By Russ Pankonin

The Imperial Republican

The Upper Republican Natural Resources District (URNRD) will not ask for property taxes for their 2010-11 budget.

That means more than $1 million collected as a special levy under LB 701 will go back into the pockets of taxpayers in the district.

After LB 701 passed in 2007, NRDs in the Republican River Basin were allowed to assess a special 10-cent levy to help with compact compliance issues with Kansas.

That tax was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by the Nebraska Supreme Court.

State statutes provided no legal way to refund the taxes collected under the property tax levy so NRDs have been holding the money in escrow.

An effort to get a refund procedure passed during this year’s legislative session failed. Now, the URNRD budget committee has opted to not collect property taxes in next year’s budget. Instead, they plan to use the $1.137 million in escrow for operations next year.

During last week’s regular board meeting in Imperial, Manager Jasper Fanning said this is the best way to get the money back to those who paid it.

“We made the assumption there won’t be any budgeting glitches with respect to our levy and being able to reduce our levy fully,” he told the board.

By using the LB 701 money being held in escrow, Fanning said the method creates a quasi form of tax-free funding for next year’s operations.

He said they are checking with the state auditor’s office to insure this won’t affect future levy authority, levy limits or lids.

Occupation tax in budget

Based on a change in legislation to help insure an occupation tax remains legal, the URNRD will again collect the occupation tax created in LB 701.

The law allows for an occupation tax of up to $10 per acre. This year’s budget calls for a $6 per acre occupation tax on all irrigated ground in the district.

The URNRD has continued to collect the occupation tax since it’s creation while some of the other NRDs in the basin have chosen not to.

Fanning said the budget includes up to $9 million in occupation tax funds to pay for compact compliance projects, such as surface and groundwater leasing and augmentation projects.