Nebraska Incentives:

Nebraska Advantage, Nebraska's newly enhanced incentive legislation, emphasizes capital investment, innovation, the creation of jobs, and provides for the training of workers who take those jobs. "The new Nebraska Advantage package was designed to create a business climate that, more than ever, makes our state a preferred location for starting and growing a business," said Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman.

The Nebraska Advantage package benefits businesses with:

• Investment credits
• Wage credits
• Sales tax refund
• Customized job training
• State and local sales tax exemptions for purchases of manufacturing machinery, equipment and related services
• Research and development tax credits
• Microenterprise tax credits
• Inventory tax exemptions

Nebraska also offers:

• Employees with an unmatched work ethic
• Central location offering an integrated system of interstates, mainline railroads, and airports
• Industrial sites and buildings ready for immediate occupancy
• A 100% public power system – the only state that offers it – providing customers with electrical power at some of the lowest rates in the nation
• Nebraska Quality of Life Brochure

Follow this link to the Nebraska Advantage website for more detail on this comprehensive package of economic development incentives. Nebraska Advantage contains 5 tiers of benefit for all communities and 2 which are specific to rural communities, for which McCook and all of Red Willow County are eligible:

Tier 1 - $1 mil investment/10 new jobs: Refund of 1/2 of the sales tax paid for qualified property purchases at the project, the full sliding scale wage credit of 3,4,5 or 6% depending on wage level, and a 3% investment tax credit. Available to manufacturers, research and development or testing businesses, and listed technology-related services where at least 75% of the sales and licensing are to out of state customers or to the federal government.

Tier 2 - $3 mil investment/30 new jobs: Sales tax refunds for capital purchases at the project, the sliding scale wage credit and a 10% investment credit.

Tier 3 – Jobs only: Requires creation of 30 new jobs. Companies receive the sliding scale wage credit. No capital investment is required.

Tier 4 - $10 mil investment/100 new jobs: In addition to the sales tax refund, jobs credit, and the investment credit, qualifying businesses under this tier receive a personal property tax exemption for turbine-powered aircraft, mainframe computers, agricultural product processing machinery and personal property used in a distribution facility for up to 10 years.

Tier 5 – Investment only/no jobs: Requires $30 million in new investment. Companies receive a refund of sales taxes paid on eligible property with the project.

Also available to businesses in McCook and Red Willow County:

Rural Advantage Level One – $125,000 investment and 2 new jobs: Offers $2750 of refundable credits per $50,000 of qualifying investment and $3,000 of refundable credits per full time employee including teleworkers.

Rural Advantage Level Two – $250,000 investment and 5 new jobs: Same credits as Level One.

Other components of Nebraska Advantage include:

Research and Development Advantage: Provides a tax credit for research and development activities by any business entity. Allows a research tax credit to business firms that increase research expenditures in Nebraska. The credit is equal to 3% of any research and development expenditures that are greater than the average of the previous two years research and development spending. An important feature is that business with little or no income may take advantage of the income tax credit by receiving a sales tax refund or a refundable income tax credit.

State and local sales tax exemptions of manufacturing machinery, equipment, and related services: Manufacturing machinery and equipment is defined to include: equipment for transporting raw materials or components, molds and dies for forming cast or injected products or its packaging materials, machinery to maintain the integrity of the product or environmental conditions, testing equipment for quality control, computers that control a manufacturing process, machinery used to produce steam, electricity, catalysts, and solutions, repair or replacement parts, and all installation, repair and maintenance service performed on such equipment.