The Open Sky Policy Institute…a non-partisan Nebraska organization dedicated to fiscal research and analysis…is sending its executive director on the road this week to share its latest research on the state’s economy and tax system with groups around the state.

Renee Fry kicked off her trip in the northern Panhandle with morning sessions today in Chadron and Alliance, and will finish this first trip with meetings tomorrow in McCook and Wednesday in Kearney. More are set later this month in Ogallala, North Platte, Fremont, and Columbus with others to come this summer and fall.

Fry says these meetings serve the dual purpose of updating interested groups and individuals around the state on tax reform issues and getting input on what residents think Open Sky should be looking into itself.

Open Sky’s goal is to put the state on a sustainable long-term growth path that will balance the needs of its citizens with the capacity of the revenue structure, which has put in the forefront of the tax reform debate.

While Governor Dave Heinemann focused his tax overall plan on doing away with most sales tax exemptions to reduce or eliminate income taxes on corporations and pensions, Fry says private citizens seem more worried about property taxes…especially on ag land.

Although there’s still most of month left in this year’s legislative session, Fry will be using this series of meetings to help shape what issues Open Sky will lobby lawmakers to review with interim studies as well as those it will research itself for next year’s session.

Fry says research is time-consuming because data is often filed or categorized differently by different groups or agencies, and the institute is a small organization with just 3 employees. She will soon get a fourth staffer, a doctoral candidate who will be an intern focusing on funding for education.

The Open Sky Policy Institute was created in September 2011 by a coalition of Nebraska organizations generally considered in the mainstream on tax and spending issues.

Fry, an attorney, is the institute’s founding executive director. Her resume includes a number of roles and positions in the Nebraska legislature…including Legal Counsel to then-Speaker Doug Kristensen…and with the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where she was director of government relations and public relations.