Part 5 of Understanding the Tax Impact: What Could a Large Privately Owned Development Mean for Property Taxes?
- Cass County Facts
- Aug 6
- 5 min read
Over the past four articles, we've built a foundation for understanding how Nebraska's property tax system works.
We've covered:
How property taxes are calculated.
How homes, farmland, commercial, and industrial property are valued.
How billion-dollar facilities like power plants and data centers are assessed.
Why ownership matters when discussing property taxes.
Now it's time to answer one of the biggest questions we've seen:
"If a privately owned power plant and a large industrial partner were built in Cass County, how could that affect property taxes?"
The answer is both simple and complicated. The simple answer is: It depends.
The more complete answer requires understanding the county's tax base.
First, An Important Disclaimer
Before we discuss any numbers, we want to be very clear. This article is not a prediction.
There is currently:
No approved project
No final engineering plans
No official assessed value
No final tax valuation
Because those things do not exist today, no one can accurately predict future tax bills. Instead, what we're going to do is demonstrate how Nebraska's property tax system works using one illustrative scenario based on publicly available industry data.
Think of this as a financial model—not a forecast.
Understanding the Tax Base
Imagine Cass County as one large pie.
Every taxable property owns a slice. Homes. Farmland. Businesses. Commercial buildings. Industrial facilities.
The combined value of every taxable property creates the county's tax base.
Today, Cass County's certified taxable valuation is approximately:
$5.27 Billion
That value supports the budgets of:
Cass County Government
School Districts
Fire Districts
Educational Service Units
Natural Resource Districts
Community Colleges
Other local taxing entities
An Illustrative Scenario
Now let's imagine a hypothetical scenario. Again...
This is NOT a prediction.
For this example, we'll assume:
A privately owned natural gas power plant is constructed.
The power plant has an estimated taxable value of approximately $1.8 billion.
A privately owned industrial partner (such as a hyperscale data center) is constructed.
The industrial facility has an estimated taxable value of approximately $4.5 billion.
Local governments continue collecting approximately the same amount of property tax revenue they collect today.
Those assumptions allow us to illustrate how Nebraska's property tax formula works.
What Happens to the Tax Base?
Current Cass County Taxable Valuation
Approximately $5.27 Billion
Estimated Additional Valuation
Private Power Plant
+$1.80 Billion
Industrial Partner
+$4.50 Billion
Estimated New Total Tax Base
Approximately $11.57 Billion
That would represent an increase of approximately:
120%
In other words...
The county's taxable valuation would more than double.
Why Does That Matter?
Remember what we learned in Part 1. Property taxes are calculated by applying tax levies to taxable property. If the amount of taxable property increases substantially while local governments need to raise the same amount of money...
The levy required to generate that revenue could decrease.
That's why taxable valuation is such an important part of this discussion.
County Government Example
Using today's county levy as an example:
Current County Levy
0.354316
Estimated New County Levy
0.161314
That's a potential reduction of approximately:
54.5%
Again...
This is not because the county government is collecting less money. It's because the same revenue would be spread across a much larger tax base.
What About Our Schools?
Schools receive one of the largest portions of every property tax bill.
Current Conestoga Public Schools taxable valuation is approximately:
$1.11 Billion
With a Data Center and Power Plant, this would grow to:
Approximately
$7.41 Billion
That's an increase of more than:
560%
If future school budgets remained unchanged, the district could theoretically raise the same amount of revenue using a lower levy.
Whether that actually happens depends on future school budgets, state aid formulas, and decisions made by future school boards.
What Could This Mean for a Homeowner?
Let's make this more personal.
Assume a homeowner owns a home with an assessed value of:
$330,000
Under today's county and school levies (excluding other taxing entities), that homeowner might pay approximately:
Current Tax Amount
Current County & School Property Taxes:
Approximately $3,747
Using our illustrative scenario:
New Estimated Tax Amount with Increase Tax Base from Data Center and Power Plant
New Estimated County & School Property Taxes:
Approximately $830
Potential Difference:
Approximately $2,917 Annual Savings to Homeowner
Again...
This is an illustration showing what the formula produces under one set of assumptions.
It is not a prediction of future tax bills.
What About Farmers?
Agriculture remains one of Cass County's largest contributors to the tax base.
Using one acre of dry cropland assessed at approximately:
$5,956
Today's county and school taxes might total approximately:
Current Tax Amount
$65 per acre
New Tax Amount with Increased Tax Base:
$14 per acre
Difference:
Approximately
$51 Savings per acre
Again...
This assumes:
The same local budgets.
The same tax structure.
The same illustrative assessed values.
Actual future taxes would depend on many factors.
Why We Continue to Say "Example" and "Estimated"
You may notice we've used those words repeatedly. That's intentional.
There are many variables that could change these calculations, including:
Final construction cost.
Final assessed values.
State legislation.
Future county budgets.
Future school budgets.
State aid formulas.
Tax incentives.
Equipment depreciation.
Future property valuations.
Inflation.
Because none of those things are known today, it would be inappropriate to claim anyone knows exactly what future taxes will be. What we can do is explain the mathematics behind the system.
So... Will Taxes Go Down?
That's the question everyone wants answered. The honest answer is:
No one knows exactly what future tax bills will be.
However...
If billions of dollars in privately owned taxable property were added to Cass County, the county's tax base would increase substantially. A larger tax base creates the potential for lower levy rates if local governments continue raising similar amounts of revenue.
Whether that translates into lower property tax bills depends on future decisions made by elected officials, future property valuations, state law, and many other factors.
Why We're Sharing This
We've seen everything from:
"Your taxes will be cut in half."
to
"There will be no tax benefit at all."
Neither statement tells the whole story. Property taxes are more complicated than that. Our goal is not to tell readers what will happen. Our goal is to explain how Nebraska's property tax system works so everyone can better understand why taxable valuation has become such an important part of this conversation.
Read the previous articles here:
Coming Soon
In the final article of this series, we'll explain another important piece of Nebraska's property tax system:
Property Tax Credits
We'll cover:
Real Property Tax Credit
School District Property Tax Relief Credit
Homestead Exemption
How these credits appear on your property tax statement
Why they're funded by the State of Nebraska
How they work alongside local property taxes
Understanding these credits completes the picture of how Nebraskans actually calculate the amount they pay each year.
Sources
The information in this article is based on publicly available information from:
Cass County Certification of Taxable Value
Cass County Assessor's Office
Nebraska Department of Revenue – Property Assessment Division
Nebraska Revised Statutes (Chapter 77)
U.S. Census Bureau
Industry construction cost estimates for combined-cycle natural gas power plants and hyperscale data centers
Publicly available assessment guidance for commercial and industrial property
Important Note: The examples in this article are illustrative calculations intended to demonstrate how Nebraska's property tax formula works under a defined set of assumptions. They are not predictions or guarantees of future tax bills, future assessments, or future government budgets.
