NFIB’s Optimism Index falls while end of Nebraska legislative session raises hopes
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bob Hallstrom, Nebraska State Director, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
LINCOLN, Neb., August 11, 2020—The latest results from the nation’s bellwether measurement of its Main Street economy did not have much good news to announce this morning, but goings-on right now in Nebraska should, over time, help brighten things a bit.
NFIB’s Small Business Economic Trends report (Optimism Index) fell 1.8 points to 98.8 in July, near the survey’s historical average. Overall, 4 of the 10 Index components improved, 5 declined, and 1 was unchanged. The NFIB Uncertainty Index increased 7 points to 88. Reports of expected better business conditions in the next six months declined 14 points to a net 25 percent.
Meanwhile, in Lincoln, the Nebraska Legislature is wrapping up its session on three positive notes, according to NFIB’s Nebraska state director.
“Property tax relief and economic development incentives will go a long way toward repairing and restoring the small-business economy in Nebraska,” said Bob Hallstrom, Nebraska state director for NFIB. “Equal in importance is something that wasn’t done, and that is passage of a very bad idea to decouple several tax benefits under the federal CARES Act from Nebraska’s tax code. This would have severely undermined the recovery of our economy by adversely affecting the ability of Nebraska to recover from the pandemic. As with medicine’s Hippocratic oath, the first rule of policymaking is to first, do no harm.”
NFIB Research Center has collected Small Business Economic Trends Data with Quarterly surveys since 1973 and monthly surveys since 1986. The sample is drawn from the membership files of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). The SBET is one of the few archival data sets on small business, particularly when research questions address business operations rather than opinions. Today, it’s the largest, longest-running data set on small business economic conditions available.
Keep up with the latest on Nebraska small business at www.nfib.com/nebraska or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_NE
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For more than 77 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since its founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.
NFIB
233 South 13th St., Suite 700
Lincoln, NE 68501-0008
402-474-3570
www.nfib.com/NE
Twitter: @NFIB_NE
