The Legislature finds and declares as follows:

Terms Used In Nebraska Statutes 13-3302

  • Acquire: when used in connection with a grant of power or property right to any person shall include the purchase, grant, gift, devise, bequest, and obtaining by eminent domain. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801
  • State: when applied to different states of the United States shall be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories organized by Congress. See Nebraska Statutes 49-801

(1) Nebraska is ideally situated as a potential industrial and logistical hub for multiple industries across the rest of the country. The state is home to major railroads and trucking firms, and is within a two-day drive to major cities on the east coast, west coast, Mexico, and Canada;

(2) Increasingly, major companies looking to locate their headquarters or expand operations seek large shovel-ready commercial and industrial sites, commonly referred to as mega sites;

(3) Nebraska currently lacks the economic development tools necessary to acquire and develop large shovel-ready commercial and industrial sites, and the creation of one or more inland port authorities in Nebraska could serve as a mechanism to develop such sites; and

(4) In addition to the development of large shovel-ready commercial and industrial sites, the creation of one or more inland port authorities could serve as a regional merging point for multi-modal transportation and distribution of goods to and from ports and other locations in other regions.