LINCOLN- The City of Lincoln is making big changes to its budget because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and the City Council suggested a budget amendment today that would increase street funding and help restore library hours, sidewalk repairs, and park improvements.

The City faces a $12 million budget shortfall, caused primarily by a significant drop in sales tax revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales tax revenue provides 44 percent of the funding for the General Fund.

Mayor Gaylor Baird: "The draft budget that I presented last month contained both, the hopes we have for our community future as well as painful impacts of the pandemic that we face today."

The new proposal involves allocating part o the city’s budget to the construction and improvements of streets and public roads.

Mayor Gaylor Baird: "This additional street funding enables more repairs and construction across the entire community and that infrastructure investment increases safety and improves quality of life for Lincoln residents. It also creates good-paying construction jobs to help advance our community economic recovery.

Council member Jane Raybould says using Highway Allocation bonds to build projects now actually saves money, because they would cost much more to build in the future.

Jane Raybould: "Now is an excellent time to bond and get more street projects out there. Why? Because interest rates are very low right now."

The new funding for streets would be in addition to the quarter-cent sales tax funding for streets approved by voters last year.

The City Council’s public hearing on the budget is Monday, August 3d, and the Council is scheduled to adopt the budget on August 24.