I recently had the opportunity of catching up with David Brunori whom I worked with extensively on the Blueprint Nebraska Tax Modernization plan. David is nationally known as a journalist, author, educator, and lawyer who specializes in state and local tax policy. In our podcast hosted by Jim Vokal and the Platte Institute, David and...
Full expensing is the ideal tax policy to help Nebraska catalyze economic growth, attract capital investment, and re-shore supply chains in 2024. Full expensing allows a business to write off the cost of new investment immediately rather than spreading out investment cost recovery over as long as 20 years. It is a subtle change that...
The concept of ‘creative destruction’, coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter, where innovative market changes lead to the downfall of older, less efficient business models, aptly describes the transformative impact of technology on holiday shopping. While shopping habits during the rest of the year guided the market trends, consumers’ habits during the holiday seasons significantly influenced...
The second session of the 108th Nebraska Legislature will convene January 3rd, 2024. The 2024 session is a 60-day “short session.” Legislative activity will proceed at full speed, with much to accomplish right from the start. Following an anticipated rules debate, senators will begin debating the many carryover priority bills from the 2023 session. This...
To download the full “Nebraska’s Path to the Top Ten Report” click here. Summary Nebraska entered 2022 with one of the least-competitive tax systems in a highly competitive region. But then a structural surge in tax revenues was utilized by lawmakers to perform Nebraska’s two-year tax transformation. Across two governors and two years, Nebraska lawmakers...
The Cato Institute’s recent release of its new “Freedom in the 50 States” index should provide Nebraska policymakers with some good information to consider as they head into the 2024 legislative session. Cato is a national policy think tank focusing on individual liberty, limited government, and free markets. The bottom line in the index: Nebraska’s...
Writing in the pages of National Review, Platte CEO Jim Vokal and I described Nebraska’s 2023 tax reform as the best in the nation. Property taxes and income taxes were both cut and reformed in 2023. And that’s not all. Coupled with meaningful reforms in 2022, the total two-year tax relief will be worth $3000...
As any high school civics teacher tries to impress upon distracted teenagers, the federal and state legislative branches pass laws, and the executive branch is responsible for carrying them out. But to facilitate the implementation of laws, administrative rules are created to provide guidance related to the law after it is codified. In Nebraska, the...
Nebraska has the potential to become an exemplar in using artificial technology to bridge the gap in the State’s workforce by providing employment opportunities to those currently excluded from the labor market. Nebraska boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in the United States, standing at 2 percent, tied for the fifth lowest in the...
Nebraska policymakers are being called upon to address a problem that afflicts nearly every state across the country. Rapidly rising property values are stressing homeowners, particularly when property taxes rise proportionate to property values. As a result, homeowners are turning to public officials for solutions. It is fair to say that this problem exists in...
Nebraska led the states with the nation’s best tax reform in 2023, overhauling its income tax and property tax in one fell swoop. Nebraska’s individual and business income tax will both fall to 3.99% in coming years, boosting the state’s competitiveness in the nation’s most tax-competitive region. Nebraska’s fiscal accomplishments in 2023 will naturally leave...
Nebraska’s Opportunity Scholarships Act program, enacted in LB 753, creates a pathway for Nebraska students to learn and thrive in the education environment that suits them best. The program provides $25 million per year for roughly 5,000 students to enroll in a private school rather than a public school. Nebraska’s school choice program is funded...
The Platte Institute has focused significantly on workforce licensing reform for the last seven years. From making it easier for natural hair braiders to practice their craft to requiring reviews of every license required by the state to work on a five-year cycle, we’ve seen some successes in our efforts to make it easier for...
Property owners in southeast Nebraska should brace for sticker shock ahead of next year’s property tax bills. The Board of Governors for the Southeast Community College system (SCC) voted on Tuesday to raise property taxes by roughly 40% across the 15-county service area, according to coverage by the Lincoln Journal Star. Tuesday’s preliminary approval will...