Public Hearings

The Nebraska State Electrical Division (NSED) has announced a new online application service for Nebraskans who wish to apply to complete an electrician exam.

“With this new online process, individuals are able to submit the exam application and make payment with a credit card online and receive a confirmation receipt immediately. Their application will be reviewed and if accepted they will be eligible to complete the exam at a designed examination location,” said Randy Anderson, Executive Director of NSED.

Previously, in order to submit an electrician exam application, individuals would need to download and print a paper copy of the application, hand-write the information required, and then turn in to the NSED office. This online process cuts down on the handling of paper and other necessary forms as well as the time to fill them out and drive to the NSED office.

“We are working hard to get as many services online as possible. Our partnership with Nebraska.gov is making this possible and we have received very positive feedback from individuals that use our online services,” adds Randy.

More companies are doing business in Nebraska, states Secretary of State John Gale. Overall, the numbers are growing, but especially for one entity type in particular. Filings for domestic limited liability companies (LLCs) jumped 16 percent between 2013 and 2014. They went up 13 percent during that same time period for foreign LLCs.

"New businesses enterprises prefer the LLC over a domestic corporation due to the increased flexibility, less formalized operational requirements and greater ease of dissolving. Additionally, the investors are usually the managers," explained Gale. "I think this increase in domestic LLCs is a good marker and reflects a robust entrepreneurial drive across Nebraska to start new businesses."

Since 2009, domestic LLC filings have gone up 79 percent. There were 50,948 on file at the end of 2014. At the same time formulation of business corporations have continued to fall off. In 2009 there were 45,323 domestic business corporations on file. As of last year, there were 39,719. Gale noted the same trend was true among foreign LLCs – they have increased 58 percent in five years.

Among the most popular business entity types in Nebraska, growth increased four percent from 2013 to 2014. They include foreign and domestic corporations, nonprofits, LLCs, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), and limited partnerships (LPs). Among those categories, there were a total of 130,590 entities on file at the end of the year. They included two businesses which were created under a class of entities approved by the state legislature in 2014 known as benefit corporations.

Secretary of State John Gale says he is "hoisting a flag warning" for some 14,500 business entities that must file their biennial reports within the next month, or risk being dissolved. Reminders have been mailed to nonprofit corporations, limited liability companies (LLCs), and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) that they missed the April 1 deadline.

"They could either be administratively dissolved or risk a revocation of authority based on whether they're a domestic or foreign entity," explained Gale. "While it is possible to re-instate, it's just easier with less risk, fewer fees and filings if business owners take care of this situation now."

Gale says online filing makes the process easy to complete. Links are posted on the main page of the Secretary of State's website: www.sos.ne.gov. The system guides users through the filing process and will produce an electronic receipt after payment, indicating completion.

At last count filings were missing from 2,370 nonprofits, 12,134 LLCs and 46 LLPs doing business in Nebraska.

Nebraskans looking to obtain electrical permits in their state can now access the newly improved online services from anywhere, on any device. The Nebraska State Electrical Division (NSED) announced that the contractor and homeowners' online permit applications have migrated to the common application template, as part of Nebraska.gov's initiative to migrate all of the state's applications to the new platform.

The common application template has many benefits that include branding, responsive design, and state-of-the-art web features. Services follow a similar branding pattern which creates continuity between Nebraska applications and helps with customer confidence.

"Our contractor and homeowner electrical permit applications now have a fresh, polished appearance," said Randy Anderson, Executive Director of NSED. "We are excited to continue enhancing the rest of our applications and carry out the consistent look and feel Nebraska.gov has always been able to create for us."