LB644- This was a law created to protect rural residents of Nebraska from taxes increases without notice. This was signed into law by our governor in May of 2021. The law states specifically what county officials have to do if they want to raise taxes on residents. At this time, we don’t see our officials doing that. We see them quietly moving to raise our property taxes 8%!!!! We will post a link to an easy-to-read version of the law below so we can all be aware. Let’s take a look at just part of the law.
LB644 says that the county officials must do the following;
1. Set a public meeting to hear complaints about the tax increase before Sept. 20th of each year. This meeting should be after 6pm so larger amounts of the public can attend.
Our commissioners, as you can see in this photo set a meeting for Sept. 19th at 8am, which is a time that most of us work. This is a direct violation of the law. It may be an error, we don’t know, but there needs to be a meeting scheduled that follows LB644 rules.
2. LB644 says all residents that will be affected by this tax increase need to be notified by postcard about the time and place of the tax meeting. At this time, this has not been done.
3. LB644 says that a clear notice of the meeting date, and time should be posted on the front page of the county website so it is easy to find. This is not done at this time. The notice of this special tax meeting is buried on a back page mixed in with other meeting notices and agendas. Difficult to find.
It is clear when we read LB644 that Nebraska state lawmakers want the counties and taxing authorities to make every effort to seek community input about tax increases. It is all about transparency. We are not seeing that at all in the small notice our county officials place under several lines of the budget. This is not adhering to the scope of public notice set forth in LB644.
This is only an example. We have other examples we will be posting later here between now and the election. There are also SEVERAL line items in the budget that we will be contesting. Huge unnecessary expenses. . It is obvious to us, that our state officials are trying to force county officials to notify residents of tax increases and give them the opportunity to voice their opinions and vote. The American way. It seems at this time our county officials are not complying or ignoring these laws. We hope to see them correct this and schedule a meeting at a date in time, according to the law so the residents of Cheyenne County can attend and make our voices heard.
More coming!!!! Watch, follow this page, and get involved!!!!
LINK TO LB644