The director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development resigned Wednesday, a day after a news report said a business he co-owns received $24,000 in pandemic relief grants from the department..
Republican Gov. Jim Pillen announced Anthony Goins’ resignation in a 3-sentence news release that gave no reason for it and did not reference the story by the Nebraska Examiner over the Capital Cigar Lounge and the grants.
The DED confirmed Wednesday that the CARES-funded federal grants were given to the cigar bar in 2020, but also said they were issued through a computer system.
The computer automatically doled out checks to applicants who met the grant criteria, answered questions correctly, and had lost money due to the pandemic. The application was under the name of one of Goins’ partners..
Goins called the news reports “false attacks” and said he decided to resign so as not to distract from the agency’s work.
Goins was first appointed DED director in 2019 by then-Gov. Pete Ricketts and reappointed by Pillen earlier this year.