[TheBeagleLady]

Originally Posted by harshbarj

High taxes? You clearly are a troll. I have family in salt lake city and their tax rate is close to ours (ours rate is about 10-15% higher but we pay less total taxes and live in a nicer house).

You, like almost everyone, seem to forget that Omaha has VERY cheap housing. A $100k house in Omaha would be $150-200k even in salt lake city.

Exactly. Just for fun I have been looking at houses here in the Black Hills. Yikes!!!

[MountainMen]

Originally Posted by mprado

How can anyone buy a house with taxes so high.

What happens is - people get suckered into living in Omaha because of a job, then they join the drones and chant "renting is throwing money away" so they buy a house. The drones never mention the part about throwing money away on taxes which pay pensions on steroids for retired police and firemen. The funny thing is that those retired city workers are probably living in a beach house in Florida, paying almost no taxes.

[TheBeagleLady]

Originally Posted by MountainMen

What happens is - people get suckered into living in Omaha because of a job, then they join the drones and chant "renting is throwing money away." So that's why people buy a house. The drones never mention the part about throwing money away on taxes which pay pensions on steroids for retired police and firemen. The funny thing is that those retired city workers are probably living in a beach house in Florida, paying almost no taxes.

It's not that hard to look up property taxes BEFORE one purchases a house. People should take that into consideration along with the purchase price to find out what they truly can afford.

[GraniteStater]

Nebraska is a low cost of living state but NOT a low tax state. Now Indiana is a low cost of living state AND a low tax state.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by MountainMen

throwing money away on taxes which pay pensions on steroids for retired police and firemen.

Wrong again! Your tax money does NOT pay their pensions. Pensions are paid out of the pension fund which prior to the newest contract, the city and police officers contributed 20.17% and 14.55%, respectively.

Fact check strikes again!

[MountainMen]

Originally Posted by Bosco55David

the city and police officers contributed 20.17% and 14.55%, respectively.

That leaves 80% and 85% they did NOT contribute, nor did they earn. The majority of their golden goose egg pensions are paid with high taxes. If people want to know why taxes in Omaha are high, which is the topic of this thread, that's the primary reason.

[McBain II]

Originally Posted by MountainMen

That leaves 80% and 85% they did NOT contribute, nor did they earn. The majority of their golden goose egg pensions are paid with high taxes. If people want to know why taxes in Omaha are high, which is the topic of this thread, that's the primary reason.

Not only can you not read and perform basic math, you also don't understand how pensions are funded. City paid 20.17% equal to the officer's pay into the pension fund. Individual officer paid 14.55%.

20.17 + 14.55 = 34.72

100 - 34.72 = 65.28

That 65.28% comes mainly from the investments made with the pension fund, and this is where the shortfall came from. 92% of the current pension shortfall was created when the stock market tanked. Only 8% is the result of the much publicized "spiking" issue. Prior to the stock market collapse, the city actually MADE money off the pension fund.

Remember, only that 20.17% percent (or 1/5th) that the city contributes is tax dollars. Nothing more.

This math and economics lesson brought to you by Bosco, your friendly neigborhood fact checker.

[SandmanSand]

Originally Posted by MountainMen

The funny thing is that those retired city workers are probably living in a beach house in Florida, paying almost no taxes.

Have you ever looked up property taxes here in Florida, plus insurance costs too? There's no such thing as property tax exemptions for retired city workers

[MountainMen]

Originally Posted by Bosco55David

That 65.28% comes mainly from the investments made with the pension fund
[/i]

Your math makes no sense. Are you trying to say the high pensions are from investment bankers turning $34 into $100? Also, what does a shortfall have to do with anything? If pensions were based on the stock market, it has fully recovered to pre-recession levels, so there would be no shortfall. Please be more clear in your explanation, mr. fact checker.

[MountainMen]

Originally Posted by SandmanSand

There's no such thing as property tax exemptions for retired city workers

I never said there was. Unless something has changed, isn't there no state income tax in Florida? If so, former Omaha city workers living in Florida (or Texas, or Washington State, or Vegas) would pay no income tax on their nice pensions.

In terms of property tax exemptions, Florida and Texas have the broadest homestead exemption protections in the U.S. (in terms of the value of a home that can be owned tax free).