1991-1994: Introduction

Those who supported LB 1059 had won tremendous victories in 1990 with a successful veto override and final confirmation from the people of Nebraska.  But now it was time to prove the system worked the way they sold it.  However, anyone familiar with school finance knows it takes patience and careful monitoring to make a state policy function as intended.  No school finance policy is perfect.  Adjustments become necessary on an annual basis, some minor and some major.  A state policy is only as good as those who create it, administer it, and most importantly, care for it.

Between 1991 and 1994, the Legislature grappled with many of the details of school finance that tend to lull policymakers to sleep.  This was a period of fine-tuning for the TEEOSA, but there were also some major issues sprinkled in the mix.  Among the major topics was the final piece to the common levy issue and the implementation of adjusted valuation under the school finance formula.  In addition, the formula had to evolve to a certain degree with the ongoing and tedious constitutional problems with Nebraska's personal property tax system.  In fact, the personal property tax issue would dominate much of the Legislature's time in the early 1990s.  Lawmakers found themselves reacting to several key court cases on this subject.

On the whole, the first three years of the TEEOSA's existence was what most would expect, a growing experience.  The intricacy of the school finance issues explored and addressed in the early 1990s lends itself to the adage, "The Devil is in the Details."