Lincoln Journal Star on September 12: Local View: Low budget growth puts pressure on property taxes
Some suggest that if budget growth can be kept near the unusually low levels achieved in the current state budget, there will be plenty of revenue to lower taxes.
However, it was our state’s high reliance on property taxes to fund K-12 schools that played a key role in the budget’s low growth rate of 3.5 percent. Furthermore, if budget growth is to remain at current levels, it’s highly probable that property taxes will need to increase even further to avoid cuts to our schools.
Under Nebraska’s school funding formula, when property values increase in a school district, so does the taxpayers’ perceived ability to pay for their schools, thereby reducing the amount of state support the district receives. Significant increases in property values brought growth in state funding for K-12 schools down to 2.5 percent in the current budget — about half the average annual growth rate experienced in the past 15 years. Had K-12 funding grown at the historical average, budget growth would have been much higher.