Gov. Jim Pillen’s plan for what he calls “historic” tax relief is struggling, at best.

With time running out in Lincoln, lawmakers are scratching their heads looking for answers.

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State Sen. George Dungan, Lincoln (D): “I know this is a very tense thing.”

Tense doesn’t begin to describe the battle over Gov. Jim Pillen’s original tax plan—now shaky at best—to raise the state sales tax from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent to pay for his push to cut property taxes by 40 percent.

Barring an unforeseen change, the sales tax jump is off the table, and that 40 percent cut is down to about 30 percent.

State Sen. John Fredrickson, Omaha (D): “I understand that there are some, a lot, of conversations about possible changes to this bill.”

The Governor, not ready to call it quits, telling the Omaha World-Herald he’s, “Open to any revenues of funding this historic property tax cut.”

Pillen’s lead lawmaker hanging on.

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, Elkhorn (R): “We will work very hard over the next few days with everybody.”

For weeks, the Pillen plan has been hit from all sides.

Open Sky, the left leaning think tank, says the wealthiest 20 percent of Nebraskans would pay lower taxes, while low-and middle-income taxpayers would pay more.

State Sen. John Fredrickson, Omaha (D): “What we're hearing is that every single person is getting a tax cut, and my question continues to be who's paying for this where is the money coming from.”

The right-wing Americans for Prosperity is touting a poll that says 70 percent of Nebraskans oppose raising the sales tax to cut property taxes.

State Sen. Julie Slama, Sterling (R): “But I'm not going to get up here and just say we're giving out property tax relief. We've done that before in Nebraska state history where we've increased sales taxes to provide property tax relief and without proper spending controls in place, we blow it up within a couple of years.”

And now in the final hours the search for that new plan, new money, revenue to pay for the property tax cut.

State Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, Elkhorn (R): “Everybody's got ideas I'm open, the Revenue Committee is open to any ideas you might have.”

Well maybe not any idea, take for example this one:

State Sen. Jen Day, Gretna (D): “Legalizing cannabis would be a huge source of revenue for the state of Nebraska, balancing out the high expensive property taxes for taxpayers in the state."