This week’s “pink postcard” hearing that packed the Lincoln City Council chambers with Lancaster County residents there to protest tax increases by the city, Lincoln Public Schools, Southeast Community College, Waverly and Hickman, was, to quote Shakespeare, “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Truly, little more could have been expected from the hearing that is required under the so-called “Truth in Taxation” law enacted last year that requires local governments to notify taxpayers of tax increases greater than 2%, delivered on the pink postcards.
Because of the county’s historic 22% increase in the average property tax valuations, the five taxing entities had to hold the hearing to explain their reasoning to taxpayers and listen to those taxpayers share concerns about the increase.
The latter was likely the primary intent of the senators, who pushed the law through the Legislature — allowing, they assumed, taxpayers to convince taxing entities to alter their budgets and reduce their levies.
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But given the timing of the postcards and hearing, that can’t happen. Most, if not all, of the budget and taxing decisions had been made before the hearing, which happened just a couple of weeks before their budgets must be approved.
For example, Southeast Community College — which is planning to raise its levy from 7.37 cents per $100 of valuation to 8.5 cents for the 2023-24 school year, meaning the amount of property taxes paid will also go up 16.9% — is scheduled to consider and finalize its property tax rate Tuesday.
The same holds true for the city of Lincoln and Lincoln Public Schools budgets that were largely determined this summer and the subject of hearings.
Given the timing of the current process, those hearings are where taxpayers could really have an impact on the budget, but they generally have been sparsely attended.
Many of the complaints regarded valuations, and no one from the County Assessor’s Office was required to be there. The time to protest this year’s valuations is past, and those valuations are set using a process dictated by state law. So any changes would have to come through the Legislature, not the local entities.
At this point, there is some limited, informational value to the pink postcards, which give property owners a precise view of the taxes they will pay to each of the entities, and how much those taxes have increased.
But the “Truth in Taxation” effort — in its current form — will likely never lead to major changes in budgets and property taxes. It is simply held too late in the budgetary process for that to happen.
If the motivation behind the state law is to give taxpayers a meaningful way to participate in budgeting and taxation issues, then the process will require more thought, more time and probably more postcards.
