Report; contents; joint hearing

(1) The Tax Commissioner shall prepare a report identifying the amount of investment in this state and the number of equivalent jobs created by each taxpayer claiming a credit pursuant to the Nebraska Advantage Rural Development Act. The report shall include the amount of credits claimed in the aggregate. The report shall be issued on or before October 31 of each year for all credits allowed during the previous fiscal year. The report shall be on a fiscal year, accrual basis that satisfies the requirements set by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board. The Department of Revenue shall, on or before December 15 of each even-numbered year, appear at a joint hearing of the Appropriations Committee of the Legislature and the Revenue Committee of the Legislature and present the report. Any supplemental information requested by three or more committee members shall be presented within thirty days after the request.

(2) Beginning with applications filed on or after January 1, 2006, except for livestock modernization or expansion projects, the report shall provide information on project-specific total incentives used every two years for each approved project and shall disclose (a) the identity of the taxpayer, (b) the location of the project, and (c) the total credits used and refunds approved during the immediately preceding two years expressed as a single, aggregated total. The incentive information required to be reported under this subsection shall not be reported for the first year the taxpayer attains the required employment and investment thresholds. The information on first-year incentives used shall be combined with and reported as part of the second year. Thereafter, the information on incentives used for succeeding years shall be reported for each project every two years containing information on two years of credits used and refunds approved. The incentives used shall include incentives which have been approved by the Department of Revenue, but not necessarily received, during the previous two fiscal years.

(3) For livestock modernization or expansion projects, the report shall disclose (a) the identity of the taxpayer, (b) the total credits used and refunds approved during the preceding fiscal year, and (c) the location of the project.

(4) No information shall be provided in the report that is protected by state or federal confidentiality laws.