Lawmakers confident Nebraska will OK new business incentives

Nebraska lawmakers who want to update the state’s largest tax incentive program for businesses are getting ready to try again with a lot of confidence, despite a major setback that stalled their package earlier this year.
    Senators who worked on the new incentives said they strongly believe the measure will pass in the 2020 session, just in time to replace the state’s current program before it expires at the end of that year.
    “We as a state are not going to not have a package,’’ said Sen. Mark Kolterman, of Seward, the proposal’s lead sponsor. “I can almost guarantee that.’’
    Nebraska’s tax incentives have faced increased scrutiny in recent years amid suggestions that they are inefficient and the money is going to companies that would have come to the state anyway. In neighboring Iowa, state officials faced criticism for giving Apple $208 million in tax breaks to build two data shortage centers in Des Moines in a deal that would create at least 50 jobs. Business advocates defend the credits as necessary to compete given that every state offers them.

To read the full story, subscribe to the e-edition online or call the Breeze at 308-394-5389 to subscribe to the print edition.

 

Wauneta Breeze

308-394-5389 (Phone)

324 N. Tecumseh

PO Box 337

Wauneta NE 69045