Dorchester Times: Saline County Ag Land Soars 40% In Value In One Year

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Saline County Ag Land Soars 40% In Value In One Year

A story in the Omaha newspaper this week reported that "booming agriculture land values last year drove a nearly $21 billion increase in the state's taxable property valuation."

This is bad news for area farmers who own land, due to the likelihood of soaring property taxes that follow sizable valuation increases. It's also bad news for younger farmer who'd would like to buy their own farm ground.

However, since property tax dollars pay for schools and roads, the ever-increasing portion of property tax revenues derived from farm land is probably good news for residential property owners, since their property taxes are kept in check. (Readers should note that the amount property owners pay depends on the value of their property and the tax rates set by local governments -- not state government. Around 65%-70% of your property tax dollar goes to pay for K-12 education, as a general rule.)

According to Nebraska's Department of Revenue, ag land valuations increased 29% between 2013 and 2014, following nearly 23% growth the prior year. This marks the sixth consecutive year in which ag land values grew by double-digits, based on sales.

Chase County in southwest Nebraska experienced the largest jump in ag land values at 58.48%, but 16 other counties -- including Saline -- saw increases between 40% and 50%.

According to our research, Saline County's ag land grew 40% in value from 2013 to 2014.

Saline County's residential properties -- when new growth is excluded -- realized a 0.36% increase in value over the past year.

1 comment:

AnonymousApril 18, 2014 at 7:21 AM
Good article. I would like to expand on how property tax dollars are determined. Each year all entities that receive a portion of your tax dollar have budget hearings in which the public can voice their opinion. Once the entity has "set" their budget, it is given to the county board of commissioners. The budgets are divided into the value of real & personal property that are in that entities district to determine the tax rate. It is the spending of the entities that ultimately determines what you will pay in taxes.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."