Terms, defined

For purposes of the Rural Economic Opportunities Act:

(1) Any term defined in the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967 and used in the Rural Economic Opportunities Act has the same meaning as in the Nebraska Revenue Act of 1967;

(2) Average annual total employment means the average total employment reported for the county of employment for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor;

(3) Base year means the year immediately before the year in which the application was submitted;

(4) Base-year employee means any individual who was employed in Nebraska and subject to the Nebraska income tax on compensation received from the taxpayer or its predecessors during the base year and who is employed at the project;

(5) Compensation means the wages and other payments subject to withholding for federal income tax purposes;

(6) County average annual wage means the most recent average annual wage paid by all employers in a county or in the state, whichever is lower, for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor. County average annual wage for a project located in more than one county means the county average annual wages for each county in which the project is located, multiplied by the total of the average annual total employment for each county in which the project is located, summing the products for all counties in which the project is located, then dividing the result by the average annual total employment for all counties in which the project is located;

(7) Entitlement period means the year during which the required increases in employment, wages, and investment were met or exceeded and the next six years;

(8) Equivalent employees means the number computed by dividing the total hours paid in a year by the product of forty times the number of weeks in a year;

(9) Investment, for qualified property owned by the taxpayer, means the original cost of the property. Investment, for qualified property rented by the taxpayer, means the average net annual rent multiplied by the number of years of the lease for which the taxpayer was originally bound, not to exceed ten years or the end of the third year after the entitlement period, whichever is earlier. The rental of land included in and incidental to the leasing of a building is included in the computation;

(10) Labor force means the total annual average county labor force for the most recent calendar year reported as of July 1 by the Department of Labor;

(11) Motor vehicle means any motor vehicle, trailer, or semitrailer as defined in the Motor Vehicle Registration Act and subject to registration for operation on the highways;

(12) Number of new employees means the number of equivalent employees at the project during the year minus the number of equivalent employees during the base year;

(13)(a) Qualified business means any business engaged in the storage, warehousing, distribution, transportation, or sale of tangible personal property. Qualified business also means any business engaged in any of the following activities: