Nebraska Renaissance Project

In March, 2011, the Kansas Legislature passed Kansas Senate Bill 198, a bill that created
Rural Opportunity Zones. These Rural Opportunity Zones (or ROZ’s) are counties which have experienced
population loss over the last decennial census. The stipulations of the Kansas law are such that people can
move to an ROZ from outside of Kansas and have their income tax waived for five years. Moreover, anyone with
student debt from an accredited institution can make application to the Kansas Department of Commerce to
have up to $3,000 a year paid to their debt for five years. All in the name of rural repopulation!

In April, 2011 Legislative Resolution 226 was introduced in the Nebraska Legislature with the intent of discovering
ways that Nebraska can replicate the Kansas law. LR 226, introduced and chiefly supported by Senator Galen Hadley
and Senator Kate Sullivan, is an interim study under the purview of the Revenue Committee of the Unicameral.
It is the hope of Senators Hadley and Sullivan to see legislation introduced in the 2012 session that would incentivize
people to move to rural Nebraska.