Nebraska Realestate Taxes

[highyields]

For the Huskers in the group: do any of you that are farming would like to see your taxes based off of something different other then value per acre.  Cause I sure would.  I'm afraid that with the state short fall with revenue local officials will use realestate taxes to off set state cuts, along with the raise in values of ag land Taes are going to increase. 

I'd like to hear from other farmers from surrounding states to see how their taxes are levied.  Where I am at, Iowas pays half across the river and Missouri pays a 1/3 of what I do.  

It sounds like I'm belly acheing but I'd think there is a way more effiecient way to do this then what Nebraska is doing. 

[rightone]

annual RE taxes anywhere in the usa.

Why punish folks for owning property?

Owning property IS a recurring capital enterprize such that puts money into the economy every year thru MANY ways shapes and forms.

Perhaps simply have a sales tax as property is sold or changes hands.

[nwobcw]

   Ohio here.  My farm taxes that are in a metropolitan county have doubled.  The county line runs thru the home farm.  The "city" county land is valued at double the other land.  I might add the city county farm has little road frontage whereas the other land has over a mile of frontage.   With housing values down they have to get the money somewhere.

[highyields]

The fairest tax is a sales tax.  In nebraska most of our property taxes go for the school over 50% which is fine the kids need an education but the  the schools see this as an endless supply of funds.   that and why should a guy that is in his 70s have to pay for a new school.  

just my thinking

[Canuck_2]

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@highyields wrote:

The fairest tax is a sales tax.  In nebraska most of our property taxes go for the school over 50% which is fine the kids need an education but the  the schools see this as an endless supply of funds.   that and why should a guy that is in his 70s have to pay for a new school.  

just my thinking

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Not picking on you highyields but I will start by commenting on your comment "why should a guy that is in his 70s have to pay for a new school."

 because we are citizens and we were able to use what people before us built and paid for so it is sort of like paying it 'forward' to cover what we used before.

Now in general about property taxes I agree that it does not appear to be fair to have to pay based on value of land for services like snowplowing, blacktop, playgrounds etc., services that soybeans, corn and wheat do not need or use.

It is a system that has developed and been used for many years but maybe there is a different or better way to fund our governments.

I am not sure we can all agree what that would be.

No one likes paying income taxes or sales taxes and I suggest no one way of taxing would be fair because some individual or group will be disadvantaged if all income is derived from one source only so probably the best we can hope for is to find a good balance of taxes from many sources and formats.

I understand what can happen to taxes with an increase in land values.

A few years ago we had a 65% increase in property tax on bare land because a couple of sales close to us spiked the local price. The sales were higher than usual for reasons of next door neighbours willing to pay above value for convenience to them. Houses in a nearby village managed a small decrease in tax at the same time because mill rate fell with the additional revenue from farm land.

I of course asked just who used the local services? my beans and corn or the villagers? 

[sonoma72]

You are correct, Nebraska real estate taxes are an absolute racket, and they will be used to make up the difference, just wait and see, of course this makes lots of sense with all the under water home loans.  I also enjoy our motor vehicle tax, I enjoy renting my vehicles from the state every year, only for them to tell us there is no road money, and of course we have a nice fat gas tax also...   But that is another story.   What gets me, in a state with a mostly "static" population, or more specifically smaller towns with almost "zero" population growth, have school expenses exploding past any reasonable growth model.   in my community 1972 was the zenith of the high school classes, twice what it is today, yet adjusted for inflation we spend bucket loads more money per student, and bascially bucket load more in general.  Heaven forbid we actually take care of a school buidling so it doesn't fall into disrepair.  Of course we all know you can't learn anything unless you are sitting in a new school,  odd considering my favorite classes at UNL were in Richards Hall, a real dump at the time...  On a side note,   I just renogitated rent with one landlord, specifically because of property taxes.  

[kraft-t]

We the landed gentry know that with real estate ownership comes responsibility. There is a way to avoid real estate taxes and that is by not owning real estate. 

I suppose in earlier days in most rural counties the wealth was mostly in farm real estate. Ironically, land ownership does not indicate ability to pay. Even in periods of crop losses or low prices the land assessment still comes due. You can't just tax farm income because they all invest (spend) on machinery and the like to bring their taxable income down.

I wouldn't trade tax rates with city folks though. My house in OK is worth less than half of what 80 acres is in Iowa. Yet the real estate tax in OK is more than the RE tax  is on that 80.

[k-289]

How will sales tax work when it comes to the producer selling commodities--just a thought---also 6% on 300K items---items for discussion---we have to examine the ideology of the mega farms perhaps ?  Consolidation is a hot potato in our area of NE Nebraska--if you are  the school district that is "fiscally dysfunctional" and your next town over isn't --guess who want's to merge  ? 

[nwobcw]

   I was just talking to a brother in law at Christmas about that very thing, mergers.  He is a former teacher and principal.  Schools needn't necessarily merge but an adminstration every 15 or 20 miles is uneeded.  My district just spent 800K on a new admin. building 8 years ago. But I'll tell you what it all boils down to in my thinking: sports.  All the school board members are sport nuts.  They never miss a Friday night football game but none of them ever attented any of my son's FFA banquets.

[k-289]

    800K- for an administration building---must have a lot of class room populous  ?  How did we get to the moon from a one room school  house ?