Citizens’ Transportation Coalition Encourages Lincolnites to Vote "For" Fixing Lincoln Streets Now

Lincoln is a growing city and shows no signs of slowing down. However, infrastructure maintenance and improvement remain a key hurdle to even better growth and success.

Many of Lincoln’s streets need repairs and will need adequate funding to keep the city strong and expanding well into the future. Since 2017, the Citizens’ Transportation Coalition has met and attempted to identify ways to increase funding for city streets, taking public input and other recommendations into consideration before crafting a final report in early 2018.

That report found that while funding for city streets had increased by nearly 71 percent since 2010, Lincoln was still quite a bit behind peer cities for street repair investment. Along with other community leaders, the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce is hopeful the Better Streets for a Stronger Future initiative will help pave the way for our city's prosperity through the years ahead.

So, how do we act on these recommendations? To raise $13 million per year for a period of six years, a quarter-cent sales tax increase has been proposed and will go before voters in April’s primary election.

While increasing transportation revenues through the wheel tax and impact fees were also options considered, the CTC found the sales tax increase had the most support from the coalition of groups on this project. The Realtors Association of Lincoln, Home Builders Association of Lincoln, Lincoln Independent Business Association and city representatives have come together in supporting this measure for a couple of different reasons.

One, is that communities across the state and country alike are finding that infrastructure costs remain a big challenge and can inhibit business growth. We want this investment to enable and encourage economic growth and at the same time, revitalize our neighborhoods. The new construction of roads and maintaining existing ones also remains attractive to prospective businesses that are thinking of coming to Lincoln.

Two, is that the CTC’s report found that approximately 30 percent of sales taxes generated in Lincoln come from people who don’t live in the city. Those that use our roads to either commute to or through our city, conduct business in Lincoln or otherwise visit, would also contribute to the increase in roads funding.

The Lincoln Chamber is hopeful of the many positives this can bring to the community and provide for our city's prosperous future in the years to come. We hope voters vote “yes” for Lincoln roads on Tuesday, April 9.