Governor Pete Ricketts says the 2021 stimulus package being pushed by Democrats in Congress based in part on unemployment rates will be detrimental to Nebraska.
During a news conference in Lincoln Friday, Ricketts said each state took a different response to the emerging pandemic, with Nebraska among those that tried to balance efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 with allowing people to live a more normal life.
“Weve had the lowest unemployment rate in the country the last five months in a row. If the federal government would distribute stimulus based on the unemployment rate, theyre penalizing Nebraska, and other states like Iowa and Kansas, who have done a good job of trying to balance this off,” said Ricketts, “and theyre going to be rewarding states like New York and California that have very different outcomes, shall we say. So, theyre basically going to be penalizing people whove done the right thing.”
Ricketts said to be fair to people across the country, the aid under consideration in Washington D.C. should be on a per-capita basis.
He also noted Nebraskans pay their fair share of federal taxes, and shouldnt be disadvantaged by federal policies.
