Thank you again to KSID and the Sun-Telegraph for sponsoring the candidate forum Monday evening.
It was great to have an opportunity to meet with the other candidates and talk about some of the issues facing our community.
One issue we didn’t really have a chance to discuss was property taxes, and I want to say a bit about it now.
If you own a home in Sidney with a tax valuation of $100,000, you pay about $2,300 in property taxes.
How much of that goes to the city? About $420.
That’s right, $420. A little more than half or about $1,200 goes to the school district and the rest goes to the county (about $500), WNCC, NRD, ESU, airport and the historical society.
Yes.
Your $420 is what pays for the police department, fire department equipment and training, the library, the swimming pool, the parks, the golf course, the streets, the snow removal and countless other city services.
I repeat, $420.
And yes, a few departments collect some sort of fees to help offset the expenses such as the golf course and swimming pool, but these services are available only because they are subsidized by your tax dollars.
Well, that’s not quite the whole story of course, because the city also collects sales tax to pay for these services.
There is a one-cent sales tax that was approved by the voters in 1980 that amounts to about $1.3 million. The voters also passed an additional half-cent tax in 1988 to fund community and economic development. (Details are in an earlier post regarding economic development money)
The city collects almost twice as much in sales tax per year as it does in property tax.
So, the city is much more dependent upon the sales tax than the property tax. But, the state created a program to attract businesses and create jobs, and when businesses prove they have qualified, they can ask for the sales taxes they’ve paid to be returned.
So, the city has been refunding lots of the sales tax.
That’s what all the uproar is about.
If you want your property taxes to remain at $420 (or less) and still have street repairs, a police department, fire department equipment and training, the library, the swimming pool, the parks, the golf course, the streets, the snow removal and countless other city services, then we need to be able to spend the sales tax dollars on these services.
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Tamara Nelsen
Welcome to Nelsen For Council. This site is intended to be where the voters of Sidney can learn more about me as a candidate and my views on the issues. As a former editor of The Sun-Telegraph, and most recently a reporter for sidneystagecoach.com, I am the ideal candidate for council because of my knowledge of the community. For the past several years, I have reported on school board and county commissioner meetings, attending meetings of several political subdivisions such as the Sidney Historic Preservation board, the Sidney Historical Association, the fair board and city council. If I wasn’t covering an event, I was likely editing someone else’s report on it. That goes for community events in general. People will most likely recognize me as the lady with the camera, as I have had the privilege of being inside the ropes, front and center, for just about every major news event in Sidney recently. I have interviewed everyone from senators to a local woman who grew a batch of strange looking carrots.
Please feel free to contact me with your questions or comments by e-mailing tamaranelsen@gmail.com.
