Ricketts: Cut budget, reduce taxes

LINCOLN -- Gov. Pete Ricketts presented the Legislature Thursday with an agenda that combines proposed income and property tax reductions with state budget cuts and restrained spending growth.

"The reductions we make to the budget to balance it and continued attention to controlling spending will allow us to cut taxes and grow Nebraska," the governor said in his State of the State speech to the Legislature.

"This isn't easy," Ricketts acknowledged. "It will require Nebraska grit."

Ricketts said he will partner with Sen. Jim Smith of Papillion, chairman of the Legislature's Revenue Committee, to propose a gradual reduction in the top state income tax rate beginning in 2020 as long as state revenue growth exceeds 3.5 percent at the time.

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