The city appears ready to annex  State Fair Park after a public hearing Monday.

Members of the Lincoln City Council had questions but expressed no serious concerns about annexing the 226 acres that is home to the Nebraska State Fair.

The council did not vote on annexation Monday, but is expected to next week.

For city officials, who proposed annexation, the motive is  mainly financial. A voter-approved measure in 2004 annually gives the state fair 10 percent of lottery proceeds, or about $2 million, and there is a 10 percent match from local government.

That equals about $200,000. By annexing the fairgrounds, the city can impose its 1.5 percent sales tax. And finance officials estimate it will put about $100,000 in the city’s coffers.

But it won’t happen this year. Law mandates that sales taxes not start accruing until about four months after annexation — well after the state fair is done late this summer.

The State Fair Board hasn’t taken a formal position on the proposal. But some members of the board clearly aren’t promoting annexation as a boon for the fair. Just the opposite.

“We weren’t asked to this party. We were kind of told to come to the party,” Tam Allan of Lincoln, a State Fair Board member, told the council.

 “We do not wish to subject our patrons to more taxes than are already there,” but understand the city’s financial obligation, he said later.

Another board member, who was not at the hearing, said the annexation does nothing to help the state fair, “except charge our patrons more money in taxes.”

“There was nothing really we could do to stop it,” so the board did not take a position, said Van Neidig of Battle Creek. “It was kind of a choose-your-battle type of thing. We couldn’t stop annexation, but quite honestly, outside the sales tax, it served us no purpose to stop it.”

While State Fair Park will be in city limits, the state will continue to own the buildings and utilities, among other things. Ownership of streets, water and sewer lines, for example, will not be transferred to the city.

A primary concern of council members was what law-enforcement agency — city, state or county — would have jurisdiction should the area be annexed. Currently, the State Patrol enforces the law during the fair.

It’s supposed to stay that way, Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady told the council. But he’s concerned that annexation could someday lead to a request the Lincoln police force take over.

That could strain city police resources, Casady said, on a level equivalent to managing two Husker football games.

Council members were also interested in whether the city’s indoor smoking ban would cover the fairgrounds. It would not, city officials told the council, except in cases where the state leased space to private entities.

Reach Nate Jenkins at 473-7223 or njenkins@journalstar.com.