KVNO News

Economy in 2012: Bringing Nebraska to Washington

By Lindsey Peterson, KVNO News

July 5th, 2012

Omaha, NE – When all economic indicators handily beat the national average, how do Nebraska politicians wrangle up votes in the November elections? In the U.S. Senate race between Republican State Senator Deb Fischer and former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey, it’s less about what’s wrong with Nebraska and more about bringing Nebraska to the rest of the nation.

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Maggie Smith-Hurt is in the market for her first house. On a recent afternoon in midtown Omaha, her realtor showed her and her sister Kat around to check out a number of new and old homes. After a nine-year stay in Dublin, and some heavy selling from her family back in the States, Smith-Hurt is moving back to the Midwest. She’s ready to set some roots and she says Omaha has lived up to the hype. Omaha racked up some flattering recognition the last two years. The city touts a stellar unemployment rate, a booming real estate market, and powerhouse companies.

“I got a job relatively quickly moving here,” she said. “I feel like my costs, and my expenses are much, much lower.”

“Just the general quality of life that the economy here in Omaha is offering me is encouraging me to buy,” she said. “Because I feel like it’s something I can manage.”

That’s good news for her realtor, Tim Reeder, who specializes in midtown and historic Omaha neighborhoods.

How’s business? “Fantastic,” Reeder said. “I’ve been a real estate agent for 15 years in Omaha and this has been by far the strongest, best market I’ve seen in that time.”

At one of Omaha’s newest and most successful real estate projects, we caught up with economist and Creighton University professor Dr. Ernie Goss. “Midtown Crossing … is a development that indicates the forward thinking in Nebraska and this part of the nation,” Goss said. The development includes condos, trendy restaurants and high-end retailers. “It focuses on midtown development,” Goss said. “Overall, what it has done reverses brain drain, and contributes to brain gain. Young, educated, single people are attracted to midtown and downtown.”

That is the kind of labor, Goss said, that Omaha and Nebraska needs. Omaha boasts an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent, slightly higher than the statewide average. And the city owes much of that to Nebraska’s rural force.

“Agriculture’s been experiencing a very, very strong rebound from the recession,” Goss said, “and that’s been showing up in Omaha.”

Nebraska candidates for U.S. Senate would agree. “There’s a direct relationship between healthy agriculture and a healthy economy in Nebraska,” said former Democratic Senator Bob Kerrey, who’s running for his old seat in the U.S. Senate left open by retiring Sen. Ben Nelson.

“If you took $3 off a bushel of corn, which is where we were four years ago,” Kerrey said, “or if you take $5 or $6 off a bushel of soy beans, 50 cents off cattle, and Nebraska’s got unemployment rates at seven percent.”

Kerrey has lived in New York for the last 10 years, but has since moved back to run for Senate. His opponent says he’s out of touch with Nebraska voters and Nebraska values. Kerrey insists despite his absence, he still grasps the issues rural constituents care most about.

“I know how important healthcare is to rural communities,” Kerrey said. “I know how important transportation is to rural communities, and telecommunications is to rural communities.”

“So my first response is: I know why our unemployment rates are low and what we have to do to keep them relatively low.”

Kerrey’s opponent also sees agriculture as crucial to Nebraska’s economic stability. Republican State Senator Deb Fischer says during her tenure in the Legislature, Nebraska has been “responsible” by lowering taxes and cutting spending. That, she says, can work in Congress.

“We’ve looked at the priorities in the state, whether that’s public education, public infrastructure, public safety,” Fischer said, “we’re meeting those priorities.”

“And we’re still able to give tax relief to our citizens,” she said. “That’s a model of what we can do at the federal level.”

Beyond bringing Nebraska values to Washington, the Senate race between Fischer and Kerrey has national consequences. The ouster of just five Democratic seats will turn the Senate over to a Republican majority.

“Everyone in the state knows that this is a very important election, not just for Nebraska, but for the country,” Fischer said. “We have an opportunity to change direction.”

So, despite the local prosperity, political candidates simply can’t avoid talking about national issues and a struggling national economy, even though constituents might not be entirely interested.

Back in midtown, realtor Tim Reeder says the economy is not his top concern. “I don’t want to see the economy turn again and affect us,” he said. “But I’m not seeing people lose homes, jobs; I’m just not seeing that.”

“The economy isn’t one of my big priorities.”

2 Responses

1. Elaine Wilkinson says:

   July 5, 2012 at 11:14 AM

   Not seeing people without jobs & losing their homes? SEE ME. See MOST of my friends. See my useless bachelors degree from Bellevue University. See my volumes of job application history – I do have them. All your fluff & ‘hey look at the statistics’ mean nothing because I am apparently not ON your list of statistics but I’m here and I’m PISSED OFF.

2. Emid says:

   July 6, 2012 at 10:09 AM

   Nebraska only has a low unemployment rate because the growth rate has been nearly zero for a decade. In comparison to other states, Nebraska didn’t lose jobs because they never had them to begin with. While certain sectors may be hurting and consequentially losing jobs, the question to ask is whether Nebraska ever had those jobs in the first place. The answer is no, rather because Nebraska has a poorly educated workforce, it wasn’t positioned to participate in the economic boom that other states had been riding.

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