For those who don't know, I'm a Cornhusker resident; so, I'm proud to sare
this article - there's more to "middle-of-no-where" thank you sometimes
think. I hope you find this interesting...

-BambaLaye
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October 2, 2005
Revenge of the Cornhuskers
By RICHARD DOOLING
Omaha

IF new construction is the cardinal symptom of municipal economic health,
Omaha has to be in the pink of vigor: $2 billion in new construction in
the last five years in a city of fewer than half a million souls. This
includes an arena and convention center, a revitalized riverfront with a
campus built by the Gallup Corporation, skyscrapers from the First
National Bank and Union Pacific, and a $90 million performing arts center
opening this month.

My friend and neighbor, Curtis Christensen (also the city's public finance
lawyer), tells me that Omaha pays its bills on time and that's one reason
why Moody's and Standard & Poor's give our municipal bonds their top
ratings. Even during the Great Depression, pay as you go was the law of
the land in Nebraska: in 1932, construction of the Capitol in Lincoln came
in under budget (at $9.8 million) and was paid for before it was
completed. If we were a country, Go-Big-Red-State Nebraskans would invade
Iraq, but only if we had the money to pay for it.

Our bond rating, says Mr. Christensen, is but one puzzle piece; others are
the public and political will to build, and, yes, generous contributions
from private wealth. In these parts, private means not just nonpublic, but
quiet and invisible. Just as most of the water in Nebraska runs
underground in the nation's largest aquifer (the Ogallala Aquifer), most
of the money in town is hidden in the accounts of investors, who follow
the example of the town's alpha money man, Warren Buffett, and don't
flaunt it. Mr. Buffett, who weighs in at $44 billion according to the
latest list from Forbes, lives in a modest house in midtown. I don't know
where the other two billionaires in town live - Joe Ricketts of Ameritrade
and Walter Scott Jr. of the construction company Peter Kiewit Sons' -
probably in very nice houses that mere dot-com millionaires would deem
totally inadequate.

Omaha also has hundreds of "original investors." They or their parents
"gave a young fella named Warren Buffett a few thousand dollars back in
the 70's." Now the few thousand dollars are worth 40 kajillion, and the
"original investors" live down the street, in fiscal anonymity. If they
feel the need to throw money around, they do it out of town, and wash
their hands afterwards.

Even our lemons often become lemonade. In 1986, Ken Lay purchased the
Omaha-based Northern Natural Gas and, as part of the deal, promised to
headquarter his new company here. Months later he merrily broke his
promise and took what was to become Enron to Houston, and the rest is
infamy. Bruce Rohde, former chief executive of Omaha's ConAgra, was in the
news this summer saying what most in town believe: namely, that the Enron
debacle could never have happened here, because of the city's business
ethics and what can only be called its moral rectitude in fiscal matters.

The vibrant economy has so far failed to draw crowds. You can still drive
anywhere you want in 20 minutes. Many citizens privately resent the
perennial attempts of the Convention and Visitors Bureau to attract more
tourists with catchy slogans and marketing campaigns; if we wanted to
stand in line or sit in traffic, we could spend a weekend in New York,
Chicago or Los Angeles.

Yes, the several dozen insurance companies headquartered here will have to
foot their share of this year's hurricane losses. Mr. Buffett's Berkshire
Hathaway estimates that it may pay 3 percent to 5 percent of Hurricane
Katrina's total insurance bill, or up to $3 billion. Sounds like a lot,
but with $40 billion in cash reserves, the original investors appear calm
in the storm's wake.

Richard Dooling is a screenwriter and the author, most recently, of "Bet
Your Life."

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