Property Tax As a Share of Income

Property taxes paid by agriculture as a share of income are considerably more than that paid by other economic sectors in Nebraska according to a report by Goss & Associates released by the Fair Nebraska coalition. Figure X1, from the Goss report, plots property taxes as a share of income for the agriculture, business, and household sectors from 2010 to 2016. In 2016, property taxes paid by agriculture as a share of income was nearly 37 percent, while property taxes paid by businesses and households were 4 percent and 3 percent of income respectively.

Goss & Associates said that because income growth in the business and household sectors is constant over time, and is consistent with property tax growth, property taxes as a share of income for these sectors remain constant, ranging between 2.9 to 4.7 percent. Income in agriculture, though, varies considerably from year-to-year, so property taxes as a share of income varies each year, ranging from a low of 12 percent in 2011 to a high of 37 percent in 2016. And, since 2016, agriculture’s tax share has increased even more because farm income has declined, while property taxes have not.