A look at school taxes

Have you noticed that our Nebraska Legislature’s effort to raise taxes to have more money to give to the schools and “relieve property taxes” isn’t going so good? Maybe Governor Ricketts' promise to veto any such effort is having an effect. I think that our Governor’s understanding that raising taxes only contributes to our tax spenders’ propensity to spend any largess of new revenue and thereby create a need to keep the tax rate high to support their new spending habits. It seems that is the way it works. Human nature.

For the past several weeks the Gazette has run pictures of the graduating seniors of surrounding area schools. A good thing. You may have noticed that nearby Hayes Center High School had only two seniors graduating this year. Two for the whole county. Obviously a small school system with probably a quite high cost per pupil. Still the Hayes Center School Board has determined that paying the high real estate taxes to keep their school system intact in their small town is worth the cost. I say Bravo to that decision. Related to that decision back years ago when I was County Commissioner I recall that it was Hayes County that had the greatest valuation per capita of any county in Nebraska. Valuation of course affects tax rates so maybe Hayes County Real Estate taxes aren’t all that out of line.

There is another aspect to how we in Nebraska are taxed to support our good school systems and it again goes back to Governor “Tax” Tiemann’s plan to make our taxes more equitable. That was when a state sales tax and an income tax was created to relieve the burden of property taxes the prior method of financing state and local government. As part of the deal provision was made for a State Department of Education who as part of their responsibilities is to allocate state money to each school district for “relief” of their local real estate taxes. A state agency that has the power to dictate to each school district how they are to conduct their education process. Power backed up by the threat of cutting off their revenue if the district does not comply with every nit of the department dictates.

Yes there is a State School Board supposedly in charge of governing our State Department of Education. Eight individuals elected from across the State. We are in District 7 which encompasses the whole western half of the state. Kind of gives an idea of which part of the state dictates how our tax money is allocated. Our representative is Robin Stevens, a personal friend, and I suspect he is unknown to anyone else in this area. That is a far cry from a local school board where members also own property and are setting taxes for themselves as well as their interested neighbors.

I too have sat on a statewide board of governors currently the Nebraska Aeronautics Board of Commissioners. We function mainly as a YES echo chamber for the Aeronautics Commission staff which is now a part of the Nebraska Department of Transportation NDOR. Decisions are made by staff who are mostly civil engineers who overlook and control construction and maintenance of the State’s many airports. Way too complicated decisions than we board members have information to make. I suspect that is the way the State School Board functions also. So different than making decisions for your friends and neighbors who don’t hesitate to point out one’s error as happens for our local school boards.

Not long ago I had a discussion with one of McCook’s District 17 school board members. We were speaking of the voucher system used in other parts of the country to support Charter Schools, of which Nebraska has none, where tax money, in the form of a voucher, is given to parents to pay tuition to a school of their own choosing in which to educate their child. Not a good idea said my friend because that would subtract from the funds that he needed to run his public school system. Understandable yet here in McCook parents and our community supports St. Patrick’s excellent parochial elementary school without a cent of tax money all of which goes to the public schools where their students do not attend. Their choice of course and worth it but still reeks as a bit unfair.

What then is the answer to lowering our taxes? All I can suggest is to pay attention to what our elected representatives to our democratic republic form of government are doing and let them know your feelings. Elections do have consequences.

Now on a happier note. You are all invited to the annual Stone Church Memorial Day service 6:00 P.M. this year on Sunday the 26th. Right alongside of Highway 17 just 17 miles south of Culbertson. Quite a celebration to the faith of those pioneers who made it all possible. No electricity in the building yet the acoustics are just splendid. It seems lately that the festivities end early due darkness from an approaching thunderstorm. Nebraska springtime weather.

That is how I saw it.

__ Dick Trail