Jefferson County Considers Raising Levy One Cent

By Gordon HopkinsAs budget time nears, counties are faced once again with the reality of explaining increasing cost to residents that want to see lower taxes.Jefferson County Commissioners met with the county’s accountant, Brian Blobaum of Blobaum and Busboom, P.C. The news wasn’t good.“Half of our revenue comes from property tax. The other half comes mainly from state pass through revenues. Well, state pass through revenues might be going up one percent and, meanwhile, our expenses go up 10 percent and we try to hold the line,” said Blobaum. “Eventually that hits you, because you start spending down your inheritance (tax fund), and you got to start doing something.”Commissioner Mark Schoenrock summed up the dilemma, “Well, I would characterize the overall situation as this. The cost of all of the services that the county provides across the whole line have increased substantially, and we as a board, we are trying to maintain the same level of service across the board, whether it’s roads or it’s law enforcement or it’s ambulance or services, in the courthouse or emergency management, all of the things that we do. We are trying to maintain the same level of service, but the cost of all of that has increased dramatically. So, on the one hand, our citizens want the same level of service across the board. They want all those things, but they don’t want to have an increase in their taxes to pay for it.”Then there is the matter of valuations, which this year increased by 11.45 percent. Schoenrock said, “And so, our citizens will say, ‘Well, since the valuation went up so much, why can’t you be cutting the levy rate?” Unfortunately, due to increased expenses, cutting the levy would leave the county without enough funds to operate. Even keeping the levy at the same rate, an option the commissioners considered, would require depleting the inheritance fund and leave the county with no cash for unexpected expenses at all.Blobaum strenuously advised against doing that.“You could probably get by with it one year, but you’re then down to zero inheritance funds left,” said Blobaum. “No cushion. I don’t think you can even think of that.”As a result, commissioners agreed they would have to increase the levy. Schoenrock said, “The bottom line is, you know, if we’re going to keep the same level of service across the board, I mean, that’s our option.”Commissioner Michael Dux added, “We won’t have that option in a few years because, eventually, the valuations are going down and we will have to cut service.”Increasing the levy will require a joint public hearing. Schoenrock said when that hearing takes place, “There’s three key points at the joint public hearing. Number one is, cost of everything keeps going up. County has two options. We either got to pay that or we got to cut services. Number two, the level of state funding coming in from the county budget has gone up very minuscule. And number three, this is not just a Jefferson County issue, it is a county government issue across all of Nebraska. All county government is facing the same challenge.”In the end, commissioners opted for a one cent increase.Schoenrock said, “I hate going up something on the levy. But it’s not going up very much.”“Technically, the general and bond are not going up at all. I mean, the bond is going down, the general is going up. But between the two, the levy rate is the same,” Blobaum clarified. “It’s the other arm, ambulance, that’s going up the last proposal.”Blobaum added, “Nothing we can do about that.”Schoenrock agreed, “if people want to have an advanced life support service in Jefferson County, which our citizens overwhelmingly want, that’s what it costs.”The joint public hearing will be held on Thursday, September 18 and the budget hearing will be on Tuesday, September 23.

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