Religion & Property Taxes

Grocery Stores Taxed!

When the Flatwater Press did a story about Mormons buying Nebraska land (https://flatwaterfreepress.org/whos-buying-nebraska-corporations-investors-grabbing-giant-chunks-of-nebraska-farmland/), I was rather dismissive and disappointed as it just came off to me as another anti-religious or anti-corporate trope so common in midwest yellow journalism, where conspiracy theories are implied but rarely stated. The Flatwater Press has published a series of stories on the topic.

However, in this instance, Matt Wynn and Matthew Hansen, former World-Herald reporters who run Flatwater Press, appear to be addressing a common fear or bias against foreigners buying land. So the Flatwater Press answered the question of “who” is buying the land, but to me, it is the “why” which is important.

There are perhaps thousands of organizations buying land for all sorts of reasons. The Nature Conservancy is one of them and enjoys property tax exemption, but rarely does anyone talk about them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nature_Conservancy).

When the Flatwater Press story mentioned Mormons as being the largest Nebraska land purchaser in the last 5 years, I was not surprised. The Mormons have a religious exemption to the property tax and can lease the acquired land out on the cheap or run a farm without the tens of thousands of dollars in annual property taxes many farmers and ranchers pay. Nebraska heavily taxes farmers. What of wind farms and other alternative energy? Corporations get all sorts of tax benefits including from the IRS (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p5886.pdf) and encourage some investments in Nebraska. Taxes, or the lack of them, motivate people.  Flatwater Press addressed this in detail (https://flatwaterfreepress.org/whos-buying-nebraska-foreign-companies-deeply-involved-in-farmland-but-not-how-you-think/).

When The Reader covered housing code violations (https://thereader.com/2022/04/07/in-omaha-bad-landlords-get-off-easy-and-tenants-pay-the-price/), I was surprised the Omaha Housing Authority (OHA) was one of the top violators. Yet, the Omaha Housing Authority is exempted from the property tax. You would think someone would take an interest in the irony of it all. However, the OHA is not buying large swaths of land or running a bowling alley, or dormitory or funding bronze statues.

The Mormons were and are cashing in on Nebraska property tax exemptions during a time when the pandemic had everyone in a panic. And who can blame them? Nebraska property tax exemptions are very generous and are made more so by high property taxes on others. Also, religion helped create private education and hospitals so perhaps the Mormons will build something grand.  Some want to tax religious groups, but this would be counterproductive.

Secular for-profit corporations have taken advantage of the property tax exemptions which were once largely only for religious organizations. For-profit hospitals have taken full advantage of Nebraska’s property tax exemptions. This is why they own many of the multistory buildings in Omaha and have huge campus-like medical facilities and even bronze statues! Since their properties are exempt, they build big. Many others are into this game.  The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) built tax-exempt dormitories which they rent to students.

Omaha even has a church with a bowling alley, which was renovated (https://omaha.com/lifestyles/60-year-old-bowling-alley-at-immaculate-conception-church-undergoes-an-update-now-looks-even/article_56f1814f-6cc5-53b8-b17b-f068f2751871.html)!

When I talk about consumption taxes, I think groceries should be taxed. People really like groceries being exempted, but the grocery stores pay huge property taxes which they pass on to the consumers. This can be hard to find because often grocery stores lease property on a development but Hyvee is super taxed. One of the reasons Aldi can provide customers with low prices has to do with the fact they place their stores in out-of-the-way places where the property taxes are lower. Maybe the Mormons should run our grocery stores as non-profit Mormon entities. That would make prepping more affordable (https://uspreppers.com/how-to-prep-like-a-mormon/) and it would be good for Nebraska. Perhaps Nebraskan should make grocery stores exempt from the property taxes and tax the hospitals instead.