Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird says major events like the National High School Finals Rodeo and the National Roller Skating Championships are providing an economic boost while introducing thousands of visitors to the Capital City.
Appearing Tuesday on LNK Today with Jack and Friends, Gaylor Baird said the events fill hotels, support local restaurants and businesses, and could encourage future students to choose the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
She also discussed the city’s proposed budget, describing the process as collaborative and driven by community input. “This is the way the process is supposed to work,” Gaylor Baird says, adding she expects additional refinements following public hearings before the budget is finalized.
On the city’s legal fight over Lincoln’s minimum wage ordinance, Gaylor Baird said the case is about more than wages. “We thought this was a fight worth having” She argues the issue centers on preserving the will of voters and protecting local control from what she called a “slow creep” of state interference.
The mayor also highlighted completed street projects, including improvements on Adams Street near Huntington Elementary School and the 14th and Oak Creek Bridge project. She said the voter-approved Lincoln on the Move sales tax is accelerating construction across the city.
“We’re pretty much maxing out the contractors that we can hire to get work done in every quadrant of the city,” Gaylor Baird says. Housing affordability was another major topic. Gaylor Baird praised a newly enacted bipartisan federal housing law, saying it will provide Lincoln with more flexibility to use federal housing dollars for new affordable housing, home repairs and other local priorities.
“It’s not going to solve every problem, but it’s giving us some new tools to create new housing and to repair the housing we have.”