LINCOLN — Nebraska’s new Economic Development Director Maureen Larsen expressed support for consolidating the department with the Nebraska Tourism Commission at her confirmation hearing Tuesday.

Gov. Jim Pillen named Larsen the permanent Department of Economic Development director in November. She had served as interim director since July following former director K.C. Belitz’ resignation. Prior to her appointment, Larsen served as Pillen’s general counsel and deputy director of his Policy Research Office.

Larsen, speaking before the Nebraska Legislature’s Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee, spoke on the possibility of a merger when she was asked about the state’s lagging tourism revenues. She noted that while national tourism levels had grown modestly over the last year, Nebraska remained relatively flat.

Larsen argued that consolidating the agencies would mean tourism initiatives would have a larger budget and more marketing resources to pull from, and DED has the capacity to utilize grant funding for tourism efforts. She noted that prior to 2012, the two agencies were one in the same.

“If you’re trying to recruit businesses, if you’re trying to recruit that talent to keep people in Nebraska, tourism is a giant component of that,” Larsen said.

Committee Chair State Sen. Mike Jacobson of North Platte, who introduced an interim study Tuesday to examine the potential impacts of merging the agencies, asked Larsen if she knew why the agencies split in 2012. Larsen, though she wasn’t in state government at the time, said it was her understanding that lawmakers didn’t believe DED was doing an effective job of handling tourism.

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