Nebraska auditor finds nearly 1 billion dollars of accounting errors in Lancaster County treasurer’s office
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – If you ask Nebraska State Auditor Mike Foley what happened to the nearly 1 billion dollars of accounting errors he discovered in the Lancaster County Treasurer’s office, he’d tell you it did not disappear.
The mistakes are a result of duplicated collections, duplicated disbursements and incorrect payments to the state and other government agencies.
Foley’s 35-page report pinpointed specific amounts misstated such as $66,000 in overpayment to the City of Lincoln’s Property Tax Commission.
Foley says some government agencies were overpaid to the tune of around $215,000 like the Lincoln Airport Authority, which will have to pay it back.
“I want to point out that nobody stole the money. It’s not a question of embezzlement. It’s more of a question of just really, really sloppy accounting practices that the county board cannot rely on the financial statements that are given to them because they’re wrong,” said Foley in a phone interview with Channel 8 on Tuesday.
Foley’s report says the state also appears to have been underpaid about $1.27 million in unused property tax credits from 2023 through 2025, while other findings include improperly distributed motor vehicle funds and homestead funds too.
Channel 8 was unable to reach Lancaster County Treasurer Rachel Garver for comment, but she has publicly stated that above all else, she wants taxpayers to know that no property taxes were lost or missing.
“Our office did not misallocate anywhere close to a billion dollars in taxpayer funds or property tax credit money,” she said.
As for the overpayment to the Airport Authority, Garver says the matter has been discussed with airport officials.
She says they are reviewing it, but she expects the overpayment will soon be returned.
Foley told Channel 8 that the error creates a lot of chaos in local governments.
“The key task of the treasurer is to allocate money between different units of local government. When I pay my property taxes, I don’t write 20 different checks. I write one check to the treasurer and then the treasurer takes that money and divvies it up,” he said.
Currently, Foley says Garver told him that she’s fixed most of the problems and there is no concern for property owners at this time.
He adds that county audits are not usually done every year, but in this case, due to the magnitude of the mistakes out of the Lancaster County Treasurer’s office, they can expect to see him sooner than later to follow up.
