With a focus on encouraging economic development, providing tax relief and streamlining government, Gov. Pete Ricketts delivered his State of the State address Jan. 10.<\/p>\n
Calling the state\u2019s situation \u201cstrong and growing,\u201d the governor pointed to several examples of the economy\u2019s strength. The state has seen significant foreign and domestic investment, he said, and reached record employment last year. In addition, he said, Nebraska recently was ranked the fourth best state for business.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, Nebraska won the Governor\u2019s Cup for most economic development projects per capita of any state in the country,\u201d he said. \u201cNebraska had more qualified projects than North Dakota, South Dakota and Kansas combined.\u201d<\/p>\n
In spite of these developments, Ricketts said revenues continue to lag behind forecasts. As a result, he said, lawmakers need to once again balance the state\u2019s budget without raising taxes.<\/p>\n
The governor said his mid-biennium budget proposal will include across-the-board reductions of 2 percent in the current fiscal year and 4 percent in the next. However, the proposal also will include targeted investments to address specific problems, including a troubling increase in the number of children entering the state\u2019s child welfare system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this budget, I am recommending an additional $35 million to Child Welfare and Public Assistance for this year and next,\u201d Ricketts said. \u201cWe must take care of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition, the governor said, Nebraska should focus on cutting and reforming taxes as a key to economic growth. The state has the 11th highest property taxes in the country, he said, and Nebraskans need and expect tax relief.<\/p>\n
Ricketts said his tax proposal would restructure existing property tax credits as a refundable credit on state taxes to ensure that Nebraskans \u2013 rather than absentee landowners \u2013 benefit. The proposal also would permanently reduce the state\u2019s individual and corporate income tax rates, he said, and provide $10 million over two years for workforce development.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can bring relief to Nebraska\u2019s families and businesses and help continue to grow our state. It is critical that we get the job done on tax relief this session.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor said Nebraska also will continue to streamline government services and reduce red tape in an effort to make it more effective and efficient. Doing so signals that the state is \u201copen for business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ricketts noted that challenges remain, but said the state has a history of cooperating to overcome difficulties. He praised senators for working together in the previous session to address issues important to Nebraskans and encouraged them to continue to do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor over 150 years, Nebraskans have always come together for a cause bigger than themselves. We will draw upon their strength this year to address the priorities of our people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With a focus on encouraging economic development, providing tax relief and streamlining government, Gov. Pete Ricketts delivered his State of the State address Jan. 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22743,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ceremonies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/RickettsSOS1-10-18a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22745","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=22745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22747,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22745\/revisions\/22747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}