Gage County approves new budget, saying goodbye to sales tax
Pay-off of huge federal civil rights judgment coming much sooner than expected
By News Channel NebraskaBEATRICE – Gage County officials have approved a new budget, during a fiscal year when a half-cent county-wide sales tax will come off the books with a return to lower property taxes.
The half-cent sales tax ends at the start or the new year. It has been used to help pay down a huge federal civils right judgment against the county ….the last payment being made on that, next May. During a public hearing Wednesday, Gage County Board Chairman Erich Tiemann described it as an “exciting” budget…and a major step forward…given the pending finish of the Beatrice Six civil judgment and the lowering of taxes.
"We will have our last two payments to the Beatrice Six...one anticipated in September and one anticipated in May. Those will be big ticket items. Overall, our tax asking will go down by six-point-six-five-eight percent."
The property tax requirement in the county’s $48 million budget comes to $11.77 million. That will place the county’s tax rate at 34.16 cents…..down from the past year’s nearly 39-cents.
"The most exciting part of this budget is we are looking at the elimination of the half-cent sales tax, January one. That's a big deal. We brought the sales tax on...none of us liked it...but it was a means to an end. That sales tax worked as it was supposed to. We implemented it...we used it for short period of time. We've already notified the department of revenue that we are taking that off, a quarter in advance, which would be January first."
A 50-cent property tax lid the county was required to adopt in order to use the state-authorized sales tax on the judgment, will drop to 45.14-cents, when adding in townships, fire districts and other entities drawing some tax support.
Overall property valuation in the county went up nearly 7-percent for the coming budget year….a combination of new growth and revaluation of properties.
There was no public comment on the county’s plan during the public hearing. The operating budget for the coming year is 4-percent lower than the past year. It carries a cash reserve of about $1.97 million.