NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) – The EPIC Tax proposal was being discussed during the North Platte Rotary meeting on Wednesday.EPIC or Eliminate Property Income (and inheritance), and Corporate taxes is tax program to EPIC purports to replace all of this revenue by a singular consumption tax rate of 7.5%. Current sales tax rate is 5.5% and raised just $2.4 billion in Fiscal Year 23. Based on OpenSky’s analysis and analysis by The Tax Foundation, you would need a 22% rate to make the proposal revenue neutral.Without the tax program, farmers in rural Nebraska may be affected and be forced to pay more for property tax by 1%. With that, this would increase consumers paying more at the grocery store.“There are many folks in the state of Nebraska who would need to go to South Dakota, or Wyoming, or Colorado to do their purchasing,” Executive Director of OpenSky Policy Institute Rebecca Firestone said. ”If you are in the middle of the state, you don’t have that option, that could significantly hit people’s pockets.”Another way that this program will help is to keep essential things running properly without having to reducing or eliminating operations.“Our modeling suggests that tax rate needs to be about 22 percent in order to collect enough revenue to keep our schools funded, emergency services funded, keep public safety funded,” said Firestone.According to Firestone, without the EPIC Tax Program, this could create some frustrations with land owners, and consumers alike. The program would also help alleviate this issue.“My observation is because of frustration of higher property taxes are in Nebraska. There are many other ways to reduce property taxes without eliminating them all together,” said Firestone.The EPIC Tax Proposal is still being circulated in the signature gathering campaign and will need enough signatures to consider to be put into the Nebraska State Legislature for a vote.Click here to subscribe to our KNOP News 2 daily digest and breaking news alerts delivered straight to your email inbox.Copyright 2024 KNOP. All rights reserved.
