Property Taxes Aren’t the Problem, The System Is

By Jon Capps, Candidate for Nebraska Legislature – District 38

If you live in rural Nebraska, you don’t need a chart or a study to know something is wrong. You see it every year when the property tax statement arrives.

For farmers, ranchers, homeowners, and small businesses, property taxes keep climbing, often regardless of income, profitability, or market conditions. That frustration is real, and it’s justified.

But here’s the hard truth: property taxes themselves aren’t the real problem. They’re the symptom of a system that has become unbalanced over time.

Local governments don’t rely so heavily on property taxes because they want to. They rely on them because the broader system gives them few alternatives. When other revenue sources are narrow, volatile, or restricted, property taxes become the pressure valve — predictable, but painful.

Property taxes also ignore a basic reality of rural life: ability to pay matters. A good year and a bad year can look very different in agriculture, yet the tax bill doesn’t adjust. Equipment depreciates. Markets fluctuate. Weather intervenes. The bill keeps coming.

That’s not a moral failure by counties or school boards. It’s a structural flaw.

In my career working with complex systems, I learned that when one component carries too much load, it eventually breaks. The fix isn’t blaming that component, it’s redesigning the system so the load is shared.

Nebraska’s tax system has become too narrow. Too much responsibility flows to property owners because the overall base isn’t broad enough, and growth isn’t doing enough of the work.

That’s why real property tax relief can’t come from slogans or short-term fixes. Shifting the burden without fixing the structure just moves the problem around.

Lasting relief requires a system that:

• Grows the economy so growth helps pay the bills

• Diversifies revenue so no single group carries the load

• Controls spending with transparency and accountability

• Aligns state policy with local reality instead of pushing costs downward

This isn’t about starving government or cutting essential services. Schools, roads, and public safety matter. But they should be funded through a system that’s fair, stable, and sustainable.

Anyone promising to eliminate property taxes overnight isn’t being honest. But anyone telling you nothing can be done isn’t right either.

Nebraska can do better.

By modernizing our tax system, encouraging broad-based economic growth, and spreading responsibility more fairly, we can deliver real relief, not just for one year, but for the long term.

Property taxes are a warning light. It’s time we fixed the system behind them.