Last weekend, our neighbors in Iowa took a big step forward in occupational licensing reform with the passage of House File 2627 by both houses of the legislature. The governor is expected to sign the bill—probably in a signing ceremony worthy of a significant reform effort—sometime in the next week. The Iowa bill does not...
Nebraska voters and taxpayers can make their voice heard on the state’s top tax issue in a series of online events on property tax reform. The Platte Institute’s Virtual Property Tax Town Halls will be held on Zoom. The events are scheduled to run through July and August, as the Nebraska Legislature returns for the...
For the week of June 6, 2020, an additional 4,697 Nebraskans filed for unemployment. This new data takes the total of unemployment claims up to 138,091 in Nebraska since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. While there was a major surge in mid-March to early-April as the economy began to slow down, that trend has started...
A recent online poll result on the Twitter account for Nebraska state Sen. Machela Cavanaugh showed overwhelming opposition to the idea of paying sales tax for online streaming subscription services like Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV. Would you support a Nebraska state 7% sales tax on digital entertainment services? (i.e. Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, etc)...
An Arizona bill just signed into law promises to reduce the dangers of “regulatory capture” in occupational licensing boards. Political scientists and public policy institutes concerned with transparency in governance often talk about the notion of regulatory capture. A quick Google search to define this term yields results that are different in tone, but point...
The Grand Island Independent and NTV both reported on Tuesday’s meeting of the Hall County Commissioners, where taxpayers and community advocates expressed their concerns with proposed increases in local property assessments. Property valuations are conducted by county assessors. Their assessments are then multiplied by property tax rates, often called levies, set by locally elected boards...
Despite COVID-19, Nebraska saw an increase in taxable sales revenue for March of 2020. However, urban areas in Nebraska appear to have taken a heavy hit as buyers react to COVID-19 restrictions. Nebraska’s sales tax usually operates as one of the more stable sources of state revenue. That fact is significant when social distancing policy...
During the last weekend in May, I had the opportunity to participate in an academic conference focused on occupational regulations. The conference, co-hosted by the Knee Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation at St. Francis University and Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Business, was a tremendous opportunity for scholars to show numerous streams...
Platte Institute CEO Jim Vokal joined Ryan Boyd with KFGW Kearney’s “Talk of the Town” to discuss the Platte Institute’s call for creating an inventory of the $10.8 billion in federal funds allocated to Nebraska for COVID-19 relief and the road to recovery in the current recession.
The slides for this program may be downloaded below. The video may also be viewed and shared on Facebook and YouTube.
Dear Governor Ricketts, We write this letter on behalf of the Platte Institute to ask your administration to set an important precedent for financial transparency in state and local government, by creating a publicly-accessible inventory of federal funds being spent in Nebraska. As you have noted, COVID-19 emergency federal relief funds allocated to Nebraska total...
Dear Nebraskans, Our state and nation have been actively fighting COVID-19 since mid-March. We are getting a handle on the public health aspect of the crisis, yet the economic impact is still being realized as businesses begin to reopen. As more data becomes available, we can start to measure the impact this crisis is having...