It’s been an incredibly busy year at OpenSky, navigating the regular legislative session, saying goodbye to legislators who will not be returning in January, navigating the heat (both literal and figurative!) in [...]
$1.1 billion Iowa legislators will navigate a $1.1 billion budget shortage when they convene in January, largely driven by an aggressive income tax cut and a school voucher program that has eclipsed [...]
OpenSkyLIGHTS: Focus on Nebraska fiscal policy $4.4 billion Today is National Tourism Day, and according to the U.S. Travel Association, Nebraska business and leisure travel generated $376 million in 2022, the last [...]
117,000 With voters set to decide on LB 753 at the ballot box in November, the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee advanced another bill (LB 1402) that would direct state funds to pay for [...]
https://youtu.be/753ea9Qld3g With policymakers in Nebraska considering a significant shift from property taxes to sales taxes, two tax policy experts shared insights on the concept of “ability to pay” and discussed the [...]
Nebraska intends to participate in a new federal Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program, ensuring that the families of 150,000 low-income children will have better access to nutritious food when school is [...]
$146,200 When talking about taxes, we often divide Nebraskans into five groups based on income distribution. Statistically, the starting point for the 20% of top earners is about $146,000 in 2024 dollars, [...]
A proposal that would raise the state’s sales tax by 1% would add to what all Nebraskans pay for goods and services, placing a greater tax burden on average-income taxpayers while high-wage [...]
The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed by Congress in 2021 provided Nebraska and other states with a historic influx of federal funding to help in the response to economic and public [...]
91,000 Thanks to a successful ballot initiative, the Economic Policy Institute estimates that 91,000 workers – 9.5% of Nebraska’s workforce – will see a wage increase when the state’s minimum wage [...]