Gov. Heineman Announces Nebraska Recognized as
a Top Ten Pro-Business State

(Lincoln, NE) Gov. Dave Heineman applauded a national survey released today that named Nebraska as one of the nation’s top ten pro-business states. This is the first time in the report’s four year history Nebraska has been in the top ten.

“We can be very proud that Nebraska is being recognized as a pro-business state,” Gov. Heineman said. “This is evidence that the efforts we’ve made to improve our tax climate and provide competitive incentives for businesses to locate and expand in Nebraska have been noticed by professionals in the field. It is a signal that the Nebraska Advantage continues to have a positive impact on our ability to attract businesses interested in creating jobs here in our state.”

The list of the nation’s top pro-business states was unveiled during an international economic development forum being held in Arlington, Va. Richard Baier, Director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development attended the announcement to accept the pro-business award on behalf of the state.

Baier said, “This recognition is a credit to the work that’s taken place across Nebraska to improve our business climate in recent years. We recognize that economic development is an increasingly competitive field where every state is working to attract new talent and entrepreneurs, and being a top ten state is certainly going to help us as we continue to market Nebraska as a great place for new business development.”

Dr. Ronald Pollina is publisher of the The Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States study. He has been recognized by his peers and clients as an expert real estate broker for private industry and Fortune 500 companies.

Dr. Pollina said, “Nebraska made some needed improvements to incentive programs in the last year, which was instrumental in propelling Nebraska onto the top ten list. The states being recognized this year are models for others and the federal government, who could learn from Nebraska’s progressive leadership by taking a hard look at the effectiveness of their current incentive programs. The people of Nebraska can be proud of the professional economic development staff working on their behalf.”

The 2007 Corporate Top Ten Pro-Business States study is a comparative evaluation of the job creation and retention efforts of the nation’s state and federal governments. Now in its fourth year, the Pollina study evaluates and ranks states based on 28 factors including: tax rates, human resources policies and right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending, workers compensation legislation, and jobs lost or gained. The evaluation also considers state-controlled factors such as incentive programs and the productivity of state economic development departments, which contributed heavily to Nebraska’s improved ranking.

Gov. Heineman said, “The work we’ve done to reform and update our business incentives package has really marked a turning point for our state. The Nebraska Advantage continues to be a very effective resource in attracting new business. We’ve been very pleased with the response from businesses here at home and those who’ve expressed an interest in coming to our state, and we hope that level of interest will continue.”

The 2007 report also recognized Nebraska for pro-business strategies in the areas of human resources, status as a right-to-work state, a strong employment index, the absence of a business inventory tax, and low electricity rates, along with strong quality of life ratings. Previous reports ranked Nebraska 17th in 2006 and 18th in both 2005 and 2004.

More information about the 2007 Keeping Jobs in America: Pollina Corporate Top Ten Pro-Business States survey is available online at http://www.pollina.com.