Posted 12:05 AM by Susan Darst Williams

$115 MILLION AT STAKE IN OPS OVERRIDE

Property valuation within the Omaha Public Schools is reported as $13,404,229,713. That means if the OPS tax-limit override Nov. 5 is successful and OPS is allowed to tax another 15 cents per $100 valuation in each of the next five years, it'll bring about $23 million extra per year, or an additional $115 million, into OPS coffers.

Viewed another way, the owner of a house in OPS valued for tax purposes at $100,000 would have to pay an additional $150 a year, because you take the tax levy rate times the valuation of the property. So a $100,000 homeowner would be paying a minimum of an additional $750 over the next five years. A $200,000 homeowner would be out an extra $1,500. And so on. And that's if property valuations don't rise . . . which they will.

At least, they will based on the past in OPS. In the 1985-86 school year, valuations totaled $6,171,125,148, according to OPS budget documents. So they've more than doubled in less than 20 years.