CPAR Partners with Nebraska Legislative Planning Committee to Assist with Long-term State Planning

Omaha – Since 2009, CPACS, with the Center for Public Affairs Research as the primary contact, has partnered with the Nebraska Legislative Planning Committee to develop a database that consists of data for each of nine categories of benchmarks that present a common-sense and data-driven assessment of key areas important to Nebraskans' quality of life.

The first database was published in December 2011 and presented to the members of the Unicameral at the beginning the 2012 Legislative Session in the hopes that the data it contained would be of instrumental assistance to Legislators and staff as they craft and debate legislation. The database has been updated annually.

Beginning in 2012, the report included Policy Briefs that identify and explore, in depth, some of the issues that were identified while reviewing the indicators presented in the database. The subjects of the Policy Briefs change every year. The Policy Briefs do not recommend specific policies but rather describe options and considerations that relate to the issues. These Policy Briefs have been prepared by faculty and staff throughout CPACS, other colleges at UNO, and from faculty and staff at UNL and UNMC.

CPAR staff members also prepare a series of associated reports providing data for legislative districts, counties and census tracts, using data from the most recent 5-year summary of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. These reports address the benchmarks established by the Planning Committee and presented in the database.

To illustrate the scope of data presented in the database and reports, here are the different ways in which median household income is presented for the different geographies explored in the 2015 series of reports. Images of the tables, charts and maps described can be seen in the accompanying slideshow.

The database has a table that compares the median household income for Nebraska with the United States and the region consisting of nine other states selected by the Planning Committee.

The database also has a chart of median household income for the years 2000 to 2014 for Nebraska and the United States.

The report of quick facts for Legislative Districts has a chart ranking the change in median household income between 2008-2012 and 2010-2014; and includes a separate report for each district that includes the median household income for the state and the district for these same two time periods.

The report for Legislative Districts has a chart ranking the districts and the state by median household income and a table listing the median household incomes for each district.

The report for counties and the report for census tracts in Douglas, Sarpy, Lancaster and Hall counties have tables listing the median household incomes for each county and census tract, respectively. And a table ranking the counties by median household income. The counties report has a map of Nebraska showing median household income for counties grouped by quartile. The census tract map has three maps—one for Douglas and Sarpy county, one for Hall County, and one for Lancaster County—showing median household incomes for census tracts grouped by quartile. The report for counties also has a table ranking counties by median household incomes.

There are currently six associated reports published each year. The reports also include one on own children with all parents in the labor force for the state and legislative districts and one on the ratio of income to poverty level for children for legislative districts.

All of the databases, policy briefs, and reports can be downloaded from the Nebraska State Policy Initiative web page at cpar.unomaha.edu/policy.