Fremont May Hike Taxes To Pay For Court Battle
August 23, 2010

Fremont, NE - If you live in Fremont you may want to listen up. Fremont city leaders are calling upon business owners and homeowners to pay for the city's controversial immigration legal battle. The new law passed by voters earlier this year makes it illegal to hire or rent-to illegal immigrants. With lawsuits looming, a judge has stopped the law from going into effect and now Fremont's looking for a way to pay for what could be a lengthy court battle.

City leaders are making it clear in Fremont they want the help of the people. Bob Hartwig, Fremont's City Administrator says, "We'll use the $750,000 to pay for the legal fees related to the immigration ordinance." He said he has to be responsible for the city's budget and after looking at several options the tax increase appeared to be the best, "We looked at five possible choices and in the end we found that really the only 2 cost effective were Kris Kobach or L.A.R.M.'s attorney," Hartwig said. That means your taxes on your home and business property will increase 18-percent. In order to understand it better, if your home is assessed at $200,000, you will pay exactly $116 or more in property tax in the coming years.

Tony Miller voted for the immigration law. The thought of paying more on his property tax doesn't really bother him, "I think if that's what's proposed, it'll be voted on and if it gets passed it gets passed," Miller said.

State Senator Charlie Janssen has been a key proponent in the debate on Immigration reform. He says the increase was imminent and that if you voted, you knew. "Both sides of the issue in Fremont at least were very up front and when they both said this is what the tax increase would be or the proposed tax increase if we did have to take this battle," Janssen said.

Still the idea of having to pay for a lengthy and costly court battle doesn't sit well with one resident, "I think it's really sad that the local homeowner, people that are hardworking, are going to have to fund this and it's going to end in a failure," resident Jim Orr said.

http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=13032502