Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Property Taxes in NeTAXa

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Property Taxes in NeTAXa · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

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  Speaker 1: I am your host, Jeene Stott, Peyton Hilock, my producer,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Chris Baker's producer, everybody's producer, Peyton.
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  Speaker 2: Elock is here. It feels like it. How are you today?
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  Speaker 2: I'm doing good this morning, Jean.
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  Speaker 1: And we are guaranteed human. I always have to put
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  Speaker 1: that in just in case people doubt us. But we
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  Speaker 1: really want to hear from you. We want to get
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  Speaker 1: hear a lot of opinions from me, but it is
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  Speaker 1: emails to comment at Cafe b dot com or you
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  Speaker 1: can call us at four O two five to five,
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  Speaker 1: eight eleven ten. Lots to talk about today, and again
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  Speaker 1: I want to hear your your feedback. I wanted to
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  Speaker 1: start out with something though, and there was one question,
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  Speaker 1: one email that we received before. Before I start out
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  Speaker 1: with I want to talk about property taxes. How interesting
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  Speaker 1: is that, folks. But we had an email yesterday somebody
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  Speaker 1: asked me a question that we didn't get to, so
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  Speaker 1: it reminded.
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  Speaker 2: Me what that was. Yes and I can't remember her name.
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  Speaker 3: She's called in a few times asking about this, Okay, Jean,
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  Speaker 3: I get asked this to you, and you went and
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  Speaker 3: asked the people you know to find an answer. And
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  Speaker 3: the question is about war Horse Casino, okay. And the
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  Speaker 3: general question was, you know, some of the winnings or
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  Speaker 3: the revenue that is drawn in from Warhorse gets split
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  Speaker 3: up across the state, whether that goes to the Nebraska.
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  Speaker 2: Lottery and all those sort of things.
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  Speaker 3: So can you explain to us the percentage of the
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  Speaker 3: split from the Warhorse casino?
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  Speaker 1: I can, and you know it, so it but it's
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  Speaker 1: this is my understanding, okay, of what I have remember
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  Speaker 1: in what I've read too, that there is a twenty
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  Speaker 1: percent tax collected on casinos, okay, and that twenty percent
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  Speaker 1: then is divided up up is allocated as follows. Seventy
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  Speaker 1: percent of that twenty percent tax goes for property tax
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  Speaker 1: relief in the state of Nebraska. So the majority seventy
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  Speaker 1: percent goes to property tax relief. With that tax they
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  Speaker 1: put on it. Two and a half percent goes to
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  Speaker 1: the state general fund, two and a half percent goes
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  Speaker 1: to Compulsive Gambler Fund, twelve point five percent goes to
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  Speaker 1: the city where the casino operates, and twelve point five
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  Speaker 1: percent goes to the county where the casino operates. So
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  Speaker 1: twelve and a half goes to the City of Omaha
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  Speaker 1: for Warhorse, twelve and a half goes to Douglas County.
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  Speaker 1: So in twenty twenty six, I did look this up,
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  Speaker 1: but the City of Omaha budgeted what does that come
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  Speaker 1: to and dollars? We budgeted about two point four million
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  Speaker 1: to the general fund. So out of that tax that
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  Speaker 1: is collected and the Warhorse casino city, it's twelve and
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  Speaker 1: a half percent, and that equals about two point four million,
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  Speaker 1: And they went again, they went ahead and budgeted that
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  Speaker 1: in the twenty twenty six budget. So basically said another way,
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  Speaker 1: the city of Omaha gets two and a half percent
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  Speaker 1: of the casino's gross gaming revenue.
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  Speaker 3: Very interesting, Gene, and I'm going to ask this question,
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  Speaker 3: and I know you have this question too, because it's
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  Speaker 3: the first thing that came to my mind. So a
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  Speaker 3: twenty percent tax on the Warhorse casino revenue.
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  Speaker 2: That's what it is. The revenue.
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  Speaker 1: It's the Yeah, it's the gross gaming revenue that comes
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  Speaker 1: from the casino. And I said, this may sound confusing
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  Speaker 1: because I said twelve and a half goes to the
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  Speaker 1: City of Omaha. But I said, in another way, the
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  Speaker 1: city of Omaha gets two point five percent in the
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  Speaker 1: gross gaming revenue. Just figure that out with twelve and
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  Speaker 1: a twelve point five percent times the twenty percent tax.
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  Speaker 1: That gets a little confusing, but it comes out to
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  Speaker 1: just said, in another way, a simpler way, the City
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  Speaker 1: of Omaha gets about two point five percent of the
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  Speaker 1: gross gaming revenue, and that comes to about two and
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  Speaker 1: a half million dollars.
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  Speaker 3: Of that twenty percent tax, seventy percent of that goes
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  Speaker 3: to property tax relief from the state of Nebraska, which
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  Speaker 3: in my mind, that sounds like a really good thing.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: It doesn't come to the city, it goes to the state.
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  Speaker 3: So my question is is there any way that that
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  Speaker 3: can be changed, maneuvered, manipulated to get a higher percentage
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  Speaker 3: or is that outside is that a bigger thing?
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  Speaker 1: Who gets twenty more a bigger percentage the city or
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  Speaker 1: the state for property taxes?
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  Speaker 3: Well, if everyone wants more property tax, more property tax relief,
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  Speaker 3: and we're going to talk about that in.
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  Speaker 2: A bit, but that is a state law. This is
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  Speaker 2: determined by the state.
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  Speaker 1: This this revenue, this allowance for cities to have casinos,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, they have to be within so many
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  Speaker 1: feet of a racetrack, and so that tax that goes
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  Speaker 1: that's collected on the casinos and then how it's allocated
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  Speaker 1: is a decision made by the state legislature in the
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  Speaker 1: state of Nebraska. So yes, it could be changed, absolutely,
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  Speaker 1: it could be changed, but it would have to be
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  Speaker 1: changed at a state level, not the city level.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, Gene, last summer, I was playing golf
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  Speaker 3: at Milts across the street, a nice little par three
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  Speaker 3: golf course. My dad used to take me there a
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  Speaker 3: lot as a kid, and it's been around for a
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  Speaker 3: very very long time.
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  Speaker 2: And when I was in there, the owner was.
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  Speaker 3: Handing out special golf balls that had a milt slowgo
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  Speaker 3: on it. It was a fluorescent yellow golf ball, and
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  Speaker 3: he goes, here, you go take one of these, and
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  Speaker 3: you take one. He gave one to my fiance and
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  Speaker 3: I said, what are these for? And he goes, well,
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  Speaker 3: with that casino across the street. I don't know how
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  Speaker 3: much longer I'm going to be here, and it kind
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  Speaker 3: of made me sad. I don't want Milts to go
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  Speaker 3: away because the casino was expanding.
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  Speaker 1: Well, you know, I because of them taking over property.
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  Speaker 1: Is that what you're talking about, Because the people that
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  Speaker 1: go to casinos are not the people that go and play.
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  Speaker 2: On a golf course, Nolt.
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  Speaker 1: So he's just talking about as a casino grows and
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  Speaker 1: they are that it might take away. Yeah, and you
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  Speaker 1: know that I'm not privy to if there is Milt
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  Speaker 1: still there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I haven't seen anything different.
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  Speaker 3: I haven't driven by in a while, but this was
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  Speaker 3: last summer, so I don't know what it would have changed.
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  Speaker 3: But I was just thinking that was interesting, not surprising
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  Speaker 3: yet at the same time. And also the owners are
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  Speaker 3: getting to the age where they're also looking to find
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  Speaker 3: the right price, if you know what I'm true.
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  Speaker 1: And I like the idea of fluorescent golf balls because
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  Speaker 1: my golf balls always land in the weeds somewhere and I.
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  Speaker 2: Can't find them. Easier to find it there you go.
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  Speaker 1: But you know that leads me when we talk about
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  Speaker 1: that seventy percent goes for property texts relief at the
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  Speaker 1: state level. Scott earlier this morning and Rosie had on
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  Speaker 1: Governor Pillin, and I'm a big fan of Governor Pellin's
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  Speaker 1: I'll tell you all that right off the bat. There
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  Speaker 1: there is an area that Governor Pillon and I don't
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  Speaker 1: one hundred percent agree because Governor Pillon always talks about
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  Speaker 1: property tax relief. That is the number one issue in
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  Speaker 1: the state of Nebraska. It is the number one issue
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  Speaker 1: in the City of Omaha, to across the state, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: And I agree with that one hundred percent. People are
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  Speaker 1: looking for property tax relief, and we are a high
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  Speaker 1: taxing state. However, you know, the levee is set locally.
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  Speaker 1: Property tax are under local control. The City of Omaha
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  Speaker 1: sets their own levee. And I've said this a million times,
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  Speaker 1: but just to remind people, the levee for the City
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  Speaker 1: of Omaha, it's forty three point nine to nine cents
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  Speaker 1: per one hundred dollars valuation on your property.
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  Speaker 2: That's what it is.
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  Speaker 1: But any time that you lower that and I did
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  Speaker 1: that five times when I was mayor, anytime you lower
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  Speaker 1: that levee by one penny, just by one penny, it
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  Speaker 1: takes about five and a half million out of the budge.
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  Speaker 1: One penny is worth five and a half million in
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  Speaker 1: the budget, and so it's a real balancing act for
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  Speaker 1: the mayor who is in charge of doing that budget.
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  Speaker 1: And the other thing is is when we lowered that
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  Speaker 1: levee five different times in the last twelve years, people
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  Speaker 1: would say, well, I didn't see much change in my
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  Speaker 1: property tax bill. That is because the City of Omaha's
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  Speaker 1: portion is only about twenty two percent. So if I
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  Speaker 1: lower it, say by one penny per one hundred dollars valuation,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's one penny of that twenty two percent that
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  Speaker 1: the City of Omaha gets. Where the big portion of
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  Speaker 1: your property taxes are coming from is the schools. That's
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  Speaker 1: about sixty two percent of your total bill. And I've
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  Speaker 1: brought this up before. City of Oma is about twenty
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  Speaker 1: two percent, Douglas County twelve and a half percent, and
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  Speaker 1: then the other taxing entities make up the rest metro
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  Speaker 1: community college, Metro transit, the NRDS, et cetera. So they
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  Speaker 1: all are portion of your property tax bill. What the
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  Speaker 1: governor says, and he feels very very strongly about this,
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  Speaker 1: He said, we have a spending problem. We don't have
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  Speaker 1: a revenue problem. So what the state is looking at
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  Speaker 1: is trying to restrict the amount of revenue that can
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  Speaker 1: come in a city or a county, et cetera. And
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  Speaker 1: he's trying to say, put a revenue cap on it,
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  Speaker 1: saying you can't spend more than three percent more than
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  Speaker 1: year before, two percent or one percent, or it has
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  Speaker 1: to be a zero than the year before. The issue
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  Speaker 1: that the city or the mayor will struggle with every
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  Speaker 1: single year is like what you are all saying at home.
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  Speaker 1: Things cost more every year. People say, you know, the
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  Speaker 1: groceries cost more, my gasoline costs more, my valuation of
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  Speaker 1: my house is going everything is going up, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: struggling now. But when you're running a city, the costs
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  Speaker 1: go up to you know, the cost for concrete, the
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  Speaker 1: cost for steel, for fixing roads, you know, the cost
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  Speaker 1: for chemicals in the park, the cost for equipment, the
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  Speaker 1: costs for moors, the costs for all of these things
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  Speaker 1: that you need to run a city.
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  Speaker 2: Those costs go up too.
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  Speaker 1: So if you're talking about a revenue cap that you
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  Speaker 1: can't get in any more money than the year before,
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  Speaker 1: and you have to manage a city budget that still
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  Speaker 1: all your costs are going up. It is a real challenge.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: The other thing with the City of Omaha is seventy
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  Speaker 1: four percent of our general fund and our general fund
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  Speaker 1: this year in twenty twenty six is about five hundred
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  Speaker 1: and sixty two million.
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  Speaker 2: I did remember that.
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  Speaker 1: But seventy four percent of the general fund is personnel,
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  Speaker 1: and so it's all it's our employees. And you know
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  Speaker 1: with that, you know when you look at the total
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  Speaker 1: budget what I just said, it's five hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: two million. One hundred and forty five million is non personnel,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifteen million is personnel. So when you
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  Speaker 1: stop to think, okay, we're going to get a revenue
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  Speaker 1: a spending cap put on the City of Omaha, a
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  Speaker 1: spending cap we can't spend any more than the year before,
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  Speaker 1: then what is the challenge? You get rid of people,
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  Speaker 1: I mean that's where you're left. You either cut services
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  Speaker 1: or are you cut mowing the parks, you cut chemicals
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  Speaker 1: that you're using for weed control, you cut fixing the roads,
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  Speaker 1: you cut fixing potholes, or you get rid of people,
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  Speaker 1: and then the challenge is, well, who are we going.
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  Speaker 2: To get rid of.
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  Speaker 1: Are we going to get rid of firemen or policemen
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  Speaker 1: or the librarians or the planning department or you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's who are we going to get rid of?
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  Speaker 4: Then?
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  Speaker 1: And you've got to keep in mind too, that the
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  Speaker 1: majority of city employees are under our contract.
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  Speaker 2: They're under a labor agreement.
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  Speaker 1: So you think the civilians, Omai police, Omaha fire police management,
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  Speaker 1: even like the secretaries with the City of Omaha, are
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  Speaker 1: in a bargaining unit and they have contracts that you
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  Speaker 1: legally have to abide by, and they have their salary
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  Speaker 1: increases with these contracts. So I just want to paint
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  Speaker 1: this picture to say that you can put a spending
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  Speaker 1: cap or a revenue cap on the City of Omaha
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  Speaker 1: to be able to decrease property taxes. And you go
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  Speaker 1: back to where do most of your taxes go to schools? Okay,
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  Speaker 1: what are the schools going to do? Are they going
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  Speaker 1: to cut teachers, are they going to cut programs? You know,
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  Speaker 1: it becomes a huge challenge because with the school districts too,
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  Speaker 1: every year things cost more. It costs more to keep
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  Speaker 1: all those school buildings open, It costs more for them
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  Speaker 1: to heat and cool them. It costs more for them
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  Speaker 1: to mow the grass, it costs more for them to
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  Speaker 1: pay the teachers, and so it becomes a real, real
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  Speaker 1: challenge when everything costs more every year, and to say
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  Speaker 1: you're spending too much, so we're going to cap by
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  Speaker 1: state law what you spend, or we're going to cap
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  Speaker 1: the revenue that you bring in. There's the real, real challenge,
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  Speaker 1: and I really want to hear what people have to
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  Speaker 1: say about this. People will say all the time, you know,
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  Speaker 1: I can't afford to live here because the value of
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  Speaker 1: my No, they'll say, my property taxes keep on going up.
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  Speaker 1: They're going up because the value of your house has
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  Speaker 1: gone up, and that's determined by the Douglas County Assessor,
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  Speaker 1: not the city of Omaha. But at the same time,
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  Speaker 1: you don't want the value of your house to go down.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, people will say when we talk about TIFF,
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  Speaker 1: and they'll talk about to be eligible for TIFF, the
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  Speaker 1: area has to be blighted and substandard by state law,
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  Speaker 1: means nothing really for the value of your house at all.
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  Speaker 2: But that's a terminology that I would like to get changed.
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  Speaker 1: And they will say, well, I don't want to be
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  Speaker 1: in a blighted area because my value will go down. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you don't want your value to go down. You want
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  Speaker 1: your value of your property that you own to go up.
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  Speaker 2: But when it.
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  Speaker 1: Goes up, you have to pay more because your property
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  Speaker 1: taxes go up. I mean, it's like a vicious cycle.
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  Speaker 1: But when you try to balance out and to say
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  Speaker 1: the revenue that is coming in, we're going to put
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  Speaker 1: a cap on it, it becomes a real challenge. Now
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  Speaker 1: I keep this in mind too with the City of Omaha,
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  Speaker 1: the property tax revenue that we get in every year
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  Speaker 1: is the second highest source of revenue that we fund
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  Speaker 1: the budget with. The first source of revenue is sales tax.
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  Speaker 1: So we get about two hundred and sixty five million
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  Speaker 1: in sales tax, we get about two hundred and forty
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  Speaker 1: five million in property tax, we get about forty seven
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  Speaker 1: million in restaurant tax, and then we get from all
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  Speaker 1: the other taxes that we get, which would be things
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  Speaker 1: like licenses and permits and sewer use fee and motor
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  Speaker 1: vehicle fees and bond sales and all those things, they
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: go into the budget too. But the main sources of
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  Speaker 1: revenue are sales tax, property tax, restaurant tax. And so
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  Speaker 1: if they put a cap on that saying you can't
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  Speaker 1: get any more than you did the year before, then
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  Speaker 1: how are you going to pay for increased costs to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: run a city. So that's the big, big challenge that
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: we have, and you know, I really want to see
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  Speaker 1: the governor is very very focused on that. He is
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: very focused on what people are telling him. They're saying,
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  Speaker 1: my property taxes are too high, But what is the
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: best way to do that. We got to remember, in
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: the state of Nebraska, we have state income tax two,
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: you know, we we have a lot of things that
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: go into what your cost of living is in the
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: state of Nebraska. But I still have to say, and
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: I say this all the time when we get on
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  Speaker 1: these top ten lists all the time, and Forbes in
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four ranked Omaha is the number one city
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  Speaker 1: in the country to move to. And people will say, well,
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: why is that our taxes are so high? But you've
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: got to count in the average cost of living for
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: living in the Heartland and living in Omaha, look at
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  Speaker 1: the cost of real estate, you know, And basically our taxes,
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  Speaker 1: our sales tax are quite low compared to a lot
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  Speaker 1: of other states. And so that also plays into businesses
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  Speaker 1: wanting to locate here. You can buy a house here
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  Speaker 1: in Omaha for half the price you can buy on
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  Speaker 1: the East and West coast, and that makes a difference too.
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  Speaker 1: So I want to hear your comments about property taxes,
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  Speaker 1: what you think about the state, about the city of Omaha,
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  Speaker 1: about you know, putting a spending cap, a revenue cap
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  Speaker 1: or or a revenue cap on taxes here, and let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about what your suggestions are.
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  Speaker 3: That's a lot of really good information and really good numbers.
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  Speaker 3: Have you thought about running for mayor?
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  Speaker 1: No, you know, I thought about it about thirteen years ago.
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  Speaker 1: But I don't think that's in the cards for me anymore,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: not in the cards for anybody, you know. I just
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: got to say a lot of these numbers are in
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: my brain.
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  Speaker 2: But I was.
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  Speaker 1: I was mayor for twelve years. I should know this stuff,
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  Speaker 1: for crying out loud. If I didn't, I shouldn't. I
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: shouldn't have been the mayor. But I mean these things
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  Speaker 1: because the mayor is responsible for the budget. These things
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  Speaker 1: are just kind of welded in your brain and you
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  Speaker 1: remember these things. But I will tell you I struggled
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  Speaker 1: with the budget every single year, and I should because
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: I would always remind the team that I had and
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't just me that did the budget, but a
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: big team from the finance department. But I said, this
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: is not our money we're spending. We've got to always
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: keep that in mind. This is the taxpayers dollars, and
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: we have got to do this budget is carefully as
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: we possibly can.
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: Well, you've asked for some feedback and Mark is on
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: the line. Mark, thanks for calling in to the to
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: the KFABE comment line. You are live here with Jeans
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: Do author.
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: Good morning, Thank you. I voted for Pilling for tax
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: relief on property tax. I want to retire in the
• 17:40
  Speaker 4: next year. My tax is here in Washington County on
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: my house is seventy two hundred dollars a year. Why
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: can't they Jim Pillon tax the gasoline all we got
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Interstate eighty running through Nebraska, put ten fifteen cents on there,
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: put the sin tax on the cigarettes and liquor, a
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: knickel or whatever more that paid for the schools. To
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: lower our taxes for the homeowners so we can retire.
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: I'm seriously looking in other states to retire or not. Yeah,
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: because the property taxes are just unreal. Here and all
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: I've done all my life is gown up and up
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: and up, and I could have bought another house for
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: all the property tax I've paid in the last fifty
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: five years.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I understand. I understand that that your if your tat
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: your property taxes are going up, it's because they have
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: assessed your house at a higher and higher value. And
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: so you know, what the governor is looking at is
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: basically is what we can do as far as the
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: state level. Now, you brought up the gas tax, because
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: you know the state of Nebraska, the majority of the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: gas tax comes out of Omaha, and we only get
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: a portion of that, but we still get quite a
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: bit out of that gas tax. We get about sixty
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: one million into the city of Omaha a year. But
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: here's the problem whenever, you know, the legislature are Republicans
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: and Democrats and some independents, and the issue is if
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: you ever talk about a tax shift to say we're
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: going to have more gas tax, put a little more
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: on the gas tax, they you know, they cringe because
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: then they will be labeled as the state legislature as
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: wanting to raise your taxes, and they will fight it
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: tooth and nail. Especially those that are running for reelection.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: They don't want to be labeled raising taxes. They want
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: to be labeled those that want to lower taxes. You know,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: when Governor Heinemann was still governor, he talked a lot
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: about a lot of these tax sales tax exemptions we
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: had in the state of Nebraska, and if we either
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: lowered them or eliminated some of the exemptions, we could
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: have billions more into the budget.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: But it's who's you know, whose ox do you want.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: To go or is the basic question that the legislative
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: tours will be asking, you know, do you want to
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: do you want to reduce those sales tax exemption on
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: the farmers? Well they would go crazy, No, do you
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: want to lift a sales tax exemption on whatever? Or
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: do you want to start adding more sales tax on items?
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: Well I would be totally against adding more, say on food,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: but maybe should we add more on cigarettes? Or like
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: you said, the syntax so the use just had to
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: use my cough button for a second. So the question
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: is who is willing to go forward in the state
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: legislature and say, yes, here's what we got to look at.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: We got to look at sales tax exemptions that would
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: bring more money in. We got to look at is
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: there should we have more in the gas tax? Would
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: that be how would that be distributed state wide to
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the different tech you know, to the different municipalities. So
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: all of those things have to be discussed. The governor
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: talked about so many different departments that he wanted to
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: basically do audits on to see how their spending is
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: and how their revenue is and are they do they
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: you know, are they running as lean as they possibly can.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot that they can look at. But
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I think the bottom line to answer your question is
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: they they are on a statewide level, nobody wants to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: be labeled as that one that would raise taxes, no
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: matter if in turn it would lower your property taxes.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: Gene, I am getting a lot of comments and feedback
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: over here, and I can't wait to dive into it.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: We're getting after it today and I've had a few
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: people call in during the break and I've gotten a
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: few emails. So I'm going to condense this into one question.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: Here, Gene. Oh boy, it's a big one.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: And this one comes in the email inbox and it says,
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: why doesn't why doesn't the state of taxa, no taxa.
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: It's a joke saying the taxes in Nebraska. Why is
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: it the state of no taxa. Simply eliminate property and
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: state income taxes and shift the whole burden on sales tax.
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: That way, folks visiting during the College World Series the
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: best do in America, drive through on I eighty, etc.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: Will all have skin in the game. Another caller, Bob said,
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: look at Florida as an example. The way they don't
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: have any sales tax, they're property taxes. So I'll leave
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: you with that. What is your perception on those comments?
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, he's absolutely right that if if we
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: raised the sales tax, because a lot of sales taxes
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: being paid for by out of town people, not people
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: that live in Omaha or live in Douglas County. But
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: if we could, if we eliminated all of those sales
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: tax exemptions that we have in the state of Nebraska,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: we could eliminate property taxes completely. And that that is
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: a fact, and it could be based on sales tax. However,
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: just like I said before, those that are in the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: legislature would have to vote to make that happen. And
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: then if you take away those sales tax exemptions. A
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: whole lot of people, including the farmers, are going to
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: be paid or paying a lot more for their business
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: or for whatever they do. And they are going to
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: come in hoards to those legislators and say, don't gore.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: My ox here.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm a farmer, i'm a whatever, I'm a
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: business person, i'm whatever.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Whoever gets all.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Those sales tax exemptions, they're going to come in force
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: saying you're raising my taxes. And so it goes back
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: to does the And I'll say I agree with Jim
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Pillen on this. The legislature has got to agree what
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: they are going to do and vote for it and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: approve it in the state. And to make it more affordable,
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of these sales tax exemptions, they
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: could look at lowering the exemptions. They don't have to
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: look at eliminating them. But everybody's got to pay their
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: fair share. Keep in mind this too, the sales tax
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: and the state in Nebraska is five and a half percent.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Every city has a local option that they could raise
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: that and that area that they raise the max is
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: two percent except for Omaha. Omaha is the only city
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of metropolitan Class in the whole state. It's by the population,
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and the state law says a city of metropolitan class
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: can only go up one and a half percent. So
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: our local option in Omaha is one and a half percent.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: You add that to the five and a half percent
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: with the state. We in Omaha pay seven percent. Some
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: cities actually have a higher sales tax it's seven and
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: a half percent. But it goes back to what are
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: you going to start taxing to make it all on
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: sales tax? And then you know, it was brought up
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: food and then they I said, no, we can't do
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: food because that's very aggressive. I would not support that either.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: But then they came up with, well, it could be
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: a syntax, and then well, what's the syntax. Well, we'll
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: say it's on cigarettes, We'll say it's on candy and pop.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: You don't need those things. Who says you don't need
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: those things? You know, It's like, then is government going
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: to tell me what I need to eat and what
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: I need to pay to So it's very complicated about
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: what is the answer.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: But I will say I will tell you this.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: Governor Heineman really looked at those sales tax exemptions. The
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: discussion in the legislature this past year about sales tax relief.
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: They didn't even mention the sales tax exemptions. Not mentioned
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: at all. Hmmm, that's something very interesting, Gene. When I
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: was in Kansas City for four years for college, more
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: specifically Overland Park, it's just a little a little south
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: of the Casey metro area, sales tax there was ten percent.
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so what do you think?
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: And I don't expect you to have these numbers perfectly calculated,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: but what do you think would happen if sales tax
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: here went from seven percent to say eight percent, nine percent,
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: ten percent?
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: And I mean, I will I want to hear from
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: all of you.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I'm stuttering around a little bit here, because here's a
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: good example. They I mean, they would hate it because
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: here's a good example.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: There are restaurant tax.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You know, that is something I actually voted against at
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the time I was on the city council. That was
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: something that was that was adopted by the city council
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: when Mayri Suttle was in place.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: It was a mayor.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: But that's two and a half percent on prepared food
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: and beverages. People still hate the restaurant tax and they
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: will bring it up every time. And you know I
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: was against it because I thought it would hurt the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: restaurant business.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: It has not.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: And you know, the very first year the sales tax
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: brought in over ten million dollars, I mean the restaurant tax.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Right now, it is bringing in forty seven million dollars
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: a year, the restaurant tax, and people don't notice it.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: It goes up every year and they still go to
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: restaurants and they're still willing to pay that two and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: a half percent. But they they still complain about it
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: because and they've come to me and said, well, what
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: about that restaurant tax. You said you get rid of it.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: I never said I would get rid of it. I
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: said I wanted to bring down the subtle tax increases,
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: and he increased property taxes too. So people still hate
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the restaurant tax. It's been in place since twenty ten.
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: So how would you think people would gener I want
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to hear from you. How would you generally feel if
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: your sales tax goes up even a half percent or
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: two percent or whatever, you could eliminate your property taxes
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: with that. The only thing that I will say with
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: property taxes is it's steady and you have a good
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: strong estimate when you're doing the city budget, what your
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: sales tax will be, what your property taxes will be.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Sales tax can be variable, and a great example is
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty when COVID hit, we had already done
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: the budget. We had already estimated what our sales tax
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: would be for that year based on the year before,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: in previous years, and then COVID hit and the restaurants
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: shut down and the bar shut down, and we were
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: thinking we were going to have about a seventy five
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: million dollar hit in revenue the first year. Because of COVID, well,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: the sales tax revenue dropped, So it can be very variable.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Douglas County's revenue, for example, their budget is based almost
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: entirely on property tax. They don't have a lot of
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: sales tax, if any, going into their budget. So Douglas
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: County didn't suffer as much during COVID as the City
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: of Omaha did because we are so dependent on sales tax.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: So that just gives you an example.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: Adam, thank you for holding as long as you did.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Four zero, two, five, five, eight eleven ten. Adam is
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: Live with Jeans author.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: Morning mayor earlier. You guys were talking about the vicious cycle.
• 29:09
  Speaker 5: And one of the things I've always you know, I've
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: said this earlier, what I've called before is I'm a conservative.
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: I based things off the Constitution, and one thing I
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: think that is unconstitutional. It happens across all the country,
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: at local, state, in federal, our public sector unions. Public
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: sector unions get to lobby, their paychecks, get to hold
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: the rest of us hostage. And I don't think that
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: the property text is ever going to come down until
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: we say public sector unions are own constitutional.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: Get rid of them.
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of people feel that way.
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: If I would ask the president of the Omaha of
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Firefighters Union Local three five or OPOA, which are the
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: police officers, about getting rid of public employee unions, they
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: would scream foul. They would say never, never, never. You know,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: we need them. But a lot of people feel the
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: way you do. And you know, with city government, for example,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: it used to be much lower salaries, but you got
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: good benefits, and so those unions were important to protect,
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: you know, their salary and their benefits. Now these public
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: employees get really good salaries and they get really good benefits,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: but they I mean, they're not going to give up
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: their bargaining power. I mean, and it has to be
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: a decision by both the employee and the employer or
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: it's going to be a big fight, right. You know,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: they can't strike these public employee unions like the fire
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: and the police, they can't strike. But their contracts have
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: to be negotiated, and then you are legally bound to
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: their contract. You know, in their contract too. For example,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: of what the taxpayers pay is their pension benefits. You know,
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: the employee and the employer both pay into the pension.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: Mayor Ewing did promise during the campaign that he would
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: make sure that the fire and police put lesson to
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: their pension. The contract was finalized after he was mayor.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: They're actually putting more into their pension down and so.
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: But the thing of it is with the pension contributions.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: If say the police or the fire put less into
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: their pension, then the taxpayers have to put more unless
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: you want to have that unfunded pension liability get worse
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: and worse and worse. So it is the city's responsibility
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to make sure that those pensions are funded too. And
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: that's another big issue and another cost.
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: Kyle in the email inbox comment at cafeb dot com says,
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: what about the administrative costs in education? Are their positions
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: that could be condensed or eliminated? Yes, it's a loss
• 31:44
  Speaker 3: of a job, but is a truly is it truly
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: necessary to have that many administrative positions?
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: You know from being an old school board member. I
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: shouldn't say old, well I am old previous school board member.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I will say, you know, in bigger districts, the kind
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: of the idea deal size of a school district to
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: have administration and all of these these folks is about
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: twenty five thousand kids. Sorry, I had to cough again,
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: that's what Millard is to be efficient, ops is over
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand kids. I think all those in administration are
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: probably very very carefully chosen and needed. But what you
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: have in Nebraska is multiple school districts, small, very small
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: school districts all over Nebraska. And if they then need,
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: you know, a superintendent and an assistant superintendent and one
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: for elementary ED and one for secondary D and one
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: for special ed and all of these administrative positions in
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: all of these districts school districts, and I forgot how
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: many we have all over Nebraska right now?
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: School districts Peyton find for you. He's going to find it.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: That is where it becomes inefficient with all of these positions. Now,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: what can happen is to consolidate a lot of these
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: smaller school districts across the state of Nebraska.
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: Who's willing to do that? Two hundred and forty four
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: school districts? Okay, look at that we have.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: We have around two million people in the entire state
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: and the number of school districts we have is two
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty four, forty four school districts across the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: state that have all those administrative positions. So, very good
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: question that you just brought up. They've talked a lot
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: about should we can we consolidate a lot of these
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: smaller school districts and not and they would run more
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: efficiently because then you wouldn't need all these administrative positions.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: But again, who is willing to do that? Jean's do author.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: My name is Peyton Hilock, and Jean, I have a
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: very fun trivia question for you.
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: Oh boy, here we go. This was on the iHeartRadio
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: talkback MIC.
• 33:55
  Speaker 6: Good Morning, Mayor Jean, City personnel Gene, do you know
• 33:59
  Speaker 6: which tower is higher as far as above sea level,
• 34:03
  Speaker 6: First National Bank or Mutual of Omaha. Thank you have
• 34:06
  Speaker 6: a good day.
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: I do know it's Mutual of Omaha and you know
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: they and it's because they they It's not because they
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: have more stories like you know levels that they were
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: trying to get more floors that they were trying to
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: be the tallest. But it is because of the floor
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: plate that they have. It is the a lot of
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the the the utilities are underneath each floor, and it
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: makes each floor higher and so and then the top
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: two are like one big ballroom. So it does make
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: the new Mutual of Omaha tower the tallest.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: This question is asking about sea level. Oh see above
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: sea level? Which tower is higher on sea level?
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: Well, good lord, I don't know that.
• 34:59
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: I know what is higher based on Omaha level, but
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: on sea level.
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: No, and it's so close you would never be able
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: to know. It's about ten feet to twenty feet of difference.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: No kidding, Well that's pretty interesting.
• 35:11
  Speaker 4: Do you know?
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: Okay trivia trivia, do you know how high Omaha is
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: above sea level?
• 35:16
  Speaker 5: Uh?
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: Is it about one thousand feet above sea level?
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know. We should find out. I remembered when
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: I lived in Galveston, Texas. We had to have flood
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: insurance and we were four feet above sea Wow, when
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: you live on the coast, it's that way.
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: So yes, the first National Bank tower reaches a higher
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: elevation above sea level. It's about eleven hundred feet above
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: sea level. The mutual of Omaha tower, the one currently
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: being built, is about one thousand and seventy feet.
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: Well, there you go. You got me stumped. There you go.
• 35:47
  Speaker 2: That's good information.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: And you know what I Before we go into some
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: more calls, and we could talk about this tax issue
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: tomorrow too, which I want to But two things I
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: want to say. First of all, we talked about a
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: four to ability earlier about the Omaha is affordable is
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: far not because of taxes, but because of real estate
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and other things. But Forbes just came out with another
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: good rating and out of the top one hundred cities
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: in the country, they had just ranked Omaha number two
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: as far as rentals. And I think this is interesting
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: for all of us with this conversation, and it was
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: based on affordability and availability. You know a lot of
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: people call in and say, why are building all those apartments?
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: Because we need them? And they fill up as soon
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: as they open those up. But affordability, and they they
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: have Omaha as a average market rate one bedroom apartment
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: as three and eighty four dollars a month, and so
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: that compared to the rest of the country, they consider very,
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: very affordable. And then we could get in that whole
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: topic of affordable housing too, because that's basically I think
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: a rental for affordable housing unit is about seven or
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: eight hundred a month, and people will say, well, that's
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: not affordable to me, So that's another subject.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: So but that also is the average.
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: There's plenty of rentals that are below that price, and
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: I'm sure you know there are plenty of rentals way
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: higher than that.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: That is market rate average. Now back to taxes. I
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: got to bring up one thing because I'm sure people
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: are thinking about it. There is a group that proposed
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: this epic tax, and there's a lot of people that
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: say they support it, and they said with the epic
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: tax that you can actually eliminate all property taxes and
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: it's more of a consumption tax, is the way they
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: frame it, and there are some that really have campaigned
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: for that. I was very much against that Epic tax
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: because it would have taxed sales tax if you bought
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: a new house. And you know, we were talking about
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: how little it makes a difference in your bill with
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: the restaurant tax at two and a half percent, but
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: if you had a sales tax applied to buying a
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: new house or a new car, you would be paying
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: a sales tax. It was basically a sales tax on everything.
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: We could break it down with more information, but what
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: do y'all feel about that?
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, this epic option consumption tax. It could be known
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: as Nebraska fair tax or a flat tax. There's you know,
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: kind of different names, but essentially this would eliminate all
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: property tax, income tax, inheritance tax and replace it with
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: a single statewide sales tax, consumption tax.
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: Sales tax.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it's basically a sales tax, and they would
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: call it. They frame it as a consumption tax, but
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: it could eliminate all those other taxes too. But just
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: think Peyton, if you got married and wanted to buy
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: your first home and you had to pay sales tax on.
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: It, that would be a lot of sales tax.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what I mean. You know, it may not
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: sound like a lot. If you go out and buy
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: a pair of tennis shoes. But if you go buy
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: a house or a new car, Holy cow, yes it would.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: And what do y'all feel about that?
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, that's very interesting, and we'll get into that. I'm
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: gonna get Lou here on the phone lines. Lou, we
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: don't have too much time here. But what's on your mind?
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 39:15
  Speaker 7: I live on unpaid road in Omaha, and my taxes
• 39:22
  Speaker 7: as much as anybody else's is on a paid road.
• 39:25
  Speaker 7: When I moved here thirty six years ago, they it
• 39:28
  Speaker 7: was more of a gravel road, and now they started
• 39:32
  Speaker 7: dumping center on it sender asphalt sender, which washes away
• 39:37
  Speaker 7: very quickly in about a week. First, lady falls, I
• 39:41
  Speaker 7: just want to allow our taxes are as high as
• 39:43
  Speaker 7: anybody else is.
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: You know it, understand, And we could talk about those roads.
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: I got a lot to say about it at a
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: different time. But your property value is based on your
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: your property that you own. It's not based on the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: road that is in front of your house.
• 39:59
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: I get similar question.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: People will say, why do I pay the same property
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: tax when I don't have kids in school? Well, you know,
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: you pay the property tax because the school has a
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: loving authority and it's based on you know, the you
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: want the school it's based on the schools. But you
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: want the schools in your area that you live in
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: to be good. I mean, you want your values to
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: stay good and you want people to keep on wanting
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: to move into your area. Peyton, do you know that
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Travis Kelcey and Taylor Swift have a pre nup? She
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: is worth two point four billion and he is worth
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: ninety million and they have a pre nup. Both of
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: them are really struggling.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's really tough. I hate to hear these kind of.
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: Things as we're talking about how can we survive day
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: to day?
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: But you know what, that is it for us today.
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: We have a lot more questions and emails coming in
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: and we will get those all the answered tomorrow. So
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: we hope you spend time with us tomorrow and join
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: us again. Thanks for being with us today. And I
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: am Jean Stothard and this is Elevnton k F A B.