Defending Omaha Citadel

Versus Omaha Metropolis

The Omaha Metropolitan area grew but… “While the news broke in March, the U.S. Census Bureau’s official count reflects data from July 1, 2024; placing Omaha’s metro population at 1,001,010. The count includes eight counties across Nebraska and Iowa: Dodge, Sarpy, Cass, Washington, and Saunders in Nebraska; and Mills, Harrison, and Pottawattamie in Iowa.” (https://unomahanews.com/2025/04/09/omaha-metro-surpasses-one-million-residents/) (emphasis is mine).

As to the City, as far as a jurisdiction, it has lost over 10,000 residents since 2020 (https://nchstats.com/omaha-population/).

Why? The Omaha City government never took an interest in all the risks the City faces, including property taxes and maintenance of old homes. The City kept on increasing spending (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-why-property-taxes). At the same time, the City was giving money to organizations already exempt from the property tax system (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omaha-stotherts-2024-budget). The City increased spending as the exodus from the City increased. This is the ulimate failure of City officials.

Would you set your neighbor’s house on fire? Would you throw a brick through their window? Would you demolish their house? Well, property taxes do. This is, particularly true for owners of old homes who must pay for more maintenance compared to owners of new homes. People in old Omaha homes move out to newer homes and to better school districts.

There are other liabilities as well. Omaha is not a family-friendly city, at least for the area east of 72nd Street. Gay couples, retired couples, students, and wealthy transient residents make up a good portion of the City, as well as mentally ill and disabled people. The City has provided TIFS (tax incremental finance) for numerous apartments, instead of home builders (https://andrewlsullivan.substack.com/p/omahas-screwy-planning-dept). These TIFS only work in encouraging development because the existing property taxes are too high. What if all of Omaha was given TIF? The City would blossom.

Oddly enough, many apartment tenants may actually being paying more property taxes per square foot compared to home owners but will never find out, because there is no transparency on this matter. The end result is more apartments where renters will not blame property taxes versus home owners who will object to property taxes.

The problems of the Omaha Public School District does not attract families, but instead scares families away, because of bad test scores. I had difficulty finding a specific article on this so I asked Perplexity.AI and got this result (https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-bad-are-omaha-public-schoo-qQ6qUwrmSUCBy2Y4ZFRIDg#0). To proclaim Omaha has good public schools is pure malfeasance.

As for property taxes, City officials will distract and point to other property taxing entities which tax more, but Omaha has the most means to find alternative sources of revenue other than property taxes as well as advocate for tax reform. At the same time, City officials have powerful means to condemn failing schools and to encourage families to seek other forms of education or supplement their child’s education. Unfortunately, I do not see the new mayor or City Council members making efforts even close to what I am recommending.