Taxes, economy, housing, and land use In 2008, the Platte Institute, along with Ernie Goss of
Creighton University, issued a report that concluded that Nebraska, as of 2006, had the eight-highest
tax burden among the
50 states. The report's authors argued that Nebraska should cut 1.2% each year from state and local taxes so that the state's tax burden reach the national average by 2016. The Platte Institute has promoted the reduction of
occupational and
business licensing requirements in Nebraska, collaborating on these efforts with the
ACLU of Nebraska and state Senator
Laura Ebke, among others. The group has advocated for
prison reform and reducing Nebraska's
incarceration rate. Along with the
Sierra Club, the
American Institute of Architects' Nebraska chapter, and other groups, the Platte Institute joined the "Missing Middle Omaha" housing campaign to support the building of
higher-density "missing middle" housing in Nebraska. In 2011, the organization opposed a bill to change the Nebraska Commission of Industrial Relations, the state body that adjudicates disputes between public-sector workers and employers. The instituted argued that the bill would not substantially reduce government spending, and objected to a provision of the proposal that would allow the commission to
subpoena private businesses to compare public-sector and private-sector wages. The bill would cut the
state income tax (lowering the state's top income rate and eliminating state income tax for wage-earners who earned less than $50,000) and offset the lost revenue by expanding the
state sales tax (by eliminating sales tax exemptions, and taxing services that are currently untaxed). Under the proposal, Nebraska's current tax exemption for doctors' bills and
medical equipment would be reduced, and currently untaxed services (including auto repairs, plumbing, roofing, legal services, accounting services, haircuts, and event and concert tickets) would be taxable. In 2009, it commissioned a study about the
cost of health care by Arduin,
Laffer &
Moore Econometrics. The study advocates for shifting more health-care costs onto patients.
County government In 2009, the Platte Institute released a study which recommended reducing the number of
Nebraska's counties, which stands at 93, as an administrative cost-saving measure.
Education The Platte Institute has advocated
school choice measures. In 2011, it commissioned another report by the PRI to promote
virtual schools in Nebraska. ==References==