LINCOLN - State Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk, the speaker, pulled together a group of seven leading state senators this week in hopes of striking an 11th hour Plan B compromise. The goal: Pass the top priorities of the 2020 session — property tax relief and tax incentives for business growth.

Those two measures stalled during debate last week, and with only eight days left in the 60-day session that was suspended because of the coronavirus, there are worries. Will the perennial debate about lowering property taxes be put off another year? Could the state be left without an incentive program to help businesses expand or locate in Nebraska? The Advantage Act, the state’s current incentive program, expires at the end of the year.

Besides the speaker, the state senators involved are: John Stinner of Gering, chairman of the budget-writing Appropriations Committee; Lou Ann Linehan of Elkhorn, who heads the Revenue Committee; Mark Kolterman of Seward, the main sponsor of the ImagiNE Act, the stalled replacement for the Advantage Act; Mike McDonnell, a former Omaha fire chief; Tom Briese of Albion, a leading rural senator on tax issues; and Steve Lathrop of Omaha, who helped work out several big compromises in his previous service in the Legislature.

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