The Rural Mainstreet survey for February showed nearly one-third of banks report an increase in the farm loan rejection rate for the same reason.

The survey’s overall index dropped to 50.2 from January’s 51.5. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy in the months ahead, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says the rural economy appears to be expanding outside of agriculture, but that tariffs and low agriculture commodity prices continue to weaken the farm sector.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

The bill presented to the Legislature’s tax-focused Revenue Committee seeks to address the concerns of business owners who say Nebraska can’t compete with most of its neighboring states.

“We need to grow. We need to have our young people stay here and have people actually move to Nebraska and start businesses,” said Sen. Mike Hilgers, a Lincoln attorney and business owner who sponsored the bill.

The bill would trigger automatic cuts in Nebraska’s top individual and corporate income tax rates anytime state revenue grows by more than 3.5 percent and the state’s emergency cash reserve holds at least $500 million. It also would steer $75 million a year into Nebraska’s Property Tax Credit Fund, a state account used to reduce local property tax bills.

Business groups said they support efforts to reduce property taxes, but not if it means raising other taxes, as agriculture groups have suggested. The dispute has prevented lawmakers from passing any sort of major tax package in recent years.

“We support property tax reform, but merely doing so on the backs of other taxpayers who are already paying high income taxes and high sales taxes is not sustainable,” said Joseph Young, an advocate for a coalition of Nebraska business groups. “It has proven time and again that it will not work.”

Nebraska’s current top tax rate is 6.84 percent for individuals and 7.81 percent for corporations. The bill would ratchet both of those rates down to 5.99 percent over time, which Young said would help Nebraska businesses compete with nearby states.

But John Hansen, president of the Nebraska Farmers Union, said the bill would provide relatively little benefit to farmers whose incomes are already down because of low crop prices. Hansen said Nebraska has created a tax system over time that relies too heavily on local property taxes.

“The fact that you own property doesn’t mean you have the corresponding earned income to pay the tax load,” he said.

Mick Mines, a lobbyist for a seven-member coalition of Nebraska farm groups, said the bill is worth discussing but stressed that reducing property taxes should be a major part of the package. Mines said boosting money for property tax credit fund isn’t enough because it doesn’t offset the huge increases farmers and ranchers have experienced.

“The property tax credit fund isn’t working,” he said. “It doesn’t provide meaningful tax relief.”

Other critics said the bill favors wealthy Nebraskans who pay a larger share of their income at Nebraska’s top tax rate. The measure would reduce state revenue available for state services, said Renee Fry, executive director of the OpenSky Policy Institute. Fry also took issue with the automatic nature of the tax cuts.

“Putting tax cuts on autopilot without regard for current or future realities isn’t good tax policy,” she said. “It ignores the budget challenges we face and the need to build up the cash reserve.”

Tri-Valley Health System announced Wednesday that it will be shuttering Cambridge Manor on June 30. The system says it’s losing $143 per patient per day at the nursing home.

Tri-Valley Health interim CEO Keith Leudders says government payments are just not enough to stay open.

Leudders says he and his staff are working with residents and their families on transferring the residents.

The system also says it’s losing $300,000 a year at an assisted living apartment complex in town known as the Heritage Plaza.

The Hall County Sheriff’s Department says the biggest current risk is to a fast-food restaurant and hotel parking lot near the Grand Island interchange. Some houses upstream also are at some risk.

Hall County Chief Deputy Jim Castleberry told station KSNB the water is still flowing beneath the ice. But if it gets cold enough, the ice expands toward the bottom and water also freezes from the bottom up, blocking the flow and causing water to back up and overflow the channel upstream.

Members of the Revenue Committee voted Thursday to send the measure to the full Legislature.

The bill was introduced in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that lets states tax online sales from out-of-state businesses. Smaller sellers with $100,000 or less in gross sales or fewer than 200 separate transactions were exempt.

The Nebraska Department of Revenue has already ordered businesses to start collecting sales taxes on orders placed within the state, but senators haven’t passed a formal law to require it.

Senators gave the measure first-round approval Wednesday with a 39-2 vote.

The measure by state Sen. John McCollister, of Omaha, would require employers to give job seekers the opportunity to explain themselves if applicants are forced to disclose their criminal records. It would only apply to businesses with 15 or more employees.

McCollister says the bill is designed to help former convicts who often struggle to find work after their sentences end, while allowing businesses to avoid hiring inappropriate people for a job.