All property owners in Seward County should recently have received pink postcards inviting them to a joint public hearing on the Seward County and City of Milford budgets and tax levies for 2025-26.
Representatives from the Seward County Board of Commissioners and the Milford City Council will appear to present information and answer questions about their proposed budgets at the state-mandated “pink postcard” hearing at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22, at Harvest Hall, Seward County Fairgrounds.
While the tax levy for Seward County is actually set to decrease, the total tax revenue requested exceeded its allowable growth of 3.1%, so Seward County Commission Chair Misty Ahmic will present information on the budget at the hearing.
The increase in the actual tax asking is $601,054, or 5.82%.
Allowable growth is a percentage based on the increase in total property values from the prior year, which varies from entity to entity based on the changes in its tax base.
Seward County’s valuation rose from $3,784,863,148 in 2024-25 to $4,172,554,801 in 2025-26, an increase of more than $387.6 million.
With a tax request of $10,923,481 this year, the county would need a levy of 26.1794 cents per $100 tax valuation, a decrease of a little more than 1 cent from last year’s levy of 27.2729 cents.
That means property valued at $100,000 last year was taxed about $272.73 and this year would be taxed roughly $261.79 for the county’s portion of tax revenues if they had no change in valuation. If the valuation has changed, the percentage would be applied to the new valuation, meaning taxes could increase more than the change in the levy.
The county’s proposed $10,923,481 tax request includes general fund expenditures for all county departments and $675,000 for debt service on the bond issue for construction of the Justice Center.
Among the largest departmental budgets for the county are $2,394,856 for the sheriff’s office, a 25.05% increase, $1,683,001 for the jail, a 6.43% increase, $1,175, 569 for the county attorney’s office, a 10.15% increase, $596,797 for building and grounds, a 0.88% increase, $492,186 for the county treasurer’s office, a 6.83% increase, $440,448 for the county assessor’s office, a 10.54% increase, $363,819 for public transit, an 11.22% decrease from last year, and $304,172 for district court, a 5.58% increase.
The county clerk’s office has $230,965 in the budget, a 3.81% increase, plus $114,610 for election-related functions, a 0.1% decrease.
The budget for Seward County roads includes $148,477 for the highway superintendent’s office, a 6.32% increase, and $4,881,271 for roads, a 3.56% decrease, which are tax funded. The department’s total budget also includes $4,000,000 in possible road grants, $1,201,479 for road buy back and $2,778,489 for special road funds which are predominantly supported by state and federal funding so do not factor into the tax asking.
Several county programs, like the truancy programs, child support and property reappraisals are supported at least in part by state and federal funds, other grants or fees anticipated though not necessarily guaranteed, which brings the county’s total operating budget to $46,719,725. That also includes $5.6 million in the Inheritance Fund, and $825,000 in the American Rescue Plan Fund, which carries over year to year for specified purposes.
Milford tax asking
up 8 percent
The City of Milford’s 2025-2026 proposed tax revenues have been set at $842,744, which is 8% higher than the 2024-25 tax asking of $777,074. The city’s valuation increased 6%, moving from $161,920,085 to $170,924,535 based on information provided by the city.
The expected levy will be 49.3050 cents per $100 valuation, 3% higher than the 2024-25 levy of 47.9912 cents.
The city’s total operating budget – including property tax revenue, state funding and other income – will be $10,390,330, up 25% from last year’s $8,329,720.
City Clerk-Treasurer Jeanne Hoggins said the city will continue to use state revolving funds to extend its water main replacement project along F Street into the Valley View area and Park Avenue this fiscal year.
Some Seward County residents will receive invitations to a pink postcard hearings in neighboring counties, as well. Property owners in the East Butler, Crete and Dorchester school districts received notice about hearings in Butler and Saline counties.
The property tax requests received by the Seward County Clerk for these districts included this information:
East Butler Public School District – Current valuation $1,302,797,378, past valuation $1,111,798,422, property tax request $8,269,583.
Crete Public School District – Current valuation $1,790,575,048, past valuation $1,538,575,894, property tax request $14,156,939.
Dorchester Public School District – Current valuation $429,935,953, past valuation $473,163,606, property tax request $3,106,061.
Since 2021, Nebraska law has required county clerks across the state to mail pink postcards to the property owners in the political subdivisions participating, inviting them to a public hearing, which was quickly dubbed the pink postcard hearing.
After the public hearings, the county, the Milford council and others participating in this process can alter their budgets or proceed as now planned, submitting their final information to the Seward County Board of Examiners (comprised of the Seward County Board of Commissioners) for a final hearing and approval of all Seward County taxes to be assessed for the current budget year.
The law prescribes the information included for each taxpayer outlining parcel information, assessment value for this and the previous year, and the tax asking only for the identified political subdivisions for this and the previous year and what the difference will be – for that political subdivision only.
When all political subdivisions have submitted their tax requests, the Seward County assessor totals all taxable property valuations by the appropriate taxing entity to determine each property owners’ tax responsibility.
The actual tax rate per property depends upon which city, village, school district, natural resources district, or other taxing entities include their property. Some properties will also be taxed by less common entities, like the Seward Airport Authority.
