Why I'm doing this with my own bill, not someone else's
I heard Governor Pillen sign a $20 million property tax relief order and say it would help homeowners. My own bill went up. So I did what this site asks everyone else to do: I went to the actual county record instead of trusting either the press release or my own memory. Here it is, six years, straight from Douglas County's own systems — not summarized, not rounded, not cherry-picked.
This isn't a complaint about any one person. It's one real parcel, six real years, and an honest attempt to answer the only question that actually matters: what would have to change for this number to go down?
A note on what's withheld and why: the exact address and parcel number are not published here, by my own choice, even though they're a matter of public record. I'd rather protect that than not — and withholding it costs the analysis nothing, because every number below still came from the same public county tools anyone can use on their own address.
The actual bill, six years, from the Treasurer's own record
A single-family home in Omaha, Douglas County — address and parcel number withheld by the owner's request. Pulled directly from Douglas County Treasurer's public tax lookup, the same free tool that works for any address in the county.
| Tax year | Amount billed | Change from prior year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $2,434.24 | — |
| 2021 | $2,520.86 | +3.6% |
| 2022 | $2,542.34 | +0.8% |
| 2023 | $3,160.48 | +24.3% |
| 2024 | $2,422.34 | −23.4% |
| 2025 | $2,947.88 | +21.7% |
Not a straight line up. Not a straight line down. It jumped, it dropped further than it had ever risen, then it jumped again — and that last jump is the year right after the Governor's relief order was signed.
What actually drives it: the assessed value, pulled the same way
A tax bill is (assessed value) × (levy rate). I pulled the assessed value history for this exact parcel from the County Assessor's own valuation records to see which one actually moved.
| Assessed year | Total assessed value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | $119,100 | — |
| 2022 | $119,100 | flat |
| 2023 | $149,800 | +25.8% |
| 2024 | $149,800 | flat |
| 2025 | $176,300 | +17.7% |
| 2026 | $176,300 | flat |
The pattern lines up almost exactly. The 2023 valuation jump (+25.8%) matches the 2023 bill jump (+24.3%). The 2024 valuation was flat — yet the bill dropped 23.4% that year, which means the levy rate itself came down substantially in 2024, separate from anything about my house. Then in 2025, valuation jumped again (+17.7%) and the bill followed (+21.7%) — a bit more than valuation alone explains, meaning the effective rate crept up slightly too (1.617% of value in 2024 to 1.672% in 2025).
Where the 2025 dollar actually goes
The Treasurer's record itemizes the full levy by authority. This is who gets a share of every dollar on this specific bill — not a statewide average, this parcel's actual distribution:
| Authority | Share of the bill |
|---|---|
| Omaha Public Schools | 54.9% |
| City of Omaha | 21.4% |
| Douglas County | 14.1% |
| Metro Area Transit | 4.9% |
| Metro Community College | 1.0% |
| N.R.D. | 1.5% |
| City-County Building | 0.8% |
| Educational Service Unit + Learning Community | 1.4% |
More than half of every dollar goes to the school district. That's not unusual for Nebraska — it's the design. But it means a state-level executive order about "property tax relief" is touching money that mostly funds local schools, city services, and the county, not itself.
How does this compare across Nebraska? Checked, not assumed.
One parcel proves nothing about a pattern. Before asking anyone else's question, I pulled the Nebraska Department of Revenue's own statewide comparison — 2024-to-2025 valuation change, state total and all 93 counties, published by the Property Assessment Division itself.
| County | 2024 → 2025 valuation change |
|---|---|
| Lancaster (Lincoln) | +9.8% |
| Nebraska statewide total | +9.6% |
| Scotts Bluff (panhandle) | +7.9% |
| Hall (Grand Island) | +7.8% |
| Sarpy (Omaha suburbs) | +7.1% |
| Douglas (my own county) | +6.8% |
| Dodge (Fremont) | +5.7% |
| Custer (central ag) | +5.2% |
| This parcel (address withheld) | +17.7% |
This changes what the real question is. Every county checked rose that year — valuations went up across Nebraska, urban and rural alike, which tells me the underlying pressure (rising home values, rising construction and material costs) is real and statewide, not a Douglas County problem. But my own parcel rose more than double even Lancaster County's rate, the fastest of the six counties checked, and 2.5× my own county's average. That's not a question for a state senator about a relief fund. That's a question for the Douglas County Assessor about how one specific 1955 raised ranch on a fifth-acre lot got valued the way it did — a different, more answerable question than "why did Nebraska taxes go up."
I haven't yet compared my parcel's 2025 valuation against a few genuinely similar homes nearby, in my own neighborhood. That's the real test of whether 17.7% is a fair reassessment of a genuinely undervalued property, or an outlier worth formally appealing. Real next step, not done yet — the county's own protest/appeal window and process would be the honest path, not a guess published here.
What the Governor's order actually says, and what it doesn't
What it doesn't say: a per-household dollar figure. Not for me, not for anyone. It's a fund-level number, not a bill-level promise.
The one mechanism that IS confirmed and does reach a bill directly
Separately from this specific order: LB 34, passed in a 2024 special session, changed how Nebraska's existing school-district property tax credit works. Before 2024, that credit had to be claimed separately on a state income tax return (Form PTC). Since LB 34, the school-district portion is applied automatically, directly on the county tax statement itself — meaning the $2,422.34 (2024) and $2,947.88 (2025) figures above already have that credit built in. The bill still went up 21.7% the year after the credit was already being applied automatically. The credit didn't fail; it was simply smaller than the valuation increase underneath it.
Whether EO 25-13's specific $20 million reached this parcel, and how much of it, isn't something a homeowner can trace from public records alone. The state publishes fund totals, not a per-parcel breakdown of which executive order contributed what. That gap is itself worth naming: if the relief is real, a homeowner should be able to see it, not just be told it exists.
So what would actually make it go down?
Based on what the record itself shows, two real levers exist, and a state relief fund touches only one of them partially:
- The assessed valuation — the biggest driver by far (+48% since 2021). A valuation cap or a homestead exemption would touch this lever directly. This is, for the record, the specific policy Lynne Walz has publicly called for in this year's Governor's race — universal homestead exemptions and a valuations cap. Named here because it's the specific proposal that matches this specific problem, not as an endorsement.
- The levy rate itself — set independently by the city, county, school district, and every other authority on the list above. A credit fund routed through the state doesn't lower the rate any of those bodies set; it offsets part of the bill after the rate is already applied.
A relief fund is real money and it's not nothing. But it's addressing the second lever with a partial offset, while the first lever — the one that actually explains most of what happened to this bill — isn't something an executive order can touch at all.
Check it yourself
- Douglas County Treasurer — search any parcel
- Douglas County Assessor's valuation records (Beacon)
- Executive Order 25-13, Governor's own release
- Nebraska Dept. of Revenue — how the property tax credit actually works
Every number on this page came from a real parcel search or a real government release. Search your own address the same way — the county's tools are free and public, the same ones used here.
What's actually on the record
My assessed value rose 48% in five years. My bill rose 21% over six, with a lot of motion in between. The one confirmed relief mechanism that reaches my bill directly is already baked into the numbers above, and the bill still went up. A state fund exists; a per-parcel accounting of what it did for me does not.
I'm not telling anyone what to conclude from that. I'm telling forty-nine state senators the same six years of numbers, and asking them the same question I'm asking here: what would it actually take?
Would you believe me if I told you? Don't. The county's own site is right there.