Omaha Forums

MTO wrote:Why doesn't Papillon just annex Springfeild and be done with it!

Garrett wrote:

MTO wrote:Why doesn't Papillon just annex Springfeild and be done with it!

I think only Omaha and Lincoln have the power to unilaterally annex other cities, Omaha with a 10,000 limit and Lincoln with a 3,000 limit.

Coyote wrote:

Garrett wrote:

MTO wrote:Why doesn't Papillon just annex Springfeild and be done with it!

I think only Omaha and Lincoln have the power to unilaterally annex other cities, Omaha with a 10,000 limit and Lincoln with a 3,000 limit.

I don't know about that. I was talking with a former Papillion mayoral candidate who suggested that they should have annexed La Vista when they had a chance....

Emily Nohr: World-Herald staff writer wrote:Th annexation will take Prairie Queen Recreation Area into Papillion city limits and extend the city’s zoning control west to Interstate 80 and south to roughly Capehart Road.

The annexation will add 1,000 acres to city limits and 3,700 acres to its zoning authority.

Papillion city officials have called access to Interstate 80 crucial for the city’s future growth.

Louie wrote:It's too late to annex Gretna, right?

MTO wrote:Can't they just annex faster? Or bigger tracts?

Coyote wrote:

Louie wrote:It's too late to annex Gretna, right?

Gretna is under 6k, but by the time Papillion city limits would ever make it out that far they would most likely be too large to annex...

Coyote wrote:

Louie wrote:It's too late to annex Gretna, right?

Gretna is under 6k, but by the time Papillion city limits would ever make it out that far they would most likely be too large to annex...

As Papillion annexes west, the Weiss land will be brought into Papillion city limits and will no longer qualify for the greenbelt tax break.

Without the greenbelt designation, property taxes on the 153 acres owned by Eleanor Picconi of Elkhorn and her siblings, Ann Wiechert and Dean Weiss, are set to increase sixfold — from $12,700 annually to an estimated $76,000 a year.

Picconi said that the taxes will be 2½ times what the family makes from renting the land to a farmer and that it’ll be pushed into selling.
“This has really been sprung on us,” said Picconi, 75. “Our taxes are going to be out of this world.”

HR Paperstacks wrote:It makes me wonder how much we in Omaha (and other urban areas) subsidize people throughout rural Nebraska. Don't get me wrong - we certainly need our friends out west - but why do they get such a substantial discount while everyone here has to pay high property taxes? Maybe if it weren't for these tax breaks we all could afford lower taxes.

HR Paperstacks wrote:It makes me wonder how much we in Omaha (and other urban areas) subsidize people throughout rural Nebraska. Don't get me wrong - we certainly need our friends out west - but why do they get such a substantial discount while everyone here has to pay high property taxes? Maybe if it weren't for these tax breaks we all could afford lower taxes.

Nebraskans in the state’s most rural areas pay more property and state income taxes per capita than their urban counterparts due to dramatic increases in valuations of farm and ranch land in recent years, according to a report released Monday.

The disparity, which amounts to more than $1,000 per person in the counties compared in the report, should be a factor in the debate over property tax relief, said the executive director of the group that produced the report.

“As we look at property tax relief, that probably does need to be a consideration,” said Renee Fry of the Lincoln-based OpenSky Policy Institute.

The report comes on the heels of another paper, commissioned by the Omaha-based Platte Institute, that concluded unfunded state mandates on counties are important contributors to high local property taxes.

Coyote wrote:They were paying $83 per acre in taxes? And it was being farmed? Sounds like they had a sweet deal...

Farmers and ranchers receive some tax breaks that urban residents don’t — their land is valued for tax purposes at 75 percent of market value compared to 100 percent for residential and commercial property, for instance, and they pay no sales taxes on purchases of farm equipment, seed and agriculture chemicals.

Overall, farmers and ranchers paid about 6 percent of the total state income taxes collected in 2012, according to the State Department of Revenue.

But the OpenSky report said that while urban residents still pay higher income taxes per capita, a dramatic increase in ag land valuations has shifted the tax burden to rural areas.

Ag land valuations have seen double-digit increases in the state in each of the past seven years, including increases of 23 percent in 2013 and 29 percent in 2014, which has translated into much higher property tax bills. The report said that agricultural land in Nebraska saw a 116 percent increase in value for tax purposes from 2003 to 2012, while commercial and residential property each increased 45 percent.

That has reversed who pays higher taxes, according to OpenSky. Prior to 2007, the report said that urban Nebraskans paid slightly higher property and income taxes than rural Nebraskans.