Truly right-in-the-middle-of-it-all, Nebraska offers an endless array of advantages that make living, working, and doing business here a wonderful and rewarding experience.

The state balances and blends economic opportunity with lifestyle, offers a wide variety of employment opportunities, has minimal commute times, safe communities and life-long learning prospects, provides variety and accessibility to natural, recreational and lifestyle amenities, boasts exceptional environmental air and water quality.

Many companies in the U.S. and around the world have discovered that Nebraska offers the ideal location, quality workforce, and positive economic environment for a wide variety of industries and business endeavors. More than 55 million people are located within a 500-mile radius of Nebraska. Our balanced economic base and vast market potential have provided a profitable home for five Fortune 500 Companies including Berkshire Hathaway, ConAgra Foods, Mutual of Omaha, Peter Kiewit Sons, and Union Pacific Railroad.

• 2^nd Best Job Market for Job Creation, Gallup, 2009
• 3^rd Lowest Cost of Doing Business, Milken Institute, Cost-of-Doing-Business, 2007
• 3^rd Pro-Business Legal Climate, U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, 2010
• 5^th Best States for Business, Directorship Boardroom Intelligence, 2009
• 5^th Pro-Business State, Pollina Corporate Real Estate, 2011
• 8^th Best States for Business, Forbes.com, 2011
• 10^th Lowest Business Energy Costs, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, 2010

Business Friendly Environment

A Nebraska location offers public and private support that leads to cost savings and increased profits.

Nebraska ranks high in a number of areas important to new and expanding businesses. One factor contributing to the state’s high rankings is the new Nebraska Advantage package.

The Nebraska Advantage package is designed to enhance the state’s business climate and make Nebraska a preferred location for starting and growing a business. The Nebraska Advantage package emphasizes capital investment, innovation, the creation of jobs, and provides for the training of workers who accept those jobs.

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; and inventory tax exemptions.

Data Center projects are the fastest growing field in corporate site selection, and Nebraska excels in all of the ranking factors.

Advantages include:

• Power Costs
• Telecom Infrastructure
• Local Work Force with Strong Technical Skills
• Costs of Doing Business
• Central Location
• Insulation from Natural Disasters
• Tax Incentives & Job Training
• Quality of Life
• Central Time Zone

Wired for Business

With one of the most advanced, competitive telecommunications environments in the world, Nebraska helps sustain USSTRATCOMM, as well as many financial, information technology, and customer service companies.

The state is rich in dark and lit fiber. A vast network of multiple local carriers and more than 10 long haul carriers traverse the state along Interstate 80 and other essential transportation corridors in all directions. Nebraska’s central locality is key to the connections these carriers make in Denver and Chicago, continuing on throughout the U.S. and around the world.

Low-Cost, Reliable, and Abundant Electrical Power

A Nebraska location provides access to electric rates for industrial service that are, on average, 42 percent less than the U.S. average, as illustrated in this chart.

The state’s electrical utilities have under their control an efficient dependable “mix” of generating systems to supply current and projected needs. This mix includes major coal and nuclear-powered generating facilities plus smaller hydro, gas, oil, diesel, and growing wind generation capabilities. A statewide grid system with regional interconnections further contributes to reliability of service and adequacy of supply.

Another reason for Nebraska’s low electrical rates is its unique status as the nation’s only completely public power state. Public power means the primary goal of Nebraska’s electrical utilities is to provide low-cost power rather than increase shareholder profits. Public power also means Nebraska’s utilities are financed, in part, through the issuance and sale of tax exempt revenue bonds, resulting in lower interest rates on borrowed money.