Council approves final budget

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BY DEENA WINTER / Lincoln Journal Star

The dust has settled. The protests are over (at least officially). And the final numbers are in.

City officials now know for certain how much all of the taxable property in Lincoln is worth. Which is important when you’re trying to put your budget together and need to know how much revenue will be coming in.

The upshot: The total value of property increased nearly 13 percent, largely thanks to the county’s revaluation of property countywide. Of that, 2.8 percent was due to new growth.

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What you'll pay
How much more will you pay? Use the calculation below to figure out how much more you'll be paying to fund city government next year — but remember, the city only gets 15 cents of every dollar collected in Lincoln property taxes. The county gets 14 cents, and the school district gets 63 cents.

Take your property's new value and divide it by 100. Then multiply that figure by 0.28337. That’s how much you'll be paying to fund city government next year.

Next, take your property’s previous value and divide it by 100. Then multiply that figure by 0.30091. That's how much you paid for city government last year.

The difference of the two is your increase or, in some cases, decrease.

Wastewaster, water rates to rise
The budget assumes an 8 percent increase in wastewater rates, which would increase the average monthly residential bill by $1.08. It also calls for a 6 percent increase in water rates, which would bump the average monthly residential bill by $1.02.

That's 1 percent less than the increases the public works department sought. Expect that trend to continue. The department is projecting it will need a 9 percent increase in wastewater rates and 5 percent hike in water rates in each of the next two years.

What you'll pay
How much more will you pay? Use the calculation below to figure out how much more you'll be paying to fund city government next year — but remember, the city only gets 15 cents of every dollar collected in Lincoln property taxes. The county gets 14 cents, and the school district gets 63 cents.

Take your property's new value and divide it by 100. Then multiply that figure by 0.28337. That’s how much you'll be paying to fund city government next year.

Next, take your property’s previous value and divide it by 100. Then multiply that figure by 0.30091. That's how much you paid for city government last year.

The difference of the two is your increase or, in some cases, decrease.

Wastewaster, water rates to rise
The budget assumes an 8 percent increase in wastewater rates, which would increase the average monthly residential bill by $1.08. It also calls for a 6 percent increase in water rates, which would bump the average monthly residential bill by $1.02.

That's 1 percent less than the increases the public works department sought. Expect that trend to continue. The department is projecting it will need a 9 percent increase in wastewater rates and 5 percent hike in water rates in each of the next two years.

The city crafted its budget based on the assumption that the county’s revaluation would push property values up 10.75 percent; the actual figure ended up at 10.15 percent.

The City Council had previously agreed on a budget that would reduce the city’s property tax rate from 30.1 cents per $100 of value to about 28 cents.

In order to adjust for the new figures, the City Council approved a final budget Monday that will bump that levy up slightly, to 28.337 cents.

Mayor Coleen Seng’s budget would have left the city’s property tax rate unchanged, which would have brought in nearly $4 million in extra money due to higher property values.

The City Council decided to instead make $2.8 million in budget cuts and spending adjustments so that the city only uses about a million dollars of the bounty from higher values.

Overall, the city will collect 6.4 percent more in property tax revenue next year.

The budget eliminates the equivalent of about 20 city employee positions — some of them vacant or seasonal. Among those whose jobs were eliminated were the city traffic engineer, an Urban Development community development staffer, a city planner and an animal control officer and dispatcher.

The council also took more than $1 million from the city’s carryover funds, which Seng dismissed as a budget gimmick that will put more pressure on future budgets.

Councilman Jon Camp was the only council member to vote against the spending plan.

“We could be facing … a tougher budget next year than this year,” he predicted.

The mayor said while she disagrees with some of the decisions the council made — such as the use of carryover funds and elimination of the city traffic engineer position — she’ll sign the budget.

“I am supportive of reducing the property tax rate. It would have been easier if the City Council had told me last spring that their preference was to reduce the tax so the departments could have prepared budgets with that as a goal.”

But she still maintains that the council’s budget shifts the tax burden to the future.

“This is going to make next year’s budget an even more difficult budget,” she said.

Reach Deena Winter at 473-2642 or dwinter@journalstar.com.