2006 Interim
July 25, 2006

Nebraska Rankings

The new state rankings of government statistics for the U. S. are out. These are based on 2004 or 2005, whereas the old were nearly all 2003. They are from "Governing Sourcebook - 2006" which is as unbiased and thorough as any I know.

The nay sayers seem to enjoy calling Nebraska a high tax state, as "Seventh highest taxes in the nation." Not true. We are above average, but I would hope we could be more accurate in order to have better, realistic public discussion. As you can see below in a complete listing of rankings, for almost every $$$ item we rank further down than #10. So we certainly cannot average #7.

The groups coming up with such a rating are not being dishonest -- they have the same base for all. However, they are being clever. The problem is that they do not include everything we pay to state and local government. It is often hard to access all the sources of information. For example, Expense A may be funded different ways in the states -- by a property tax, or by a sales tax, or by a fee, or by fines, or by an assessment on developers, or by a license. Nebraska is fairly straightforward and we collect most of our money through taxes, so it makes us appear higher in comparison to a state that has a lot of fees in order to avoid higher taxes. There is more to it, of course, but that is enough. I and my staff once tried to capture revenue figures for every tax and license body in Nebraska and we found the task to be extremely difficult.

Another proof that the "high tax" rhetoric is not accurate is last week's story on the rating of cities for their livability qualities. Omaha ranked #7 among the nation's cities. One of the major factors: cost of living in Omaha is favorable.

Unless otherwise noted, the rankings are PER CAPITA, with #1 ranking being the highest number. All include both state and local governments.

• Personal income 20 (We rank #17 in growth of personal income)
• GDP - gross production for the state 22
• Personal income taxes 21
• Corporate income taxes 20
• Sales taxes 14
• Property taxes 16
• Other fees 19
• Higher education spending 13 (Ranked by % of personal income - 17)
• K-12 education spending 23
• Pupil/teacher ratio 10 (#1 is most expensive, the lowest ratio)
• Public school enrollment as % of total population 40
• Classroom spending per pupil 32
• Teacher salaries 39
• Students connected to high speed Internet 5 (Look at us - major initiative!)
• Environmental spending 26
• Fire protection spending 36
• Police protection spending 43
• Corrections spending 22
• Highway spending 8
• Parks and Recreation spending 7
• Welfare spending 22
• Health costs for everyone in the state 31
• % of residents with no health insurance 40 (Impressive!)
• Total spending 12 (Ranked by % of personal income 15)
• Federal aid received in the state 29
• Governmental debts 33
• State gov't employees per 10,000 22
• Local gov't employees per 10,000 5 (Ouch!! Much too high)
• State gov't employee salaries 48
• Local gov't employee salaries 23

Odd items from other sources:

• Value of products exported from the state 40
• Net farm income per acre 33 per operator 4
• Lottery expenses as % of ticket sales 1 (Hey! We are #1 in keeping $$$)
• Crime rate: violent 35 - property 24
• Incarceration rate 45
• Live births to unmarried mothers 43
• Percent of population receiving Social Security 28
• Medicaid payments for long term care 6
• Ranking of the general level of health 11

Production of farm commodities:

• All commodities 4
• cattle 2
• hogs 5
• crops 7
• soybeans 5
• corn 3
• wheat 10
• sugar beets 5

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