EPIC in writing and on the radio.
We have many Frequently Asked Questions. Occasionally we will feature one. See all of them here. Their number is growing!
See videos of some of the countless people who long to have their property rights restored with EPIC!
We have hired nationally renowned Beacon Hill Institure to compute what it would take to replace all five taxes we intend to replace.
Nationally renowned taxpayer defender, Dan Pilla, came to Nebraska in January to discuss the essential principles of taxation.
Please contact:
Rob Rohrbough
President, Consumption Tax Institute, Inc.
402-639-8286 - cell
You may address checks or inquiries to:
Consumption Tax Institute, Inc.
5062 S. 108th Street
Suite 247
Omaha, NE 68137
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