Sustainable tax reform depends upon sustainable revenue sources. And while Platte Institute has been critical of a state-local tax swap because it uses state funds to subsidize local spending, it’s also worth clarifying that not all state funding sources are created equally. Regardless of Platte’s position on tax swaps, no tax reform should be built...
As Platte Institute wrote in National Review last year, Nebraska achieved the best tax reform in the country in 2023, delivering long-overdue income tax reform and dramatically enhancing the state’s competitiveness. It was the type of achievement that lawmakers wait a whole career to accomplish. The 2023 income tax reform will phase in over several...
LB1092, the Adopt the Online Age Verification Liability Act, is currently being considered by the Legislature. This would require age verification for potentially harmful content to anyone under 18. The definition of harmful is taken from Miller v. California. 413 U.S. 15 (1973). The law reads, “A commercial entity shall not knowingly and intentionally publish...
Capital flows to where it is most welcome. A state’s tax burden is one factor that contributes to how welcoming a state is to new flows of capital. This lesson should always be on the mind of state lawmakers as they adjust their state tax code each year. While reforming the tax code is important,...
LB43 introduced by Sen. Rita Sanders–an important bill supported by the Platte Institute, and made the vehicle for several Government Committee priority bills– passed Final Reading in the Legislature today. As introduced, LB43 directs hearing officers and judges, when interpreting state statutes or regulations contested under the Administrative Procedures Act, not to defer to a...
The Platte Institute has been one of the leaders in advancing the cause of occupational licensing reform since 2017. It took a leap year, February 29, for Nebraska to see the latest reform efforts, with the passage on Final Reading of LB16. Today’s passage represents the fifth year that some version of this bill has...
Educational freedom – often reduced to “school choice” – is expanding nationwide, and Nebraska joined in last year with passage of the Opportunity Scholarship Act. This occurred, perhaps not coincidentally, as school districts and states all over the country were being racked by culture war. The need for freedom in education – self-determination that ends...
Governor Jim Pillen seeks to cut Nebraska property taxes by 40% through a tax package that includes raising new state tax revenues in order to fund local property tax cuts. Gov. Pillen seeks $2 billion in new property tax relief balanced against $5.3 billion in total property taxes. In Platte Institute’s assessment of the options...
Sin taxes are levied on products that are believed to have a societal cost. And tobacco products are a frequent target for sin taxes. Yet ironically, high cigarette taxes create their own societal costs because they result in illicit interstate smuggling and criminal behavior. A pack of cigarettes in Chicago includes a whopping $7.16 in...
The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups. —Henry Hazlitt, Economics in One Lesson (1946) For over half a century, policymakers have addressed...
As the 2024 session passes the one-third complete mark, it’s worth reflecting on one issue that isn’t on the table this year: the right to repair consumer technology. Although Nebraska was in the national spotlight when it debated the credibility of such a policy a few years ago, it will not be on the table...
Two months ago, we made note of the Cato Institute’s Freedom ranking, which places Nebraska towards the bottom (at 38th) of the 50-state analysis of freedom components. A new ranking system—a “Federalism Scorecard” has just been released by the Center for Practical Federalism, and Nebraska’s ranking on that index is even lower—at 43rd. This latest...
A well-structured retail sales tax raises revenue with minimal distortion to economic decision-making. While the income tax creates a disincentivize to work, save, and invest, the sales tax does not create these disincentives. Therefore, the retail sales tax raises revenue with comparably less economic cost than income taxes. Nebraska’s retail sales tax ranks #9 for...
Governor Pillen has pitched a sequel to his historic 2023 income tax cuts. The 2023 reforms slashed top income tax rates by a third, and for his 2024 follow-up, Pillen has proposed cutting property taxes by 40% across Nebraska. When lawmakers convened in Lincoln in the spring of 2023, they had surpluses on hand for...