For years, legislators have openly admitted that they have a big problem on their hands – property taxes threatening the livelihoods of home and business owners across the state.  

Trouble is, they can’t agree what to do. Property taxes fund schools. Schools have strong lobbyists. Everybody says reform is needed but specifics exist, if at all, inside a can of worms.

Stymied by extensive reform, legislators, have managed to agree on a few things.

In 2020, they started building a property tax credit fund.

In 2022, they created the “pink postcard” requirement, to give taxpayers a good opportunity to be aware of, and respond to, proposed budgets before those budgets significantly increase their taxes.

Legislators thought people should do their part to control their property taxes by going to public hearings and making their case to decision makers.

Also, in 2024, the state started paying most of the costs of community colleges, instead of paying them through property taxes.

None of that has impressed taxpayers much, who watch their valuations increase by leaps and bounds, and, in some years, their levy too.  

However, the pink postcards and well-publicized hearings are now on the verge of helping. The jury is out on that, but it’s possible.

Postcard hearings are required if tax calls exceed a cost-of-living-type of increase. Since the beginning of the hearings, cities and counties have been keeping their budgets low, so they don’t trigger the big public hearing where they have to listen to taxpayers give them a good talking-to.  

Of the three biggest property tax users, cities and counties have traditionally been the most apt to keep their increases modest so the thunder of unhappy constituents stays at a distance.. Once in awhile, they even decrease the actual tax call from one year to the next. 

Schools, on the other hand, are different. They don’t ask for less. Administrators are geared to seek the maximum amount of property taxes, and urge a supermajority of the board to agree. As North Platte School Board President Emily Garrick recently said, the apparent practice is to calculate the income that would be generated by a maximum tax, then build a budget accordingly. If someone objects, they are reminded of the importance of taking care of children, an emotional appeal that often quiets the critic. Also, from the time school board members take office, they are coached to go along with administrators. Nor does it help that the public rarely shows up at school budget hearings.

So schools call for the biggest share of our property taxes, and taxes have kept going higher despite the state’s efforts. Of course, escalating real estate values, pushed along by the assessor’s method of using top-of-the-market prices to rate the value of every property, worsens the situation too.

It’s no wonder property taxpayers are getting testier. They are paying ever higher expenses over which they have virtually no control.  

As Matt Perlinger pointed out at the North Platte’s postcard public hearing, the property tax per student in North Platte school district has increased a whopping 82% in the last 10 years – a nearly unbelievable amount.

One bright spot in all this is that more people in North Platte are speaking up. And members of the school board, at least some of them, are responding to their concerns. Those board members, like the people they represent, want to see schools actively save some money.

At North Platte’s postcard hearing on Sept. 17, taxpayers described the harm that high taxes does to their lives, such as forcing the elderly back to work, and keeping homeowners in tough economic straits. The planned public school increase this year alone will add thousands of dollars to the costs of farming, ranching and other businesses. It will keep young people from purchasing homes, and help keep them stuck paying rents that steadily increase.

They want to know what school expenses could be cut and how soon. Although some of their suggestions might seem crude to those who work with school budgets all year; nevertheless, they point out places to start talking, looking and doing.

As resident and businessman Justin Thompson said at the hearing, it’s foolish to focus on creating “destination” schools if living in North Platte is unaffordable.

Schools must shoulder their responsibility not only to students, but to the community. Like homeowners, when times are tough, schools need to do more with less, show taxpayers they care, and reduce spending.

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