LINCOLN — Douglas County Treasurer John Ewing has joined his Sarpy County counterpart in getting sued over the mistaken distribution of millions of dollars of in-lieu-of-tax revenue.

In a lawsuit filed July 1, the Westside Community School District is seeking at least $11 million in tax revenue. The district maintains that money was wrongly distributed to other school districts in Douglas County during 2019-2021.

A similar lawsuit was filed last year in Sarpy County by four school districts: Omaha, Millard, Gretna, and Springfield Platteview. They allege they were underpaid by about $6.5 million during those three years because of mistaken calculations by the Sarpy County treasurer.

Both lawsuits concern in-lieu-of-taxes funds from the Omaha Public Power District. The utility pays the tax based on a percentage of its electric sales instead of local property taxes.

OPPD paid roughly $26 million of in-lieu-of-taxes in Douglas County last year which was then distributed to the school districts, cities, and the county.

The Nebraska State Auditor's Office alerted Sarpy County in 2021, however, of incorrect distribution of the tax payments. A similar alert was sent to the Douglas County Treasurer's Office in May.

It stated that the Westside, Elkhorn, Millard, and Ralston school districts had been underpaid by amounts ranging from $800,000 in one year to $4.2 million. Meanwhile, the Omaha School District, the City of Omaha, and Douglas County had been overpaid by up to $5.6 million.

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