Lincoln Mayor Seeks to Create 'Culture' of DEI With Proposed Budget

by John Gage

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird revealed a new 2026-2028 city budget on Monday to the Lincoln City Council. Gaylor Baird said the budget sought to achieve 5 goals, one of which was making the city more “equitable and inclusive.”

“We are committed to creating a culture of equity, diversity, and inclusion, both within City Hall and in the community. Our goal is to promote processes, structures, and policies that allow and empower all city employees and residents to achieve their full human potential,” the budget states. “We will also champion community policies, practices, and culture change initiatives that advance equity, diversity, and inclusion, as well as foster community conversations about topics like racism and discrimination.”

The mayor’s other four goals for the budget were to make Lincoln safe and healthy, economically and culturally vibrant, strong and resilient, and innovative and operationally excellent.

The budget listed six areas that were tied to its goal of equity and inclusivity, including: on-time case turnaround for discrimination complaints, maintaining housing costs below national average, making changes to city buildings to make them more ADA compliant, capital improvements in low-income neighborhoods, “bringing more inclusive and adaptive play features to Lincoln’s public parks,” and using the Library Bookmobile to provide services to diverse communities.

The budget listed the ADA compliance updates and making inclusive public park play features as “urgent” requests. The budget uses a three-tier budget rating system, which includes “A” urgent, “B” necessary, and “C” desired requests.

The list of “equitable and inclusive” priorities was shorter than the last biennium budget, when the city listed 11 budget priorities under the goal, including: a program to rehab low-income rental units, $710,000 to break down barriers to creating low-income housing, building a new Multi-Modal Transit Center to advance “climate action goals,” supporting “the incorporation of inclusive play equipment” at playgrounds, and attracting and retaining a diverse workforce.

LPD Gets a Bump Following Violent Crime Surge

During her pitch before the city council, Gaylor Baird said public safety was the city’s “number one priority.” The mayor emphasized that crime in Lincoln is at a 20-year low.

“To date, our current city investments continue to support the safe community, and this is one of the most important proof points,” she said. The Plains Sentinel reported in March that violent crime in Lincoln was up 32% year-over-year, including a 70% increase in reported rapes, despite overall crime being down.

The mayor said she was proposing an increase in funding for the Lincoln Police Department (LPD) with a budget of $83 million in fiscal year 2026-2027 and over $90 million in fiscal year 2027-2028. LPD is budgeted for $76.5 million in the current fiscal year.

The new budget would increase LPD spending as an overall percentage of the city’s budget, making it over a quarter of the total.

Gaylor Baird says the budget “continues our investment in police officers, firefighters, emergency response services, streets, libraries, parks, and other essential services that make life better for all in Lincoln.”

The overall proposed budget puts forward a $15 million increase, or $316.5 million in total spending, for the next budget year, and another $18 million increase, or $335.6 million in total spending, in fiscal year 2027-2028. The mayor said the increases are 4.6 and 5.7%, respectively, a number she said was a “modest” growth rate.

Gaylor Baird also promised the city would not increase the property tax rate.

The public hearing for the budget is scheduled for August 3, and a final vote by the city council is set for August 24.

— John Gage is the executive editor of The Plains Sentinel.