BEATRICE – A half-cent countywide sales tax used in Gage County to help pay off a huge federal civil rights judgment rolled off the books as the new year began.  But apparently, some retail establishments may still be inadvertently collecting the half-cent.


Nebraska State lawmaker Myron Dorn of Adams authored the bill that enacted the tax.  "Officially, the half-cent sales tax for the Beatrice Six was removed as of January 1st, 2023. However, not everybody has stopped collecting that....so if any retailers are listening, they should no longer be collecting that extra half cent for the Beatrice Six that goes to Gage County to help pay that off."


Gage County Board members voted to end the tax and notify the State of Nebraska before October 1st. The Nebraska Revenue Department then sent out a notice to businesses that the half-cent tax would end as of January 1st.  Dorn says the Revenue Department has told him they are sending out a second notice about the tax expiration.  "We're trying to get it so that it no longer is collected."


Dorn says for a customer who purchased anything in Gage County since January 1st and was charged the half-cent countywide sales tax, there is a means to get a refund.


"You can take your receipt back to the retailer for a refund if the purchase was over two dollars. In other words, some real small purchases, you can't. But, it says if you as a customer purchased anything since January 1st and were charged the extra half cent....you can take your receipt back to the retailer for a refund if the purchase was over two dollars."


Dorn says some retailers have no longer been charging the half-cent since the first of the year but it appears some have….perhaps because of process or coding errors within their accounting systems.


The tax was designed to only be in effect to help cover the judgment and the county had to be at its maximum 50-cent property tax rate during that time.
Gage County officials earlier said they plan to make the final payments on the more than $30 million judgment to six people wrongfully convicted or their estates…..with the final payments being made this spring.