"As an historically agricultural state, owning more land in Nebraska meant you would have more income and could afford to pay more taxes on that property", [state senator] Tom White said. "That direct correlation is no longer always true".
Too true. As a one-income, teacher salary family, we agree.
This got me thinking. By us moving to edge of the county, as opposed to being within city limits, are we spending less on taxes? Let's look at some data:
According to the Nebraska Department of Revenue
Property Tax Rates in 2010 for living in Lancaster County - .27893900
Property Tax Rates in 2010 for living in the city of Lincoln- .30675800
Property Tax Rates in 2010 for living in Seward County - .34688200 (our neighboring county)
Property Tax Rates in 2010 for living in Pleasant Dale - .40000000 (nearest municipality)
The rates are a little better in the country, but we own more land. However, if you compare the .16 acres we owned at Sumner to the 5.61 we own here on the Edge we actually pay around $1,000 less per year on property tax...what a puzzle.
The answer is school districts. It costs are lot more fund a large district like Lincoln Public Schools than it does Milford Public Schools. LPS expects to collect around $168 million for the 2010-11 simply from property taxes. I can't find the info for MPS, but I am positive it is much less.
We have already received other types of tax relief in our time here. Lincoln imposes a $54-per-car Wheel Tax to keep roads maintained but if you don't live within city limits, you do not have to pay the tax. That saved us $108 a month ago. Some have fought this before in 2005, but to no avail. We have had other perks. If work or delivery is done on our county property, the tax rate is only 5.5% sales tax whereas in Lincoln it is 7%.
Do we ultimately save money living where we do? No, not when you factor all the gas it takes to go to and fro...But there are, however, some tax reliefs for living here!
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