"The State Doesn't Levy Property Taxes"

The Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce is an important organization for us all. We need them to provide exceptional leadership as they get involved with economic development, workforce issues, and many other statewide initiatives.

The Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce will hold numerous meetings across the state this fall. They've already been in York. They will be in Aurora on September 18th, Henderson on September 25th, and in many other communities as well before Halloween. When they get asked about Nebraska's high rate of property taxes, they are often quick to say, “The state doesn’t levy property taxes…your high property taxes are due to spending at the local level.”

Well, that's not actually the case. The state does NOT levy property taxes. However, the state's lack of adequate and sustainable funding for public education FORCES local taxing entities to have an extreme over-reliance on local property taxes. It gets old to be blamed for high property taxes due to our spending when we have a 'funding' problem.

Here are some data points for you to read and decide on your own.

1) Nebraska K-12 schools receive 49% of their funding from local property taxes while the national average is 29%.
2) YPS receives about 74% of our funding from local property taxes. (The state doesn't levy property taxes but where else are we going to get our funding here in York?)

3) Nebraska K-12 schools receive 33% of their funding from state sources while the national average is 47%.
4) YPS receives only about 18% of our funding from state sources

YPS has had an average annual spending increase of just 1.3% since 2008-09. We’ve had a 0% spending increase since 2014-15. However, some still say it is a "spending problem."

Our TOTAL General Fund Property Taxes has increased 66.6% since 2008-09 for an average annual increase of 8.3%. However, our TOTAL General Fund Revenue has increased just 9.1% since 2008-09 for an average annual increase of 1.1%. That's right...property taxes went up over 66% since 2008-09 BUT those extra dollars basically just replaced lost revenue from the state and federal levels as our total revenue only went up an average of 1.1%.

Ok, let's adjust some spending data and see what happens with our property tax data above. Let's say YPS should have cut an extra million dollars out of our budget...we shouldn't be satisfied with an average annual spending increase of just 1.3%...we should be at 0% forever....never update technology for students....never replace old vehicles...never purchase updated curriculum tools....etc. If our 2016-17 spending and tax request was decreased by $1 million, our general fund tax request would still have gone up over 51% since 2008-09....does that solve the issue? Does a 6.4% average annual increase in local property taxes solve the problem? The answer is NO. We have a funding problem, folks.

School spending is not the culprit for high property taxes in Nebraska. School spending is already subject to annual spending and tax levy lids mandated at the state level. A better approach to true property tax relief would be to address how Nebraska funds schools so we can improve upon our rank of 49th in the nation for the percent of K-12 education funded by the state.

According to data obtained from the legislative fiscal office’s report from August 2015, total school district disbursements for Nebraska's public school districts of all funds grew by only an annual average of just 3.5% from 2003-04 through 2013-14. During the same 2003-04 through 2013-14 time span, the number of students educated statewide in Nebraska’s public schools increased 8.16% from 284,181 to 307,398.

York's TOTAL General Fun Spending has increased just 11.0% since 2008-09, for an average annual increase of 1.3%. We've had a0% spending increase since 2014-15. Much of the 11% spending increase since 2008-09 has been due to grant funded programming we've added to address the number of students we have living in poverty. TOTAL State Aid was $3.7 million in 2009 and is now $225,557.

"The state doesn't levy property taxes" but where else will YPS receive the money we need to operate?

I appreciate many of the tough issues our Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce has to address. The State Chamber employs many hard working folks. I wish them well as they try to make our state better. I hope they can try to take a look at some educational funding issues and see that Nebraska's great public schools are a true asset to this state, not an enemy.