Advocating for Omaha

Ideas for a Better Omaha

Omaha City Council members Aimee Melton, Brinker Harding and Don Rowe will be presenting at event below. I thought this would be a good time for me to share my thoughts.

I am vastly concerned about the growth of Omaha City Government. The Mayor, as well as others, are under the assumption Omaha has grown in population but the City, as far as jurisdiction, has actually lost population since the pandemic (https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/nebraska/omaha). While annexation has mitigated some of this lost, it is not enough.

Here are the contributing factors.

First, the City Government expenditures have grown year after year (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-why-property-taxes). The budget needs to be cut and could easily cut out 10 to 15 million dollars or at least delay millions of expenditures. Many of these expenditures are generated by "Facebook" advocacy instead of resident advocacy.

Second, property taxes, particularly for residential properties, must be reduced. The City can reduce its dependency on property taxes by relying on other taxes. But the City needs to advocate for such changes at the Unicameral to put less burden on homeowners and if necessary, more on businesses who often receive generous reductions in their property evaluations.

Third, using TIF for apartment development places home ownership at a disadvantage as well as large families (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/abolishing-home-ownership). Most of these apartments will have temporary residents, senior citizens, and gay couples, all of whom have no children to raise in the community.

Fourth, excessive regulation of housing development has resulted in higher costs for creating new homes and therefore, fewer homes are built. This includes apartments (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-homeless-camps). Some of this regulation must be removed at the City level, if not the County and State.

Fifth, poor-performing schools in the Omaha Public School district are accelerating an exodus of families out of Omaha. The Mayor and the Council should call for the decertification of poorly run schools in the Omaha Public School district as such schools are a hazard to the City. The Nebraska Education Board can do such decertification.

Sixth, the City should call for the Omaha Metro Transit to be removed from the property tax rolls. In lobbying the Unicameral, the City should call to remove this taxing entity from property taxes because this form of public transportation barely helps about 25 percent of the City while providing transportation into Iowa. This function should be covered by the state and not the property taxpayers of Omaha.

Did I mention this event happens on a Monday? Kinda gives you a sinking feeling!