Once you get out of Omaha and Lincoln areas you really get to see how poor the rest of the people in Nebraska are. The Earl Butz get big or get out- Ag secretary - really kicked the decline of small Nebraska communities into overdrive. Craig, Lyons, Herman, Greeley, Farwell are just a few towns I go through from time to time. Boarded up main streets - they look like WW2 era Europe, Mere empty shells of the 1960's of the boom. Its really sad to look back at them growing up vs today. Sure their are some towns like Arnold, St Paul, Cedar Rapids, Grand Island that are holding their own or growing slightly. For the most part once you get off the I -80 NE HWY 30 corridor poverty reigns supreme. Dilapidated houses, buildings, falling down buildings. Their are no jobs in these areas and the taxes are no different in those areas than the metropolises. The countryside has gone from 160 acre to 640 acre farms to several thousands of acres. The farm population has been devastated as have the towns that supported those farmers. While houses maybe less in those areas the job opportunities do not exist. You farm, work for a farm or a ag related supplier or a equipment dealer and that is about it. Many of these towns no longer have a grocery store, some do not even have a local bar. Dan Lynch's school consolidation in the late 1980's was the final nail. Once a town looses a school, post offices and grocery store are lost soon after. He thought that education cost would go down - efficiency of scale. Of course government just never shows that savings. it merely gives corruption and grift another place to hide. Unless we are going to cede these areas outside of the I-80 / HWY 30 corridor to a few people the tax laws much change. Tax breaks for rural areas would be a start. This year is going to be another devastating year for farmers, I am reading that as many as 20-25% will not be around come fall. This will only lead to more poverty for these areas. Investors will go in pick up the land and the rent and other economic activity will go to their state - more mining of Nebraska. We have worked our way into a corner and their are no easy painless ways out
The tax situation in Nebraska has added to the problem - with few jobs people still cannot pay the property tax on the less expensive houses.
Once you get out of Omaha and Lincoln areas you really get to see how poor the rest of the people in Nebraska are. The Earl Butz get big or get out- Ag secretary - really kicked the decline of small Nebraska communities into overdrive. Craig, Lyons, Herman, Greeley, Farwell are just a few towns I go through from time to time. Boarded up main streets - they look like WW2 era Europe, Mere empty shells of the 1960's of the boom. Its really sad to look back at them growing up vs today. Sure their are some towns like Arnold, St Paul, Cedar Rapids, Grand Island that are holding their own or growing slightly. For the most part once you get off the I -80 NE HWY 30 corridor poverty reigns supreme. Dilapidated houses, buildings, falling down buildings. Their are no jobs in these areas and the taxes are no different in those areas than the metropolises. The countryside has gone from 160 acre to 640 acre farms to several thousands of acres. The farm population has been devastated as have the towns that supported those farmers. While houses maybe less in those areas the job opportunities do not exist. You farm, work for a farm or a ag related supplier or a equipment dealer and that is about it. Many of these towns no longer have a grocery store, some do not even have a local bar. Dan Lynch's school consolidation in the late 1980's was the final nail. Once a town looses a school, post offices and grocery store are lost soon after. He thought that education cost would go down - efficiency of scale. Of course government just never shows that savings. it merely gives corruption and grift another place to hide. Unless we are going to cede these areas outside of the I-80 / HWY 30 corridor to a few people the tax laws much change. Tax breaks for rural areas would be a start. This year is going to be another devastating year for farmers, I am reading that as many as 20-25% will not be around come fall. This will only lead to more poverty for these areas. Investors will go in pick up the land and the rent and other economic activity will go to their state - more mining of Nebraska. We have worked our way into a corner and their are no easy painless ways out
The tax situation in Nebraska has added to the problem - with few jobs people still cannot pay the property tax on the less expensive houses.