Lincoln Paper Examines Dorchester's May 15 School Bond Vote, Loss Of State Aid

We all work hard to pay our property taxes -- be it on our residences, businesses or farm ground.  Most of those property taxes are used to pay for operation of our local school.  But it appears that fewer and fewer rural school districts, like Dorchester, are getting the state aid dollars they were promised long ago.  Instead, Lincoln, Omaha and more mid-sized cities with large Hispanic populations -- like our next-door neighbor Crete -- are taking our tax dollars for their own use.

The Lincoln Journal Star reported last week that of 249 school districts in the state, 102 rural districts are being shut out from receiving state aid funds. That's more than twice as many as were in that unenviable category as recently as school year 2008-09, according to the paper. This situation is due mostly to a surge in agricultural prosperity in the state that has pushed farmland values into record territory.

Because the state aid formula deems schools like Dorchester as unworthy and unqualified, more state aid is being funneled into Lincoln, Omaha "and an array of districts including Lexington, Crete and South Sioux City, where poverty and English proficiency figure strongly in aid eligibility," the Journal Star reports.

The story continues:

"Meanwhile, the list of those being shut out keeps getting longer. Among others already on it in Southeast Nebraska are Dorchester, Friend, Osceola, Mead, Shelby, Johnson-Brock, Humboldt Table Rock Steinauer, Deshler and Sutton.

"Many of the rural districts losing equalization aid have room to raise their property taxes without hitting the state lid, she said.  That, however, is not true everywhere. Dorchester, which no longer qualifies for equalization aid, will have a levy override vote May 15 on its property tax financing."