Ballot Initiative for Lincoln’s Street Improvement Funding Underway
Jan 09, 2025
This photo in the area of 33rd and Fletcher shows street repairs needed in that location. (Courtesy of the City of Lincoln/LTU)LINCOLN–(KFOR/News Release Jan. 9)–The process is underway for placing a ballot initiative on the spring primary ballot that would continue a quarter-cent sales tax for the Lincoln On the Move Street improvement initiative, which is set to expire in September.
But it depends on whether three resolutions get approved by the Lincoln City Council and if so, they would appear on the April 8 ballot.
If voters approve, Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird told reporters Thursday, Lincoln on the Move would continue and could generate an estimated $18-million a year over an eight-year span. The City Council will have three items on their agenda for public discussion January 27. One would put the question renewing the tax to a vote of the voters on the April 8 primary ballot, the other would freeze the inflationary adjustment for impact fees if the tax is renewed, and the third resolution would create a new interlocal agreement with the Railroad Transportation Safety District to help fund final engineering and construction of the 33rd Street and Cornhusker Highway Intersection Improvement Project.
A final vote on those items to see if they go before voters will be done by the Council on February 3. If approved by voters April 8, the Lincoln on the Move program and tax continues from October 1, 2025, to the new expiration date on September 30, 2033.
The current Lincoln on the Move initiative is expected to generate nearly $102 million for additional street improvement and new street construction. The City anticipates the completion of 65 street improvement and new construction projects during the six-year initiative approved by voters in 2019.
To date, the City has invested $85.7 million in street improvements and new street construction through the Lincoln on the Move initiative. The City has implemented or completed 55 additional street improvement and new construction projects since the sales tax took effect in 2019.