Senators gave first-round approval March 24 to a bill that would require regular evaluation of the state\u2019s tax incentive programs.<\/p>\n
LB538, introduced by the Performance Audit Committee, would create an ongoing evaluation process for all current and future tax incentive programs enacted for the purpose of recruiting or retaining businesses in Nebraska.<\/p>\n
Syracuse Sen. Dan Watermeier, chairperson of the committee, said that work conducted by a special tax incentive evaluation committee in 2014 found that regular evaluation of current incentive programs was needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe study found that the goals of the Nebraska tax incentive programs are too broad to permit meaningful program evaluation,\u201d he said. \u201c[LB538] would allow lawmakers to draw conclusions about how tax incentive programs are working and meeting their intended goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Legislature\u2019s Performance Audit Office would develop and publish a schedule for conducting the evaluations, ensuring that each program is reviewed at least once every three years.<\/p>\n
Each evaluation of a tax incentive program would analyze program-specific goals and economic and fiscal impacts of the program and recommend changes to evaluation procedures that would allow for easier evaluation in the future.<\/p>\n
In addition to future tax incentive programs, eight current programs would be evaluated under LB538, including the:
\n\u2022\tAngel Investment Tax Credit Act;
\n\u2022\tBeginning Farmer Tax Credit Act;
\n\u2022\tNebraska Advantage Act;
\n\u2022\tNebraska Advantage Microenterprise Tax Credit Act;
\n\u2022\tNebraska Advantage Research and Development Act;
\n\u2022\tNebraska Advantage Rural Development Act;
\n\u2022\tNebraska Job Creation and Mainstreet Revitalization Act; and
\n\u2022\tNew Markets Job Growth Investment Act.<\/p>\n
Watermeier introduced an amendment, adopted 34-0, which would establish a sunset date of Dec. 31, 2019, for certain incentives under the Nebraska Advantage Act, Nebraska Advantage Rural Development Act and the New Markets Job Growth Investment Act.<\/p>\n
Omaha Sen. Heath Mello spoke in favor of the bill and the amendment, saying that continual evaluation of the state\u2019s tax policy is a proven best practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe go through a process every year with regard to evaluating appropriations we, as a Legislature, choose to make,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s important that we use evidence-based evaluations to determine whether tax incentive programs are meeting their outcomes because we don\u2019t really have that in Nebraska right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senators advanced the bill to select file on a 37-0 vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senators gave first-round approval March 24 to a bill that would require regular evaluation of the state\u2019s tax incentive programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[107],"class_list":["post-16916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-dan-watermeier"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16917,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16916\/revisions\/16917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}