Cities, Counties Set Tax Request

By Gordon HopkinsA number of political subdivisions, including cities and counties, have recently set their tax requests and approved budgets. Despite drastic increases of costs due to inflation and increased wages, local counties and cities have managed to keep tax request increases below the threshold that would require a “pink postcard” hearing. Pink PostcardsNebraska’s Property Tax Request Act (LB 644) was passed by the state legislature in 2021 and took effect in 2022. When a political subdivision such as a county, city or school district, wants to increase the tax request by more than the allowable growth percentage, they must send postcards to affected taxpayers. LB 644 requires postcards to be sent to each parcel owner in a taxing sub-district, which includes details about proposed increases and location information for a special hearing.Those postcards are often pink, which is why the hearing is often referred to as a “pink postcard” hearing.While 76 Nebraska counties will be having “pink postcard” hearings, Jefferson, Gage and Thayer counties will not. Jefferson CountyAt a meeting on Tuesday, September 17, Jefferson County Commissioners approved a 3.47 percent increase from the prior year’s tax request.Brian Blobaum of Blobaum & Busboom PC, who prepared the budget, explained why the county did not have to have a “pink postcard” hearing, “If you increase your tax asking by more than two percent plus rate of real growth increase in your district, if you increase more than that, then you are required to send out the postcard and participate in the joint public hearing process. And in this particular case, 3.47 percent is within that limitation.”Commissioner Mark Schoenrock said at that meeting, “It’s interesting when we do the county budget, I’ve heard from a number of my constituents that have a what I would characterize as a misconception, when they pay their property taxes, then that’s all going to county government.”To illustrate, Schoenrock presented a graph that showed the distribution of tax funds for the 2023/2024 tax year in Fairbury, “By far the largest amount that goes for property taxes is to our schools. Here in school district eight, that’s 41 percent.”“The City of Fairbury takes 31 percent. The remainder of that is a lot smaller entities like the fire district, the educational service units, the ambulance district, the airport authority, Southeast Community College, the historical society, the Little Blue Natural Resources District,” said Schoenrock. “I believe that we, as a board of commissioners, we have done a good job to prudently and to very carefully manage our budget. We have to provide the services that are essential to provide all of our services to our citizens. It takes revenue to do that.” FairburyThat same day, the Fairbury City Council voted to Fairbury City Council voted to decrease the tax levy rate by 40.11 percent.Fairbury Mayor Spencer brown explained that was possible due to paying off $2.7 million in municipal pool bonds early. Gage CountyThe Gage County Board of Supervisors approved a tax request increase of 1.48 percent from the previous year.Board Chair Erich Tiemann noted that tax requests had actually been reduced in the two prior budgets, and that even this increase does not keep up with the increasing in cost.“Everybody knows our costs have gone up dramatically,” said Supervisor Terry Jurgens. “So, you know, it looks to me like, if you can hold it to that 1.48 percent, that’s decent.” WymoreThe Wymore City Council approved a one percent tax request at a meeting Wednesday evening, September 18.

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