Education and local government officials are worried the tax cut package Governor Heineman signed into law Tuesday could have a negative impact on those who need the funding the most.
School districts across the state are already dealing with big setbacks.
"It's just a tough time with the economy right now," Nancy Fulton with the Nebraska State Education Association says.
Fulton and other state education leaders worry the tax cuts will only continue to hurt schools and students.
"We're going to have to see school districts make hard decisions," Fulton says.
Grand Island Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Rob Winter says they've already had to make big cuts in the past few years, and the anticipated cuts are even more significant.
"As it stands right now, we're hearing numbers anywhere from $500 to $700 million shortfall in that next biennium," Winter says. "That's not each year, that's over the course of that."
Local government officials are also worried they'll lose their much-needed funding.
"This isn't a matter of whether we add people, this is a matter of whether we can maintain the services that we're providing right now," Hall County Board of Supervisors chair Pam Lancaster says.
Lancaster says maintaining needed services has already been a struggle.
"If we can't maintain at least this level of funding, we'll be cutting people," Lancaster says. "We may be cutting people anyway."
But local officials say while the cuts will make a big impact on education, local governments and other state-funded agencies, they won't provide significant savings for individuals statewide.
Winter says the tax cuts will provide savings from $35-55 for most Nebraskans.
"When you combine all that, all the Nebraskans, it creates a pretty significant deficit," Winter says.
Winter and Lancaster say it's still too early to tell exactly how much funding they'll lose because of the cuts, and where they'll have to make adjustments.
