Occupational licensing reform has been one of the hot topics in state legislatures throughout the country for the last five years or so. What started out as an effort to chip away on excessive or no-longer-needed occupational regulation has turned into a state-by-state, nationwide effort to reform the way that we think about licensing jobs....
Nebraska gross tax revenues for the month of December were overall very strong. Every category was above forecast for the month except for gross personal income tax, which was 3.4%, or $7.6 million, below forecast. When we look at the fiscal year net revenues, Nebraska remains ahead of projections. The state is currently 7.9% or...
In his State of the State Address, Gov. Pete Ricketts outlined his priorities for the next two years during the 107th Nebraska Legislature. He started by proposing only a 1.5% growth rate to the state’s budget while highlighting areas including property tax relief, making Nebraska more welcoming to veterans and the military, job licensing reform, public...
Some want states and the federal government to impose more taxes on automation, robots, and other business equipment. Tax Foundation Senior Policy Analysts Garrett Watson and Katherine Loughead discuss why that’s not as futuristic of an idea as it sounds. Resources mentioned on this podcast: Increasing the Tax Burden on Capital Investment and Automation Hurts...
The Nebraska Legislature’s Revenue Committee is the gatekeeper for all things tax. Eight state senators hold public hearings and decide which tax proposals move on from the bill introduction stage and receive consideration from the whole Legislature. Through 2019 and 2020, the committee was deeply dug into a process of trying to move forward on...
Lincoln-area state Sen. Matt Hansen has introduced a remarkable bill, and it’s only one sentence long (which we don’t see enough). LB169 starts with the words: “The following sections are outright repealed…” The sections of statute that would be repealed refer to the registration, or occupational licensing, of locksmiths. Locksmiths were among the occupations reviewed as...
While some regulation will always be necessary, Nebraska needs to make sure its regulations are not unintentionally inhibiting economic prosperity or harming the potential to create jobs and allow businesses to expand. As of August of 2020, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University had inventoried 44 states’ regulatory restrictions. Compared with the 43 other...
As the Nebraska Legislature gets started for the new biennium, there have already been a good number of bills filed relating to taxes and our state’s economy. I am anticipating more of these bills to be filed in the upcoming days, dealing with property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, motor vehicle taxes, and more. A...
A very routine first day of the 2021 Nebraska Legislature now seems remarkably cordial when compared with the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol in Washington only a short time later the same afternoon. Nebraska state senators elected a new Speaker and committee chairs for the biennial session. The senators will hold those positions during...
The entire Platte Institute staff gets together to chat about the beginning of the 2021 legislative session and introduce some of the voices you’ll hear in future editions of The Full Platter podcast.
December 15 was the statutory deadline for committee submission of final reports of reviews in compliance with the Occupational Board Reform Act (LB299, 2018). Although two committee reports have yet to be uploaded on the Legislature’s website, it appears that the change in the scheduling of the legislative session (as a result of COVID) and...
On 12/27 President Trump signed the legislation (H.R. 133) that sent businesses and individuals with additional COVID-19 relief. The enactment of this legislation not only created another round of PPP money, but more importantly it ensures tax deductibility for business expenses paid with PPP loans. This clarifies that loan forgiveness is not considered taxable income...
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis has released state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures for the third quarter of 2020, with the welcome news that every state experienced a return to growth. Nebraska registered an annualized 33.2% GDP growth rate. The country as a whole saw a similar percentage increase, at 33.4%. GDP is a...