Bringing more people to Nebraska?

A group focused on Nebraska's economic future has come up with a simple formula for assuring that all Nebraskans can enjoy low taxes, good services and a high quality of life: attract more Nebraskans.

Nebraska Renaissance, made up of dozens of business, farm and community representatives from across the state, is proposing that Nebraska set a goal of increasing its population to reach 2 million by 2020.

And in a report being released today, the group recommends dozens of steps that would help the state compete nationally for jobs and people to reach that goal. Among the chief focuses are cutting the state's above-average tax burden, creating new business incentives, promoting entrepreneurship and creating local endowments that could build more public amenities.

The report's authors said such “man-made'' amenities are particularly important in a state that doesn't boast oceans, mountains or warmer climates.

“Nebraska must become a place where people make more income, keep more of it, and enjoy it more,'' the authors wrote.

To increase its population from its current 1.78 million to the 2 million goal within 11 years, Nebraska would need to about double the rate of growth it's seen over the last decade. With steady growth in its metro areas but consistent losses in rural areas, Nebraska typically has been growing at only about half the national rate.

Almost all of Nebraska's population growth in recent years has been fueled by births and international immigration. The state has seen net losses of people through migration to other states, said University of Nebraska-Lincoln economist Eric Thompson, a co-author of the report.

“The goal is to improve those numbers and reverse that,'' he said.

Thompson said the group did not address whether Nebraska would need to attract more international immigrants to reach its population goal.

The latest census population estimate for Nebraska does show the potential for attracting more people. It indicated that in 2008, Nebraska's growth spiked closer to the rate called for in the report. The University of Nebraska at Omaha's Center for Public Affairs Research said the change may have been spurred, in part, by people moving to Nebraska from states hit hard by the nation's economic crisis.

With the right policy changes in Nebraska, the crisis presents a real growth opportunity for Nebraska, said Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, another co-author of the report.

“It's certainly a pivotal time,'' Goss said. “I think Nebraska is moving in the right direction.''

Nebraska Renaissance was founded in 2003 as a rural development group, and it retains some of its original rural focus. It was started by Mick Jensen of Great Plains Communications, a phone company in Blair that serves a rural customer base.

But the group eventually learned it shared many of the same goals as economic developers in more urban parts of the state. Its membership has since broadened to include officials from the Omaha and Lincoln chambers, lawyers and bankers from across the state and representatives of businesses like Gallup, Blue Cross Blue Shield and DLR Group.

With the help of a U.S. Department of Agriculture rural development grant, the group hired Goss, Thompson and Nick Niemann, an Omaha attorney who was a primary author of the state's business incentives law, to study ways to achieve the 2 million population goal.

Nebraska Renaissance said its members don't necessarily endorse all the 47 specific recommendations the report's authors made. But they hope the report, “An Action Plan for Growing Nebraska,'' will now spur discussion in the Statehouse and across Nebraska.

Many of the recommendations focus on taxes and government structure. The authors conclude that Nebraska's above-average state and local tax burden is a deterrent to growth. According to the Census Bureau, Nebraska's state and local taxes relative to income currently ranked 16th highest in the nation. In some recent years, the state has ranked in the top 10.

Thompson acknowledged that taxes aren't the top consideration for most people in picking a place to live, with jobs, cost of living, schools, weather and attractions all big considerations. But he said enough people are concerned about taxes that lowering rates would make a difference in Nebraska's growth.

The report calls for cutting nearly all major taxes in Nebraska, including sales, income, property and automobile registration taxes.

The authors offer few specifics as to what state and local services could be cut or downsized to make way for the tax cuts. They instead propose that the governor appoint a task force to conduct a “business model'' review of government operations, looking at the logic behind various programs and how services are delivered.

Businesses currently are undergoing vast restructuring due to technology and other changes, Niemann said. Government may need to do the same. It's possible a constitutional convention also would need to be called to address structural changes, such as the number of counties in the state, the authors said.

If those steps don't produce the needed efficiencies, the authors say the Legislature could pass a measure limiting state spending increases to the combined rate of population growth and the rate of inflation.

Goss said such a Legislature-passed lid would be more flexible than one placed in the Constitution. Nebraska's voters twice in the last year have soundly rejected constitutional lids that were put on the ballot by petition.

“The voters have spoken on that issue,'' he said.

To attract more jobs, the report recommends additional economic development tools, including giving the governor a pair of $25 million discretionary funds he could tap to close economic development deals.

It also proposes growing more businesses at home through new entrepreneur education programs in colleges and high schools.

In rural areas, the report calls for additional efforts to recruit cattle operations, taking advantage of the feed by-products produced in the state's ethanol plants. And it calls for production incentives and other changes that would help attract more wind energy jobs to the state.

To enhance life in the state, the report proposes preferential tax treatment for charitable contributions to community foundations. Such organizations then would be in position to promote attractive new public amenities, especially given the large amounts of private wealth projected to change hands in coming decades.

Gov. Dave Heineman, who was recently briefed on the report, said he doesn't agree with all the recommendations, but said the growth goal is a good one.

“They talk about a lot of the same things we've talked about — lowering taxes, controlling spending, building upon entrepreneurial activities and modernizing incentive programs,'' he said. “We ought to have this discussion about how we can continue to grow Nebraska and keep our young people here.''

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