PLATTSMOUTH – Gov. Pete Ricketts fielded questions at a town hall meeting Thursday in Plattsmouth about Nebraska’s quality of life as a factor in attracting new business and keeping established jobs, like those of TD Ameritrade.

The governor says tax-based incentives, like those in LB720, put Nebraska in league with other states, but it’s ultimately the way of life and the skills of the people that make the difference.

 

Ricketts: “We have to have something to be able to get companies to take a look at Nebraska, but what we want to do, we want to sell quality of life. We want to sell the workforce. We want to sell a lot of those things that are kind of tangible about the quality of people you are going to hire, the quality of education they get, the work ethic, with the intangibles like, I don’t have a long commute.”

John Stanfield, owner of the disabled-veteran film making company Gepadeux Media urged Nebraska to sustain its push to locate high-tech companies here.

He said the film industry wants a seat at the table when Nebraska talks about workforce development.

Stanfield: “We need to have a group of young people who are eager to live and work in Nebraska and be involved in the film industry.”

Rich Dreesman, a Plattsmouth business owner, said he would rather the state not spend a lot on developing the workforce, but leave that to employers.

Dreesman: “The reason why those tech companies are here is because of low taxes, good quality of life. I’ll never have problems competing with New York and California because they are such terrible places. My competition is going to be North Dakota, South Dakota, you know, places that are rural.

"So I appreciate that you create a state where there is an environment where we recognize Christmas and we have a National Day of Prayer. We just have a good quality of life.”

  NCN21

 

Stanfield said quality of life is a more likely a deciding factor for accomplished workers, but young people are looking for opportunities.

Stanfield: “The issue again, there is not enough places for them to go and seek out employment to practice their craft, so by necessity they are going to the cities where they have those opportunities.”

Ricketts was also asked about incentives to keep jobs when an established company, like TD Ameritrade, comes under new ownership.

Ricketts: “Potentially we could do something in the incentive package that would incent them to retain those jobs here in our state. We’re working on something like that.

Ricketts: “I don’t really personally like paying to keep jobs here. I prefer to create an environment where companies want to stay here, so we have to keep that relatively limited and put a cap on it.”

The governor also discussed tax relief and flood prevention.