Gov. Jim Pillen makes $105,000 year, but guess what, that's less than the mayor of Omaha.

And it appears that pay gap is about to grow.

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I'm Joe Jordan in Omaha where the public gets a chance to weigh in on the salaries of the city's top officials starting with the mayor.

Mayor Jean Stothert currently makes $114,000 a year, when her third term is up in 2025 she'll be making $121,000.

Now under a proposal heading for a vote of the City Council next week, that calls for 3 percent hikes each year, the next mayor and for all we know right now that could also be Mayor Stothert, will jump in 2026 to $128,000 topping out in 2030 at $140,000.

Citizen: “Honestly, I don’t think the Mayor deserves a pay raise.”

Only a handful of folks testified at a public hearing on all this which found at least one Councilmember armed with numbers. 

Councilmember Aimee Melton, Omaha (R): “The mayor is actually one of the lowest paid mayors out of the top 50 cities.”

Four years ago, the last time the mayor's salary was raised, then Councilman Rich Pahls argued the city's top executive was well underpaid.

Rich Pahls, former Omaha City Councilman (R), 2019: "The Superintendent of OPS $300,000, Metro College $300,000, M.U.D. 200 plus thousand, OPPD $500,000. What kind of Mayor do we want? I think there’s kind of a degree of responsibility that comes with that salary.”

Pahls, who left the City Council for the State Legislature before unexpectedly dying last year, never saw the pay raises he imagined.

By the way, along with the next mayor's possible pay hike members of the next City Council would see their pay jump from their current $43,000 a year up to $51,000 a year in 2030.