Panelists with expertise in health care, corrections, workers rights and economic development participated in the fourth installment of OpenSky’s Policy and Equity Webinar Series to offer policy recommendations to help create a racial and ethnic equity agenda for the state.

The goal with such an agenda is to improve equity and opportunity across the state, which ultimately benefits Nebraska as a whole, said Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha, who moderated the discussion.

“We all do better when we all do better,” he said before diving into the conversation with:

  • Kenny McMorris, Chief Executive Officer of Charles Drew Health Center, Inc.;
  • Dr. Mark Foxall, Community Service Associate at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and former Director of the Douglas County Corrections Department;
  • Micky Devitt, Legal and Policy Coordinator at the Heartland Workers Center; and
  • Dell Gines, Senior Community Development Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

Health care policy recommendations

McMorris recommended Nebraska make permanent some regulatory changes intended to increase access to telehealth and telephonic patient visits during the pandemic. Making the changes permanent can help increase access to health care in underserved communities where a lack of access has contributed to major health disparities, he said.

Steps also should be taken to ensure policies regarding Nebraska’s implementation of Medicaid expansion don’t create more barriers to care for the expansion population, McMorris said.

Looking ahead, it will be important that the state collect and make available good data regarding race and ethnicity and COVID-19 to help ensure the hardest hit communities, many of which are Black, Indigenous or People of Color (BIPOC), are protected. This will be particularly important when it comes to deploying vaccines for the virus, he said.

Corrections policy recommendations

Dr. Mark Foxall, Community Service Associate at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and former Director of the Douglas County Corrections Department, said increased investment in mental health funding is essential to help the state address major issues with its corrections system.

Nebraska’s corrections population is disproportionately BIPOC and many in the corrections system struggle with mental illness, Foxall said. The state, he said, could work to increase:

  • Training and retention of behavioral health professionals by enacting measures such as student loan repayment programs and Medicaid reimbursement for services by Master’s degree level mental health providers seeking licensure;
  • The number of long term residential beds for the mentally ill; and
  • Funding for outpatient mental health treatment, including medications.

The state could help increase equity and reduce BIPOC representation in the corrections population by investing in long-term supportive housing for people when they leave jail, Foxall said, noting that many people don’t have places to go when released and often end up back in correctional facilities.

At the county level, many of those detained in correctional facilities are people awaiting trial who can’t afford to pay bail. Implementing policies to reduce the pre-trial detention population would be another way to help increase equity in the corrections population. Foxall noted that Nebraska may want to look toward New York, California and New Jersey, which use money bail processes that are different from what is done in Nebraska, to see if there is a better way to handle pre-trial detention.

Workers rights policy recommendations

Micky Devitt, Legal and Policy Coordinator at the Heartland Workers Center, said reforming Nebraska’s right-to-work laws is a major way the state could increase equity for workers. Right-to-work laws, which Devitt said were overtly racist in their inception, weaken unions and leave workers more vulnerable to substandard wages and unsafe working conditions.

Devitt said minimum wage reform — and particularly tipped minimum wage reform — is another powerful step policymakers could take to help increase racial and ethnic equity in regards to workers rights. When you have a low minimum wage, it not only economically harms wage earners, but also drags down the rest of the wage structure and depresses wages for everyone, Devitt said. This is particularly true of tipped minimum wage laws, which also were rooted in racism and disproportionately impact BIPOC workers, she said.

Another step that may increase equity regarding workers rights is to increase funding to support better enforcement of worker protection laws. Nebraska has many strong worker protection laws but there’s inadequate enforcement capacity, Devitt said. More resources and better sanctions for enforcement will better protect BIPOC workers from issues like wage theft.

Taking steps to protect and help vulnerable immigrant workforces such as work-authorized immigrants also is important to improving equity in Nebraska, Devitt said. Nebraska could, for example, allow work-authorized immigrants to access unemployment benefits. Presently such workers are not eligible for unemployment benefits, leaving them susceptible to exploitations like having to work in unsafe conditions, Devitt said.

Economic development policy recommendations

Dell Gines, Senior Community Development Advisor for the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said Nebraska policymakers need to take a more tailored approach to economic development that encourages entrepreneurship in BIPOC communities.

This could include ensuring tax incentives and other policies that encourage entrepreneurship are targeted to BIPOC communities, Gines said.

Updating the K-12 education curriculum to help students be better prepared to be entrepreneurs and ready to engage in the modern workforce is another change the state can make to increase equity and grow entrepreneurship in BIPOC communities, he said.

Policymakers also can improve economic equity by working to ensure statewide access to broadband internet, Gines said, noting this won’t just help those in BIPOC communities but also those who reside in greater Nebraska.

Video links and follow-up survey

Video of all four webinars can be accessed here:

  • Webinar 1, which focused on Nebraska’s current racial and ethnic equity situation;
  • Webinar 2, which focused on historical policies that have contributed to inequity;
  • Webinar 3, which focused on the importance of addressing inequity from a variety of perspectives, and
  • Webinar 4. McMorris’s comments regarding his policy recommendations begin at 30:11; Dr. Foxall’s recommendations begin at 35:32; Devitt’s recommendations start at 42:09; and Gines’ recommendations start at 50:13.

If you attended or watched any of the webinars, we’d ask that you take this survey. Your feedback will help us ensure future webinars are as informative as possible.