As lawmakers prepare for the 2021 Legislative session, we list some policy recommendations that can help advance racial and ethnic equity in Nebraska. These recommendations were developed by incorporating policy changes proposed by panelists in our Policy and Equity webinar series, input gathered from conversations with others who work in these policy areas, and from some of OpenSky’s own research and analysis. The list is by no means an exhaustive catalog of policy recommendations that are needed to improve equity for Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) in Nebraska.

Please note that several recommendations related to mental health policy changes have been included among the corrections recommendations rather than the health care policy section. This was done to acknowledge the intrinsic link between mental health and corrections issues that was discussed extensively in our second and fourth Policy and Equity webinars by Dr. Mark Foxall, Community Service Associate at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and former Director of the Douglas County Corrections Department.

Education

  • Adjust Nebraska’s school finance formula to target increased funding for early childhood education to Nebraska’s BIPOC communities.
  • Increase state funding for before-and-after school programs in BIPOC communities that are focused on STEM and/or entrepreneurship.
  • Create a grant program to support innovative student entrepreneurship programs for schools in BIPOC communities.
  • Increase the allowance schools receive to educate students with Limited English Proficiency. This allowance has not been updated since it was first implemented in 2008-09 but Nebraska has seen an 11.4% increase in LEP students over this span.
  • Increase the allowance schools receive to educate students who live in poverty. This allowance also hasn’t been increased since it was first implemented in 2008-09 despite a 35% increase in the number of Nebraska students who live in poverty over that span.

Health Care

  • Increase access to telehealth and telephonic patient visits by making permanent regulatory changes adopted in response to pandemic. This includes easing HIPAA restrictions to allow visits to new and established patients via telephone and across a broader range of technology platforms; allowing providers to bill for telehealth services as if provided in-person; and expanding covered telehealth services to include emergency department visits, home visits and therapy services.
  • Increase public health funding.
  • Collect and make widely accessible data regarding race and ethnicity and COVID-19.

Corrections

  • Increase funding for student loan repayment programs to encourage training and retention of mental health professionals.
  • Provide for Medicaid reimbursement for services performed by Master’s degree level mental health providers seeking licensure.
  • Increase the number of long-term residential beds for the mentally ill.
  • Increase funding for outpatient mental health treatment, including medications.
  • Invest in long-term supportive housing for people recently released from jail.
  • Implement policies to reduce the pre-trial detention population (i.e., cash bail reform).
  • Increase diversion programs like drug courts and mental health courts.
  • Require four-year degrees for law-enforcement officers.

Workers Rights

  • Reform right-to-work laws.
  • Increase the minimum wage, especially for tipped workers.
  • Increase funding to agencies tasked with enforcing worker protection laws.
  • Allow work-authorized immigrants access to unemployment benefits.
  • Permanently loosen restrictions to unemployment insurance, including lowering job search requirements and moving from a minimum earning requirement to an hours worked requirement.
  • Mandate paid sick leave for employees.

Economic Development

  • Target tax incentives and other policies encouraging entrepreneurship in BIPOC communities.
  • Target government contracts to historically underutilized businesses.
  • Ensure statewide access to broadband internet.
  • Expand access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Revenue

  • Implement a high-income earners tax.
  • Enact a local income surtax to help raise funds to support public education.
  • Reinstate Nebraska’s estate tax.
  • Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to include undocumented and childless populations.
  • Expand the child care tax credit.
  • Enact a property tax circuit breaker to better target property tax relief to those whose property taxes are high in relation to their incomes.

Other recommendation

  • Include racial equity impact statements with proposed legislation.

As noted above, many of these recommendations were gleaned from conversations during our October Policy and Equity Webinar series. 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, which focused on policy steps Nebraska can take to increase racial and ethnic equity.