The Basics

Lincoln has an independently elected mayor and City Council. The mayor fills an executive role, while the council serves a legislative role. The City Council consists of seven members. It meets every Monday, with the exception of holidays. 

How do races work?

Council members serve four-year terms. Four council members represent and are elected from geographic districts in the city, while the other three are at-large, meaning they are elected citywide. The office is nonpartisan – party affiliation does not appear on the ballot. 

With the three at-large seats on the ballot this year, the top six candidates in the primary will advance to the general election.

Council members make $24,000 per year. Unlike the mayor who is limited to three consecutive terms, there are no term limits for members of the Lincoln City Council.

What’s the big deal?

Lincoln’s City Council is in charge of adopting and amending local laws. It can alter codes making it easier or harder to build. It can change parking laws and noise ordinances within the city and authorize changes to local zoning and land use restrictions. It signs off on redevelopment agreements, including the use of tax increment financing, also known as TIF.

Council can also decide to put issues before Lincoln voters, as it did with the sales tax extensions for road improvement projects that voters will decide this spring. 

Council also develops and adopts the city budget, which determines funding for services and major capital projects, as well as the city property tax rate. Council can set fees and rates, as well as levy taxes.

City Council also can aid or thwart the agenda of the city’s mayor. While the offices are officially nonpartisan, Lincoln’s mayor and a 6-1 supermajority of its City Council are registered Democrats, meaning the two branches of government align on more issues than not. The three at-large seats up for election this year are all held by registered Democrats. All are seeking reelection.

The Basics

A five-member board of directors oversees the Lincoln Airport. They have the authority to levy property taxes to pay off bonds, which the authority did in recent years to cover a $56 million expansion and renovation project at the airport. The board also signs off on major projects at the airport, as well as incentive packages meant to lure new airline services. The board typically convenes for a public meeting once a month.

How do races work?

Each of the five members serve six-year terms. Elections are staggered so that a single seat is up for election, with two more seats going up two years later, and the final two seats up two years after that. This year, a single seat is up for election. The top two candidates will advance from the primary to the general election.

The office is nonpartisan – party affiliation does not appear on the ballot.

Board must live in Lincoln. The position is unpaid, though members can be reimbursed for expenses incurred while in service to the airport.

What’s the big deal?

Airports are seen as critical to economic development, and Lincoln’s is no exception. A 2019 Department of Transportation report found the airport was responsible for $1.2 billion in economic output, with 8,884 jobs and payroll totaling $508 million. It is only one of nine airports in the state with commercial air service. 

The airport has come under scrutiny in recent years. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Delta Airlines dropped its service. Then the authority contracted with Red Way Airlines to provide a host of new flights in 2023. Both the city and country signed off on using a total of $3 million of federal COVID relief dollars to get the venture off the ground. But Red Way folded after just three months, frustrating passengers and leading to a scathing report from the state auditor, who called the venture a “riverboard gamble.” In addition to the COVID relief money, the Lincoln Airport Authority steered more than $700,000 in public dollars to the failed service. 

Then last year, the airport lost a United Airlines route to Houston, leaving only routes to Chicago and Denver. 

Airport officials cite the short-term boost in passengers from Red Way in 2023 as the primary reason for a 3% drop in passengers in 2024. Still, the drop stands in stark contrast compared to the much larger Eppley Airfield in Omaha, which saw a 5% increase in passengers in 2024 compared to 2023.

The Basics

The Lincoln Public Schools Board of Education governs over the school district. LPS is the second largest public school district in Nebraska, with more than 42,000 students and more than 3,600 teachers. The board usually meets twice a month.

How do races work?

Each of the seven members on the school board represent a specific district. The four odd-numbered districts are up for election this year. The top two candidates in each district will advance from the primary to the general election. 

Board members serve four-year terms and are not paid for their service. 

The office is nonpartisan – party affiliation does not appear on the ballot.

What’s the big deal?

Lincoln Public Schools is in the midst of a leadership change. Its superintendent abruptly announced he was retiring in December after less than three years on the job — a much shorter tenure than his predecessor who served in the role for 12 years.

This election will bring further change. Three of the four incumbent board members are not seeking reelection. Those three have more than 50 years of combined experience on the board.

It has been a challenging time for K-12 education broadly. The COVID-19 pandemic fueled heightened scrutiny of schools from parents and others, with critiques of pandemic response, curriculum and library books. In some districts, school board meetings turned hostile. Teachers reported feeling burnt out and many left the profession, contributing to an overall teacher shortage in Nebraska. 

Likewise, students have struggled to recover from the pandemic, with test scores lagging and behavioral issues persisting in many places.

With schools making up the largest portion of most people’s property tax bills, K-12 funding has been an ongoing area of focus for state lawmakers as they seek to reduce Nebraskans’ property tax burden.