What is this, you may ask? It’s nothing I haven’t talked about before. I often refer to it as the tokenism or blame game that elected officials play over rising spending and property taxes in Nebraska. To illustrate this situation, I’ll pick my city, Omaha.

And to preface my argument, the City of Omaha is not the only offender. It happens across the state and throughout the property tax bill at countless political entities. Regardless, it is the biggest catalyst for why we are in this property tax predicament and why we are all paying more, often annually.

Assessments are rising and so are spending. Governor Jim Pillen has rightly said, “The cause of the state’s property tax problem is excessive spending by local governments, not property assessments.” When I heard Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert blame the problem on rising assessments, not spending decisions, I became frustrated. “I disagree with the governor,” Stothert said. “The assessment system is the problem.”

State law requires assessors to value your property as close to market value as possible. What causes taxes to go down, stay the same, or go up then depends on what spending decisions elected officials make with the unexpected revenue from the increases in value. Granted, we’ve seen double-digit growth rates across the state recently, and that’s tough on family budgets. I have two kids starting college in the fall – I get it!

A property tax increase is defined by whether a city, county, or school district, for example, receives more property tax revenue than the previous year. It’s that simple. In the case of the city of Omaha, here are the property tax revenues for the last six fiscal years:

2025 (proposed): $232.7 million.

That’s six years in a row of property tax increases, despite all the claims that rates have stayed the same or gone down slightly. That’s what you need to pay attention to as a taxpayer and tune out the noise about rates unless they go down enough that you pay less or at least the same amount as the previous year. Now imagine if all 10+ property tax authorities did this every year – and that happens often.

Now let’s stay with me and stay in Omaha. A few weeks ago, members of the Omaha Public Schools Board of Education voted against Pillen’s plan because they were concerned about controlling their funding for the largest district in the state. Just like the city of Omaha, their property tax revenues have been steadily increasing and their budget has been nearly $60 million in four years!

Why does all this matter? I’ve heard from so many Nebraskans that they can no longer afford their homes because of rising property taxes, or that they can no longer afford a home. That many Nebraskans are considering moving because of the property tax landscape here in the state.

I understand the frustration, but unless we adopt policy proposals like caps that limit the spending problems that are really driving property tax increases, it will only continue like this. There are solutions on the table, like strict caps with required voter approval, strengthening tax truth, and requiring tax rates to be reduced to fully offset value increases. Let’s adopt these measures as part of the solution, along with levers (thoughtful policy) that actually reduce the amount you pay each year.

Why? Because it’s really just about spending money.