Good Morning Cheyenne County Nebraska,
What is due diligence? This is what we have to do in the corporate world with our company’s monies, especially if we have stockholders. We must spend money wisely or face harsh penalties.
Our elected officials have that same obligation. Are they doing due diligence? Let’s take a look at some numbers. This past month we argued about our HVAC system that was just purchased by our county. We showed where we could have saved in excess of $200K in cost if we just slowed down the process and took a look at some other options. There was a disagreement which is good. Talk it out. Do due diligence. If we slowed down however we could have saved more money in our opinion. Due diligence. The savings could have been as much as $350K. Now, look at it this way. If we did due diligence and saved just $200K we could have issued bonuses to our overworked county employees and still spent the same amount of money. Cheyenne County has about 120 employees according to the website linked below. That would mean if we slowed down the process and saved that money we could have given $1,600 bonuses to every employee in the county. We can’t do that now. We didn’t save the money. The average pay of our county employees is $34,481, so $1,600 would have been an amazing thing to do for the people that serve us.
Saving that money and then giving bonuses would have meant that 200K would have flowed from those employees through our local businesses and they would have benefited from the American Rescue Plan money as well. We don’t have that now.
Due diligence.
I live by it. We built both our companies following its principles. During the last HVAC negotiations, we were told costs are higher because of our rural location. This is true. But, how do we compare to other rural counties around us? Well, we are terrible. I will put links to all this information below. We do not mean to impune anyone. What we are trying to show is our county needs to do a better job at due diligence if we want to have a better style of living for everyone. We need better due diligence if we want to lower our taxes and be more competitive in bringing in new businesses.
Tax Rate-
Cheyenne County has terrible tax rates. Highest of any county for hundreds of miles around us. Why? Maybe due diligence in spending needs to be addressed. Take a look at Alliance, Box Butte County, population 10,701. About 1,000 more people than our Cheyenne County. The average county tax rate there is 1.580 which means typical property taxes there on a $250 home is $3,950.
Cheyenne County, population 9,309 has an average tax rate of 1,94 which means typical property taxes on a $250k home are $4,850. Almost $1,000 more per year for Cheyenne County than Box Butte County. Why are they better at managing money? How is it that this rural county is cheaper to live in than Sidney? Use the link below and compare ANY county around us and you will see that Cheyenne County is just expensive. Really expensive. It is not county employees’ salaries or the cost of many things because we live in a rural area. It is because we don’t find the most cost-effective way to get the job done. We in some cases may be taking the easy way and just getting it done which in turn costs us more money, making it more expensive to live here. Due diligence. I will put links to county populations and then you can compare all these numbers for yourself. Compare the populations and then the tax rates. You will be shocked.
We compare horribly to other counties in Nebraska let alone to Wyoming and Colorado. We can do better. We must as a community come together and insist that our money be spent more effectively so that we can lower our overall cost of living and increase the benefits of living here. Use the links below and compare our county to others in Nebraska and then ask yourself why? ALL counties around us, even Duell County just to our east do it better. Just 26 miles away, it is $1,200 a year cheaper to live with property taxes. Duell County tax rate is 1.46 and that 250K home pays $3,650, $1,200 less than Sidney. We can and we need to do better. Slow down, and find better less expensive methods. Counties around us are doing that. We can certainly use a little more due diligence with our taxpayer money and increase everyone’s quality of life, heck even give out a few more raises and fix some county equipment.
Links
County Tax Rate- Just enter zip code
https://smartasset.com/…/nebraska-property-tax-calculator
About Cheyenne County
https://govsalaries.com/salaries/NE/cheyenne-county
Populations of other Nebraska Counties, just mouse over the map.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/states/nebraska/counties
Counties in Nebraska by Population
https://www.nebraska-demographics.com/counties_by_population