Assessor to back off hangar tax, for now

McCOOK, Neb. — At the county commissioners’ meeting Monday morning, Red Willow County assessor Sandra Kotschwar asked commissioners to withdrew her intent to tax a City of McCook airplane hangar.

Kotschwar told commissioners she is cautious about moving forward with taxing the city’s newest hangar, because other hangars should be taxed as well and not every county in the state is taxing hangars.

McCook City Manager Nate Schneider attended the Monday morning meeting, agreeing with Kotschwar that there is not a lot of uniformity in taxing airport hangars in counties across the state. He said that he and Kotschwar have discussed the situation with the city’s hangars.

Schneider said that if the hangars are taxed to people paying rent, the city may have trouble renting the hangars.

Kotschwar said she has questions regarding properties used for “public purpose,” such as the hangars that are leased and are therefore, income-producing. “They should be taxed,” Kotschwar said, yet other counties aren’t taxing them.

Schneider said that state statutes regarding public purpose are “interesting” and should be reviewed.

Kotschwar asked for a year to research public purpose and the taxation — or not — of government-owned properties that are income-producing. The commissioners’ motion to withdraw Kotschwar’s intent to tax the city’s hangar for 2017 passed unanimously.

During last week’s meeting of the McCook City Council, city leaders briefly discussed the then-potential taxation of the airport hangars. Councilors indicated it would present an odd scenario where tenants would pay property tax on someone else’s property.

City Attorney Nate Mustion said Nebraska golf courses located on municipality owned property were finding themselves in a similar situation. “They’re getting hit by that in a lot of places,” said Mustion.

Mayor Mike Gonzales indicated the recent push to tax tenants of public property was likely a symptom of the budget shortfall at the state level, and “creative” efforts to find replacement revenue.