Nebraska’s November General Fund tax revenues are in, and the good news is that revenue forecasts were both exceeded by actual collections for both the month and the fiscal year. According to a press release from the Nebraska Department of Revenue, the month of November saw revenues 14.3% above the certified forecast and revenues for the...
As health officials advise to avoid large family gatherings this Thanksgiving, and gas prices remain on the lower side, many Americans might take to the highways for a road trip with the people in their COVID bubble. Though AAA travel projections show a major reduction in travel plans from last Thanksgiving, particularly among air passengers,...
The Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board met today and increased the forecast for the expected tax revenue the state will receive during the 2020-2021 fiscal year. While this was one of the regularly scheduled meetings, this meeting had a completely different mood and focus due to the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and recent legislative changes....
Where did all the CARES Act money go in Nebraska? Federal taxpayers in Nebraska have a right to know the answer. The Platte Institute published a report calling for more transparency in mid-September, and less than a month later the state published its dashboard providing that added transparency. The state’s dashboard shows that $587 million...
Your local property taxes go to your local community, and your state income and sales taxes pay for state services, right? Sometimes. But did you know that a significant amount of your state taxes are also redistributed back to local governments across Nebraska? According to a new report from the Nebraska Department of Revenue, in...
Sarah Curry joined KGFW’s Talk of the Town to discuss her new report, which reviews the transparency of the state’s tracking website for COVID-19 relief funds. Read the full report here.
Nebraska’s state budget is growing, but what area of spending is the largest and growing the fastest? Contrary to what many believe, K-12 education is not the largest expenditure in state government. Health and human services and higher education are larger state spending areas, with the state Department of Education coming in behind these two categories....
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit our nation, Congress reacted by enacting a historic $2 trillion spending plan to keep our nation from falling into financial ruin. In total, there have been four pieces[1] of federal legislation enacted with the intent to help individuals and states combat the health and economic crisis that occurred, of which...
When Senate Republicans released their next relief package, called the HEALS Act or CARES 2, on July 27, a flurry of news stories were published about the contents. The new proposal is a $1 trillion package as a follow up to the CARES Act and a response to the House Democrats’ $3 trillion HEROES Act. Most...
Normally the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board would not meet in July, but because of the pandemic, the Legislature needed an update to know how to proceed with bills that would impact the budget amid the uncertain times. The last time the forecasting board met was in February and the revenue picture was very positive. This...
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Today is the new tax filing deadline in Nebraska. Today is also when the Department of Revenue released the state’s tax revenue figures for the month of June and for the last fiscal year (FY2019-2020). It is important to note that Nebraska’s phase 3 of directed health measures went into effect on June 22. So,...
Nebraska Legislature Revenue Committee Chair Sen. Lou Ann Linehan joined Platte Institute CEO Jim Vokal on unresolved tax policy issues facing the Unicameral in its scheduled return later this month. On a webinar last week, Speaker Jim Scheer emphasized that property tax reform would be a key focus area before the legislative calendar came to an...
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is one of the largest parts of the federal government’s CARES Act relief legislation. The PPP provides loans intended to help small businesses—those with 500 or fewer employees—maintain their payroll, hire back any employees who were laid off, and cover applicable overhead expenses such as rent and utilities. Detailed data...