Residents Seek Answers in Joint Hearing

The Joint Public Hearing scheduled for the Cheyenne County Commissioners room was moved to the district court room Monday, and still had an overflow capacity.

The meeting was held as a requirement of LB644. LB644 requires a joint meeting of taxable districts when the district's proposed budget exceeds the “allowable growth percentage” as defined in the measure as 2 percent.

Cheyenne County and Leyton Public School District were represented at the meeting. Cheyenne County opened the hearing with Jeff Jung of Turning Point Financial/ Rauner and Associates explaining the budget process. Commissioner Randy Miller and County Clerk Beth Fiegenschuh were also present for the county. Jung showed the county's Operating Budget at $20,948,458.64 in 2021, and $18,985,333.71 for 2022, a 9 percent decrease. The slide also showed a Property Tax Request of $5,686,095 in 2021 and $6,140,030 for 2022, an 8 percent increase. The levy for 2021 was .406647 and for 2022 .422733, a 4 percent increase. Prior to the tax request, the current valuation was .391480.

Jung also explained that the budget cost increases are primarily due to four areas: Salaries and benefits ($139,900), Fuel for the Sheriff's Department and the Highway Department ($182,000), Other Cost Increases ($314,000) and the decrease in Highway and Street Allocation (State funds) by $175,000.

Those in attendance were allowed to speak freely on the budget. Each person who spoke was required by LB644 to sign in.

Most of the comments addressed concerns of transparency, accountability to the county taxpayers and questioning the timing of the proposed budget increase.

Jung said the County is proposing an increase of $420,000 of a $6.1 million budget.

Jung said the County has been using reserves to keep the budget tight.

“Now we're to the point we can't dig any deeper,” he said.

Jung said farm land is valued differently in the Panhandle than in eastern Nebraska, areas east of Ogallala. He said of the six counties said to be in the top tax percentage in the state, all are in the Panhandle. He provided a chart explaining what services are supported by the county levy. Included are * the County Board, * County Clerk, *County Treasurer, *Election Commission, * Cooperative Extension Agency, * Noxious Weed Control, * Roads and Bridges, * Clerk of the District Court, * County Sheriff, * County Relief, * Court Systems and Prisoner Costs, * County Treasurer, * County Court System, * County Attorney, Veterans' Services, * Shared Emergency Services, * Buildings and Grounds, * County Jail, * Institutions, *County Assessor and *Other Miscellaneous.

Several speakers during the nearly two-hour meeting complained about the miscellaneous line items, claiming a lack of transparency.

David Jansen addressed Commissioner Miller, saying Monday night's meeting was not the first the county scheduled under LB644, also adding the county had to reschedule the meeting to be in compliance with LB644. Jung and Miller objected to the accusation but was shut down with Jansen saying it was his time to talk.

“This is the people saying 'we're taxed out,'” Jansen said about the record number of people in attendance.

He said Cheyenne County is losing 200 tax-paying residents per year, adding the cost of living has increased 13 percent. He added there should be a hearing any time the county spends $320,000, referring to the building the county purchased for an updated county attorney office. When the issue was brought up in a commissioners meeting, the commissioners said the attorney's office is small and outdated; one staff member had to use a closet as an office.

An owner of a trailer park in the county said she rents to young people, people who she says will move if this budget is approved. Yet another woman said she has to choose between eating and paying her property taxes.

Mark Blanke compared the current issues with the Sioux Army Depot leaving Cheyenne County. He quoted a comment made about taxes: “Too much taxes can do too much harm very quickly.”

Most of the crowd left the courtroom with the conclusion of comments for the county.