OMAHA, Nebraska (WOWT) – Another Omaha metropolitan mayor is raising serious concerns about the recently passed property tax cut plan.
Bellevue plans to build a 100,000-square-foot water park that will attract hundreds of thousands of people. The city also wants to build a horse racing track and a casino. Bellevue Mayor Rusty Hike says these projects will create jobs, grow the population and expand the tax base.
“We have 1.9 million people in this state,” Hike said. “No matter how you divide that up, there are still going to be 1.9 million people who have to pay those taxes.”
Hike says the money raised by these projects will benefit Bellevue, Sarpy County and the state of Nebraska. He doesn’t believe the governor’s property tax cut plan, which includes a zero percent cap for cities and counties, will help the state grow.
“We’re not going to get that control back as a city,” Hike said. “It would be like the federal government coming to Nebraska and saying, ‘Hey, you’re wasting money, we’re going to limit your spending and if you need money, come get help from us.'”
According to Hike, infrastructure in many parts of the city needs to be repaired and replaced. He believes that a zero-percent uniform system does not work.
Bellevue in particular faces some unique problems.
“We have a 4,000-acre military base in the middle of our city,” Hike said. “That’s another one-size-fits-all approach. Not everyone has that. We have to keep these streets clean. We can’t stop clearing snow until it’s two inches deep. Our military has to get to the base.”
Hike claims the state’s unfunded mandates have burdened cities for years. He points to State Highway 370, which runs between Papillion and Bellevue, and says the city has closed crosswalks on the four-lane highway.
“The state said it was unsafe. We talked to them and asked how they were going to fix it, and they said that’s our problem,” Hike said. “That’s a million-dollar repair for three or four crosswalks. That’s just another thing where the state says, ‘We don’t care about it.’ And then they saddled us with that million dollars.”
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert also has concerns about the zero percent cap for cities and is worried about future debates on lowering property taxes in the state legislature.
“This special session is over, but they’ll be back together in January,” Stothert said. “There will be some new senators there then, but some of the things they talked about really scare us. One of them was eliminating our local Omaha option sales tax.”
According to Hike, Bellevue already has a tight budget and is one of the most efficiently run cities in the Omaha metropolitan area, with per capita spending of around $2,395.
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