LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen’s plan to relieve property taxes paid by farmers and ranches got a rough reception Friday, even from some farm groups.

The head of the state’s largest agriculture group, the Nebraska Farm Bureau, said Pillen’s plan to shift the valuation method from being based on recent sales of land to its production capability — as is done in Iowa, South Dakota and Kansas — needs more work to avoid increasing taxes.

“There is a sense that this isn’t ready for prime time,” said Mark McHargue, a Central City farmer and president of the Farm Bureau.

McHargue joined representatives of the Nebraska Farmers Union and a handful of school groups in saying that such a complicated, and momentous, change needs more discussion.

For one, McHargue said, making sure farmers and ranchers are “held harmless” and don’t see unintended tax increases is essential.

Under Legislative Bill 820, the Agriculture Valuation Fairness Act, the state would change the way it values agricultural land from the current market approach — which is based on recent sales of nearby ag land — to basing it on the productivity and income-producing potential of the land. A committee of five people would be formed to devise how land would be valued on its income-producing potential. Under the bill, statewide increases in valuations of ag land would be capped at 3.5% a year.

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