Petition circulators for the "EPIC Option" have gatheredÌýsignatures from at least 5% of voters inÌý38 of Nebraska's 93 counties, organizers said TuesdayÌý— clearing one of two major hurdles that stand between the unorthodox tax plan and state voters.
"I just want to point out that these people have persevered despite all the negative publicity and erroneous information that our opposition has been putting out there for months and months on end,"ÌýBonkiewicz said, referring to a groupÌýof more than 40 Nebraska businesses and organizations that have formed a coalition to oppose the EPIC Option.
In addition to the opposition campaign, the pair of EPIC petitions — one that would eliminate much of the state's tax system and another that replace lost revenue with a consumption tax on all new goods and services, except groceries — still have one massive hurdle to clear to crack November's ballot.
Circulators have until July 3 to collect valid signatures from at least 10% of Nebraska voters, orÌýabout 123,000 people.
Organizers, including deeply conservative state Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard and Steve Jessen, the initiative's lead organizer, declined to say Tuesday how many signatures the group has actually collected statewideÌý— in part, they said, because they don't know.
"The total count, we don't know what it is exactly, because we haven't counted them all," said Erdman, who noted that organizers had focused their counting efforts on the 38 counties where they claim to have collected signatures from the requisite 5% of voters.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Bob Evnen said Tuesday that the group hasn't yet submitted any signatures to Evnen's office for review. Organizers of ballot initiative efforts in Nebraska often turn in their signatures en masse once they believe they have gathered enough signatures to meet both requirements.
Jessen said he's confident that circulators will gather enough signatures to crack November's ballotÌý— a hurdle they have fewer than 43 days left to clear.
"Our circulators are aware of that deadline," he said. "I mean, I'm getting calls from them and they're just saying, 'Where do we go? Where do we go?' I've got circulators that are actually traveling hundreds of miles just to go circulate petitions."
Organizers have been collecting signatures for more than a yearÌýbut in recent months have seized on Nebraskans' frustration with escalating property taxes to rally support for their proposal, which Jessen said was bolstered after state lawmakers failed to address property tax relief in this year's legislative session, which ended in April.
At Tuesday's news conference, Erdman said he would use the special session to again introduce legislation mirroring the EPIC OptionÌý— which seeks to dismantle Nebraska's tax system rather than reform it.
"The discussion is going to be about what the fix is," Erdman said. "And we have proof that for 57 years, we don't know what the fix is, because we haven't fixed it. And so, consequently, we've tried everything else. Let's try this."
Still, Erdman's plan faces headwinds both in the Legislature and across Nebraska.
EPIC Option organizersÌýhave said that a 7.5% consumption tax applied to all new services and goods, including new homes, would sufficiently fund state government, schools and local governments if property, income, inheritance and corporate taxes were eliminated.
But opponents have pointed toÌý that the state's consumption tax rate would have to be 22% to make the proposal workable, a rate that would "devastate" Nebraska's economy, they said.
"We have 75% of our population that lives within an hour of our borders," former state Sen. Brett Lindstrom said in March. "They're gonna drive that hour to go spend their money. They're not gonna spend on Main Street. And it will beÌý— it will decimate our economy."
Democrats, too, broadly oppose the plan. Jane Kleeb, the chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said in a statement Tuesday that the EPIC Option wouldÌý"leave all Nebraskans paying more sales tax. This is not the solution to high property taxes."
And the obstacles facing EPIC organizers aren't merely political.
Every successful petition or referendum effort for the past decade has spent $1.5 million or more on gathering signatures and campaigning. All of those efforts used paid circulators as well as volunteers.
In the latest campaign finance spending period, which ran from March 27 through April 30, the EPIC Option group raised less than $3,000 and spent $15,166, mostly on print advertising, according to the group's latest campaign finance filing.
At the end of the latest reporting period, the group had less than $60,000 on hand.
State Sen. Steve Erdman of Bayard speaks at the EPIC tax ballot initiative news conference in November 2023 at the Capitol. Erdman and other EPIC organizers announced Tuesday that the group had cleared the first of two major hurdles in their effort to put their unorthodox tax plan to voters this fall.
EPIC Option volunteer coordinator Steve Jessen speaks during a news conference in November at the Capitol. Jessen and other EPIC Option organizers said Tuesday that the group has cleared the first of two major hurdles in their effort to put their unorthodox tax plan to state voters.