(Picture credit Matt Johnson)
Auditor Mike Foley announced Tuesday morning that he had discovered nearly $1 billion in accounting errors by the Lancaster County Treasurer, Rachel Garver. Some of the errors affected the amount of property tax relief residents were owed.
Foley found that Lancaster County, the State of Nebraska, and every taxing authority in Lancaster County “received disproportionate shares of revenues to which they were legally entitled.” The state of Nebraska also did not receive a proper $1.2 million payment that would have gone into the Property Tax Credit Cash Fund, which would have been given back to property taxpayers in the form of tax relief.
The Auditor’s Office, in a press release, called the errors a “gross mishandling of local tax revenues.”
“Nebraska has the sixth-highest property tax rate in the country, which is an enormous burden on this state’s citizens. The County Treasurer’s error directly reduced the money available for providing much-needed property tax relief for hardworking Nebraskans,” Foley said. “There is no telling how long this problem would have continued if my office had not found it.”
The largest accounting error by the treasurer was in regard to the “Semi-Annual Statement” published in January and July each year. The report publishes the amount of money received and disbursed by the county for the past six month period.
Foley said he found over $950,000,000 in misstatements across both six-month periods published by the county treasurer’s office.
“When all is said and done,” Foley said. “The County Treasurer’s accounting was so lacking that she managed to report twice the amount of revenues actually received. According to her, more than $2 billion was collected during 2025. The correct number was a little over $1 billion.”
“Conjuring almost $1 billion out of thin air is hardly a rounding error,” he added.
The auditor’s office flagged over a dozen categorical errors by Garver’s office, including: failure to calculate properly the distributions of the Motor Vehicle Pro-Rate, Homestead Exemption credit, and payments in lieu of taxes received for two municipalities; incorrect withholdings on the taxes collected on behalf of the Lincoln Airport Authority; overpayments on the motor vehicle rental taxes given to the county; untimely recording of investment interest, totaling over $2 million; and failure to perform a routine reconciliation of taxes to be collected.
Foley noted that Garver “was completely cooperative during the audit process” and has “pledged immediate action to address the problems.”
County Treasurer Responds
In a statement to The Plains Sentinel, Garver said she takes “full responsibility for all actions and oversights within my office” and “appreciate these items being brought to my attention, so we can maintain the high standards of accuracy and integrity expected of the County Treasurer’s Office.”
She added that the errors “created the appearance of nearly one billion dollars in discrepancies” but that the one billion dollar error “did not affect the distribution of property taxes.”
“It is important for taxpayers to know that our office did not misallocate anywhere close to a billion dollars in taxpayer funds or property tax credit money,” she said. “There was approximately three million dollars in over‑ and under‑payments. Those errors have been fully identified, corrected, and reconciled. No taxpayer money was lost, and all distributions have now been accurately aligned with statutory requirements.”
— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.
Dang, how do we elect so many incompetent people?
Well, I'm glad I don't live in Lancaster County.