Nebraska Family Struggles to Keep the Family Farm Amid High Property Taxes

nytimes.com

7 points·mooreds··5 comments

They don’t have to struggle, they just have to lease the land to someone else. They’re in Knox county, they have 880 acres. This map from 2020 has the non-irrigated farmland rent in Knox county at $198/acre. [0] 880 times $198 is $174240. Even half of that is $87120, subtract $15,000 in property taxes and you’re left with $72,000.

They don’t have to sell the farm, they just need to lease it to someone with a more efficient operation. Oh no, the ‘poor’ rural people who could earn 6 figures in land rent a year, who will help them?

[0] https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Nebraska/Publi...

There's too little detail to know. Could be that the price of $198/acre is offered for high-yield farmland that may be rare in Knox county and that they don't have?

It could also turn out that they're turning profit from land where anyone else would just fail. You don't know.

Nebraska's agricultural land property taxes are 46 percent higher than the national average and most farmers pay 50 to 60 percent of their net income in taxes.

I wish the article included the percent of property taxes were assessed by the county and what percent by the state.

Sixty percent of Nebraska property taxes pay for schools.

Likewise, I'd like to know the breakdown of school funding, between county and state.

It looks like they are trying to perpetuate an economically unsustainable situation which could be better handled by a large corporation.

My grandfather, who was a Kansas farmer, said that he had to buy his land all over again every 10 years because of the taxes that the Queen collected.

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