Hall County Board of Supervisors sets tax levies

It's official.

The Hall County Agricultural Society has increased its property tax levy to raise $100,000 a year for State Fair improvements.

The Hall County Board of Supervisors voted in a special meeting Monday morning to set the ag society's levy at 0.007529, which is up from 0.004643 a year ago.

That levy, which will cost $7.53 on a $100,000 home, will generate $156,000 of operating revenue for the ag society, which runs the Hall County Fair. It also will generate $100,000 of "real estate capital outlay" funds, which will be directed to improvements to the Fonner Park campus to help with the relocation of the Nebraska State Fair.

The Legislature voted earlier this year to relocate the State Fair to Fonner Park by 2010. The State Fair's current property in Lincoln will become part of the University of Nebraska campus for a research and development park.

Only Supervisor Pam Lancaster voted against the increased tax levy for the ag society. She said she would have preferred the county use keno dollars for the State Fair improvements instead of property taxes.

The county did earmark a total of $500,000 of keno funds also to go toward the State Fair improvements in years 2009 through 2014.

The ag society had initially sought to have $200,000 annually for the State Fair improvements, but supervisors instead decided to raise the ag society levy enough to raise half of the request through property taxes with the other half coming from keno proceeds.

That keno money will go directly to the ag society and was the subject of some concern during Monday's special county board meeting because it will impact the county's interlocal agreements.

Interlocal agreements are beneficial to governments in their calculations of spending lid limits set by the Legislature. The more interlocals the better, said Brad Fegley, county budget consultant.

The county currently is paying $150,000 a year to the city for the Heartland Events Center, but that will end next year with a final $100,000 payment.

Because that interlocal agreement on the events center is ending, the county really needs to replace it with another interlocal.

The ag society doesn't constitute an interlocal agreement, because the county board is its parent body and approves and sets its tax levy.

The ag society funding approved by the county will stand, but the loss of the interlocal agreement with the city will ultimately hurt the county's financial calculations, Fegley said.

The county board Monday also set the tax levies for the Grand Island Rural Fire District, Wood River Fire District, Doniphan Fire District, Cairo Fire District, Shelton Fire District and Central Nebraska Regional Airport.

Supervisor Dan Wagoner voted against the airport tax levy of 0.013017, which will raise $442,680 for the 2008-09 budget.

"I'm not happy they were closed for three months, then came back with flights to Las Vegas and not a major connection point," Wagoner said. "The calls I'm getting are that people are having a hard time traveling into and out of Grand Island."

The airport's Essential Air Service carrier quit operations earlier this year, and a new carrier hasn't started service yet under the U.S. Department of Transportation contract.