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Bellevue, or "beautiful view" in French, is a former fur-trading post 10 miles south of Omaha. It is home to the Fontenelle Forest, a 1,400-acre expanse with 19 miles of hiking trails and amazing views of the Missouri River. The city's ultralow jobless rate (4.2%) is in part owing to the Offutt Air Force Base, which employs over 10,000 military and Federal workers. Folks here take civic duty seriously: This past June, Bellevue was chosen as one of 50 cities in the U.S. to participate in the SC Johnson Green Choices Challenge, a recycling competition with a $100,000 grand prize on the line. --D.M.
Notes:
*County data
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score stats for a small number of places, this city's rank changed slightly from an earlier version.
Details.
Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.
(I) Income tax notes:
17 states have statutory provision for automatically adjusting to the rate of inflation the dollar values of the income tax brackets, standard deductions, and/or personal exemptions. Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nebraska index the personal exemption only. Oregon does not index the income brackets for $125,000 and over. Because the inflation adjustments for 2012 are not yet available in some cases, the table may report the 2011 amounts. For joint returns, taxes are twice the tax on half the couple’s income. The personal exemption takes the form of a tax credit instead of a deduction.
(II) Sales tax notes:
Most of Omaha is located within Douglas County and is subject to a 7 percent sale tax. However, part of the city lies in Sarpy County and is subject to a total rate of 5.5 percent.
Using statistics from data services company Onboard Informatics, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small cities for families. (Last year, we looked at small towns, with populations between 8,500 and 50,000.)
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