{"id":27139,"date":"2020-01-29T16:45:19","date_gmt":"2020-01-29T22:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27139"},"modified":"2020-01-31T09:48:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T15:48:55","slug":"tax-deduction-proposed-for-employers-of-felons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27139","title":{"rendered":"Tax deduction proposed for employers of felons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Jan. 29 on a proposal to provide an income tax deduction to Nebraska businesses that employ individuals convicted of a felony.

\"Sen.
Sen. Justin Wayne<\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>\n

Under LB805, introduced by Omaha Sen. Justin Wayne, an individual\u2019s federal adjusted gross income\u2014or a corporation\u2019s federal taxable income\u2014would be reduced by 65 percent of the wages paid to an individual who has been convicted of a felony in any state.<\/p>\n

Wayne said many businesses do not consider hiring felons because the business must then pay a higher insurance premium. The proposed tax incentive would help offset that, he said. <\/p>\n

By encouraging more businesses to hire them, Wayne said, LB805 would help more felons rejoin society, reducing their recidivism rate.<\/p>\n

The deduction would be allowed for taxable years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2021. It would be allowed only with respect to wages paid during the individual\u2019s first year of employment and could not exceed $20,000 per individual.<\/p>\n

The state Department of Revenue estimates that LB805 would reduce state income tax revenue by $2.4 million in fiscal year 2021-22 and an additional $2.4 million in FY2022-23. <\/p>\n

Josh Waltjer, a student at the University of Nebraska College of Law, testified in support of the bill on his own behalf. He said businesses often are wary of hiring individuals with a criminal record because of the misplaced fear that they are violent. Most felons are nonviolent and simply are trying to become better people, Waltjer said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith these incentives,\u201d he said, \u201cemployers would be willing to overlook these individuals\u2019 prior criminal records and instead focus on their capabilities as potential employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Creager, senior director of public policy at the Greater Omaha Chamber, also testified in support. She said the bill would help address Nebraska\u2019s severe labor shortage by providing more employment opportunities for felons. <\/p>\n

Danielle Conrad testified in support of LB805 on behalf of ACLU of Nebraska, saying it could help reduce prison overcrowding. <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the best things that we can do to stop the cycle of recidivism and criminal behavior is to provide folks with meaningful employment to help them transition back into society as part of a robust reentry program,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

No one testified in opposition to the bill and the committee took no immediate action on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Revenue Committee heard testimony Jan. 29 on a proposal to provide an income tax deduction to Nebraska businesses that employ individuals convicted of a felony. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27136,"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[191],"class_list":["post-27139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-justin-wayne"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/LB805Wayne1-29-20a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139","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=27139"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27200,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27139\/revisions\/27200"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}