Stovall: tax valuation hike signals need for more housing

NEBRASKA CITY – Nebraska City Construction and Facilities Manager Marty Stovall said a recent property valuation hike is another example of why more housing stock is needed.

Stovall: “To these valuations? I’m in the same boat, they are going up. If we don’t add any more housing stock, how is that ever going to change? How is that ever going to change? We’re going to be right back to square one. We’ve been in that same cycle for a long time, so we’re trying to think outside of the box on how we can invest in our community.”

Values used by the government to collect taxes on buildings increased 25 percent in Nebraska City and up to 40 percent in rural residential.

Valuation notices came just as the city is proposing a 1.25 percent increase in the utility transfer fee to pay for a bond to construct streets and storm sewers for a workforce housing development.

Stovall: “This is just a way to generate some funds to pay for a bond to put in some infrastructure that we desperately need.”

 

County Assessor Christy Smallfoot said prices home buyers are paying have increased so swiftly over the last two years that individual assessments have not been able to keep up. State law requires a countywide equalization.

Smallfoot: “The equalization process is not unusual, the market is unusual. People are paying well over the assessed value and even the asking price based on supply and demand.”

The countywide equalization included a 40 percent increase in values for rural residential, 30 percent increase in all Palmyra neighborhoods and 25 percent increase in Syracuse.

Former street commissioner Vic Johns encouraged city commissioners to see the housing development through, noting that Nebraska City's past policy of  placing all development costs on the shoulders of investors has failed.

Johns: “We need to continue with a vision of hope and focus on the positive. Short-sightedness has cost this community for 125 years.”

Deborah Chesterman offered support for the project and said she hopes the recent tax valuation raise will not derail it.

 The city is already receiving $770,000 a year from the utility transfer fee and the 1.25 percent increase would add $180,000. The expected bond payments are $158,000 a year, so the city may have funds to pay the bonds off quicker than the 20-year timeline.

After the infrastructure is complete the city will sell the lots to home builders and could use that money to help pay off the bonds as well.

 

Nick Shimmel, Jim Stark and Wynee Benedict spoke in opposition to the transfer fee.

Stark said Mayor Joe Dee Adelung proposed the utility transfer fee in 2007 after her efforts to bring the city administrator position to Nebraska City.

He said it started as a 3 percent transfer, only from gas and electric and only for within the city limits, but has now grown to a proposed 6 ¼ percent and the two-mile jurisdiction.

 

https://rivercountry.newschannelnebraska.com/story/48895587/nebraska-city-defends-utility-fee-to-pay-for-housing-development