One of the best parts of working at the Platte Institute is helping Nebraskans overcome barriers to opportunity. There are so many people with great ideas for making life better in our state. But often, working people in our state face obstacles to making life better for themselves and others because of laws that were...
According to a recent editorial published by the Omaha World-Herald, locally elected officials are losing the faith of their constituency because they are making decisions without ample public involvement. But what does that ultimately mean? An academic study in 2010 found that “individuals in low-trust countries want more government intervention even though they know the...
Ever wonder how much revenue your county collects? Well, due to reporting standards I can’t pull this type of information for every county in the state – but luckily Douglas County makes it easy since they issue a standardized report each year. Here is a list of what types of revenues and how much was...
It caught my eye that the McCook Farm, Ranch & Hemp Expo took place last week. Horse sales and ag exhibitors were featured alongside expert panels on the cultivation of hemp, a crop that is returning to the ag sector in Nebraska following the 2018 Farm Bill allowing industrial hemp. That might be a surprising...
This brief article crossed my path on Sunday afternoon. Officials in a southeast Nebraska county are considering a change to their local wind-energy regulations at the request of a group that opposes the growing presence of wind farms in rural areas. Gage County’s Board of Supervisors will hold a meeting next month to discuss the...
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.” A lot of us remember that from our childhood, a part of a “proverb” of sorts that elementary students used to hear quite frequently at some point in time, and which came down to the children and grandchildren who had heard it in school. That came...
This story just came through on my news alerts, and while this doesn’t relate directly to Nebraska politics, truth be told, any action or inaction by the federal government has implications for both the state government, and Nebraska taxpayers. When I was in the Legislature–maybe in the first year–one of the more experienced legislators got...
It seems we have an answer to my previous question about sales tax exemptions and their part (if any) in the Revenue Committee’s 2020 legislative property tax proposal. So far, it looks like the committee won’t be including a proposal to remove sales tax exemptions right off the bat, instead relying on currently projected increases...
One of the main currents in occupational licensing adjustments that we’ve seen over the last five years or so, is an effort to make it easier for military members–and their spouses–to move across jurisdictions and still be able to work in an area they’ve trained in. The most recent example I’ve seen (and the trigger...
I saw this article and thought it was interesting. Not trying to get on the renewable energy bandwagon, but we all knew at some point these were going to have to be disposed of when no longer operational. I found it most interesting they are sent to Wyoming because it is the only landfill in...
LB299 is already helping us have a more informed discussion about job licensing.
News from Lincoln tells us that the Revenue Committee has agreed on an approach to the property tax problem in Nebraska. “…a multi-year plan to address high property taxes should first target help for farmers and ranchers, with a particular emphasis on relief in school districts with high property tax levies…” As of right now,...
A report from the Kansas City Federal Reserve late last week highlighted the findings from the Tenth District Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions where farm income in the region continued to decline. “Farm income decreased from a year ago across all states in the region, with some variation in the pace of decline. Compared with...
Iowa now has legal sports betting at its casinos. How much revenue are they bringing in?