{"id":29754,"date":"2021-03-23T12:16:58","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29754"},"modified":"2021-03-25T15:15:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-25T21:15:07","slug":"state-funding-for-rail-access-projects-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=29754","title":{"rendered":"State funding for rail access projects advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval March 23 to a bill that would require the state to provide matching funds for the development of industrial rail access business parks.

\"Sen.
Sen. Mike Groene<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Under LB40, as introduced by North Platte Sen. Mike Groene, a nonprofit economic development corporation could apply to the director of the state Department of Economic Development for up to $10 million in matching funds to cover a project\u2019s development costs.<\/p>\n

Groene said the bill would help rural communities near rail lines attract manufacturers and transportation companies as they seek to expand their operations after the pandemic. <\/p>\n

\u201cNebraska needs to be prepared to address the needs of the manufacturing and transportation industries, as we sit right in the middle of the country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In particular, Groene said, LB40 would enable a proposed rail access business park near Union Pacific\u2019s Bailey Yard in Lincoln County, bringing jobs and economic growth to the region. <\/p>\n

State matching funds could be used for site acquisition and preparation, utility extensions and rail spur construction for the development of a new industrial rail access business park, including expenses incurred to help an initial tenant in the manufacturing, processing, distribution or transloading trades. <\/p>\n

Qualifying projects would have to be located in a county with a population of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants. <\/p>\n

Upon approval and legislative appropriation of funds, an applicant would receive a dollar-for-dollar match from the state for the total amount of their investment in the project over a five-year period.<\/p>\n

A Revenue Committee amendment, adopted 40-0, would increase the total amount of matching funds that could be paid to $50 million. No more than $30 million could be paid for any one project. <\/p>\n

Under the amendment, the state would provide $2 of matching funds for each dollar invested up to $2.5 million. For a larger investment, the state would provide $5 in matching funds for each dollar invested.<\/p>\n

Elkhorn Sen. Lou Ann Linehan, committee chairperson, said the committee made the changes in order to attract substantial projects to greater Nebraska. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to see significant investment and job creation in that part of the state,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Norfolk Sen. Michael Flood supported the bill, saying it represents \u201cbig thinking from rural Nebraska.\u201d North Platte is well-positioned for the proposed project because of Bailey Yard\u2019s large number of rail interconnections, he said, but Scottsbluff, Seward and other cities also could host such facilities. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a state program that\u2019s meaningful; it\u2019s about job creation and it thinks big,\u201d Flood said. \u201cIt takes advantage of something that we have that very few states have \u2014 our logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Curt Friesen of Henderson also supported LB40. He said it could diversify rural Nebraska\u2019s economy, helping smaller communities through down cycles in the agriculture industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to get rural Nebraska running again,\u201d Friesen said, \u201cand I think this might be just the thing that gets it started.\u201d<\/p>\n

LB40 advanced to select file on a vote of 42-0. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval March 23 to a bill that would require the state to provide matching funds for the development of industrial rail access business parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29751,"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":[17],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-29754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-revenue","tag-sen-mike-groene"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/LB40Groene3-23-21a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29754","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=29754"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29827,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29754\/revisions\/29827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}