As part of the unveiling and approval of the budget for 2024-25, the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners provided this graphic, which aims to address a critical common question: where does all the money go? 

Part of the job of the commissioners – and, indeed, of the press – is to clear up the misinformation and misconceptions that they say sometimes crop up during or after their presentations, and this pie chart is one effort to combat those concerns. 

“Our County treasurer collects all these property taxes, and this is where they’re disbursed to. I think it’s very important that our citizens have this understanding,” Commissioner Mark Schoenrock said. 

The chart outlines what percentage of the annual tax revenue various departments and services in Jefferson County received to operate and function over the past fiscal year. Most notably and predominantly, 41 percent of the annual tax revenue this past year directly went to support the school district, School District 8; 31.07 percent went towards the maintenance of the city of Fairbury; 15.6 percent went towards county services and operations; and the remaining 12.33 percent was spread across multiple disciplines such as the ambulance district and the fire district. 

Schoenrock framed this information in a more straightforward manner: for every dollar that was collected in tax revenue, 41 cents of that went to support the school system, and so on down the line. 

“It takes revenue for us as a board to provide services to our citizens,” he said. “We’re maintaining that same level of service, and we’re doing at 15.6 percent of every dollar that’s collected from property taxes.”  

The full 2024-25 budget is available for the public to view on Fairbury’s public notices page, and you can read more of our coverage on the topic right here on News Channel Nebraska.