Watchdog says Nebraska should spend less on tax incentives

LINCOLN — Nebraska should spend less on tax incentives to lure jobs and businesses and more on education, infrastructure, utilities and other business needs, a tax incentive watchdog said here Thursday.

Greg LeRoy is the founder and executive director of Good Jobs First, a policy research center based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on economic development subsidies.

Speaking at the Open Sky Policy Institute’s fall symposium, he said state and local taxes combined make up only about 2 percent of the average company’s cost structure.

The remaining 98 percent goes toward business basics, such as labor, raw materials, logistics, energy and other costs.

Read more: http://www.omaha.com/news/nebraska/watchdog-says-nebraska-should-spend-less-on-tax-incentives/article_ea7d0b61-a0b2-596f-961b-f951327832b9.html