The Omaha World Herald reports that the Fremont City Council in Nebraska will consider a 2011 budget that includes property tax hikes to help pay for the defense of the city’s recently voted-approved anti-immigrant law which imposes a ban on hiring or renting property to undocumented immigrants in the small community of 25,000 people. Both the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) sued on the basis that the ordinance is discriminatory. Officials have estimated that the cost of implementation, including defending it in court, will average $1 million per year. As a result, Fremont taxpayers are now facing a potential 18 percent increase in property taxes:

A proposed property tax hike to defend Fremont’s controversial immigration law is heading to the City Council. The council at its Aug. 31 meeting will consider a 2011 budget that includes $750,000 to help pay the projected annual cost of defending the voter-approved ordinance. The public will have an opportunity to comment. [...]

City Administrator Robert Hartwig said the council most likely will not vote on the proposed 18 percent increase in the city’s portion of the property tax rate until Sept. 14. If approved, the owner of a $200,000 house would pay about $116 more in taxes next year.

Fremont’s controversial ordinance was written and will be defended by the same lawyer who wrote Arizona’s tough immigration law, Kris Kobach of the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) — the legal arm of a designated hate group. Besides fluffing Kobach’s pay check, the city of Fremont will be expected to cover his travel and lodging fees, as well as outside assistance such as expert witnesses and support personnel.

Kobach, who is also running for Kansas Secretary of State, touts the role he has played in fighting ACLU lawsuits in Hazleton, PA and Farmers Branch, TX on his campaign website. However, what he doesn’t mention is the profit he has made off of the exorbitant costs associated with defending the legally questionable legislation he credits himself with writing. Farmers Branch, a small town of 30,000 people, has spent $3.2 million to repeal a federal district judge decision which deemed the town’s rental ban ordinance unconstitutional and may have to spend an additional $623,000 this year. It appears Hazleton will also be on the hook for the $2.4 million it has acquired in attorneys fees. A federal judge struck down Hazleton’s law and the city’s mayor, who “has no regrets,” predicts that costs could rise at least another $2 million if it loses at the federal appeals court level.

Right-wing anti-Islam activist David Horowitz’s Frontpage website has a post attacking conservative activist Grover Norquist for, among other things, having a Muslim wife, possibly being Muslim himself, as well as for distributing a letter calling on Republicans to resist engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric or risk “alienating millions of Arab American and Muslim American voters who believe, as we do, in the principles of our party — individual liberty, traditional values, and the rule of law.”

While Norquist himself did not sign the letter, Frontpage notes that “another signatory of the letter is Suhail Khan, a long-time associate of Norquist’s,” and levels this charge:

Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy, told me that an FBI Special Agent involved in terrorism investigations informed him that Khan is indeed a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Contacted for comment, Khan, who is currently the Senior Fellow for Christian-Muslim Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement, laughed, “If that’s true, they haven’t sent me my membership card.” More seriously, Khan said “This is a ridiculous claim, I’ve never been a member of that organization. Gaffney has been caught in lie after lie over the years, and this is just one of many.”

Khan recently appeared on the Rachel Maddow show, talking to guest host Chris Hayes about the Park 51 controversy and the upsurge in anti-Muslim rhetoric from conservatives.

Given Frank Gaffney’s record of demonstrably false assertions, goggle-eyed fear-mongering and outright conspiracy theories — he once wrote that President Obama “may still be a Muslim,” and recently claimed that “Hezbollah is training on the US-Mexico border” — it’s not hard to decide who to believe here.

Still, it’s a serious charge. And it’s worth asking why an unnamed “FBI Special Agent involved in terrorism investigations” would possibly share information with the likes of Frank Gaffney. I’ve contacted the FBI for comment, will update when they respond.