September 23, 2003

LINCOLN, Neb. — Regional cooperation – communities, businesses, governments or organizations teaming up to provide goods and services – gets a thumbs up from most rural Nebraskans, according to the latest Nebraska Rural Poll.

These findings from the eighth annual University of Nebraska poll contradict some long-held notions that rural people fiercely guard local autonomy and resist regional collaboration, said John Allen, the NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources rural sociologist who heads the poll.

"While we've been assuming that rural Nebraskans are trying to replicate the past, it looks like rural Nebraskans are out there exploring new ways to do things," he said. "We may well be looking at the new, future way of doing business in rural areas."

More than 80 percent of the 3,087 people responding to this year's poll agreed that communities working together to generate new businesses are better able to create quality jobs for residents, while 6 percent disagreed and 12 percent had no opinion. Three-quarters agreed retailers who work together can provide a better variety of goods and services.

Sixty percent of respondents agree that combining community or county services in a region will improve access to services. Only 18 percent said combining services will hurt quality while 59 percent disagreed. And 47 percent don't think it will increase prices for consumers while 23 said it will.

"It looks like there's been a real shift and maybe a maturation in how rural residents view regional cooperation," Allen said. When the rural poll asked about consolidating services in 1999, only the road and weed superintendents' positions garnered majority support.

Survey language probably accounts for part of the difference, Allen said, but the breadth of support for regional collaborations surprised him. Consolidation has more negative connotations than collaboration or cooperation.

"There's been resistance to consolidation because it usually means that rural people lose something," he explained. "Collaboration means they get to plan, participate and get something back."

The poll asked whether, in the event of revenue shortages, respondents would favor combining with others, eliminating, reducing or raising revenue to keep various community and county services.

Fire and emergency medical services and K-12 schools led the list of services for which rural Nebraskans would raise revenue to maintain at their current levels. For fire, 53 percent would raise revenue while 43 percent would combine; for EMS, half would raise revenue and 45 percent would combine.

"Some things are just logically local," Allen said. "Fire protection and emergency services are certainly among them."

While 48 percent of respondents said they would raise revenue to maintain their schools, 41 percent said they would combine with others. Opinions differed greatly by age. About three-quarters of 19- to 29-year-olds favored raising revenue compared with only 35 percent of people 65 and older.

At least half of respondents said they would combine or share these services if faced with a money shortage: county road maintenance, veterans services, health clinics, telecommunications services; economic development, licenses and permits, street maintenance, property assessment, county weed control and law enforcement.

The poll also showed that rural Nebraskans still are shopping locally while also participating in a regional economy.

"That could be why they are beginning to see the potential of regional cooperation," Allen said.

The poll asked what proportion of various goods and services the respondents purchase locally or regionally.

Banking and financial services led the list of locally purchased items. Respondents do 76 percent of their banking locally, 19 percent in communities within 50 miles and 5 percent in communities more than 50 miles away.

Rural Nebraskans buy 73 percent of their groceries locally; about 23 percent within 50 miles and about 3 percent beyond 50 miles. They also purchase at least 55 percent of the following goods and services locally: auto/machinery repair, insurance, farm and ranch inputs, doctor, clinic and hospital services. Clothes purchases are least like to happen locally, with only 32 percent buying at home.

This shows that rural Nebraskans still rely on local businesses for many goods and services. Allen said. These findings also jibe with a local shopping survey he conducted in 1988 of a rural town of 500 people in Washington.

"We're halfway across the country 20 years later and we're still seeing quite a bit of local buying."

Poll results have implications for public policy, community leaders and planners as well as rural businesses.

From a policy perspective, results indicate that rural people are willing to explore regional collaborations. But they want the chance to sort out what to keep local and what to combine, Allen said.

"This data supports a policy model of collaboration vs. a more heavy-handed consolidate-or-else approach," he said. A locally led process that incorporates natural, historic, social and geographic relationships and structures is most likely to succeed.

Becky Vogt, the poll's manager, said sharing of a superintendent among some rural schools is an example of regional cooperation to stretch resources.

"If you give rural people a choice, they are willing to work together, but they appreciate having more options in the ways they do that," she said.

Poll results also support local leaders' efforts to explore collaborative regional relationships. And businesses can use the findings to get a general idea of what goods and services people are likely to buy locally, Allen said.

The scientific poll was mailed in March to 6,500 randomly selected households in the 87 counties defined as rural at that time. It is the largest annual survey of rural Nebraskans' views on quality of life and policy issues. This year's response rate was 48 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percent.

Complete poll results are available online at 2003 Nebraska Rural Poll.

The annual poll is conducted by the university's Center for Applied Rural Innovation with funding from the Partnership for Rural Nebraska and IANR's Cooperative Extension Division and Agricultural Research Division.

9/23/03-VM

Becky Vogt
Center for Applied Rural Innovation
Nebraska Rural Poll Project Manager
(402) 329-4821

John Allen - Ph.D.
Rural Sociology
Professor
(402) 472-1772

Vicki Miller
Research Communications Coordinator
(402) 472-3813

Department: Agricultural Economics