When the Omaha City Council voted to raise the pay of the next council and mayor earlier this week, they did something state senators can't do.

That's right state senators can't raise their own pay.

Because those salaries are set in the Nebraska Constitution, the voters have to approve any pay hike for the Legislature.

And that has led to wide pay disparities between city and state officials.

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The salaries of top state and city officials from the Governor on down are making noise, all part of higher salaries coming down the road for Omaha’s top brass.

Take the Mayor, Jean Stothert earns $114,000 a year, by 2030 the Mayor of Omaha will be making $140,000, overseeing a $500 million general fund budget.

Gov. Jim Pillen pulls down $105,000, while in charge of a state general fund budget of $5 billion, ten times Omaha’s.

And then there’s those State Senator salaries, which just last year were front and center in the fight for Congress between Republican incumbent Don Bacon and his Democratic challenger Tony Vargas. The GOP was blasting Vargas for trying to raise his own pay.

(GOP 2022 Ad): “Tax man Tony Vargas tried to use taxpayer money to double his own salary.”

And that was true. But there’s more.

Nebraska State Senators, like Vargas, make $12,000 a year, the same $12,000 they’ve made since 1988, that’s 35 years without a pay raise.

Councilman Don Rowe, Omaha (R): “What we pay our state senators is in my view ridiculous. Those people work extremely hard for what they earn.”

That’s Omaha City Councilman Don Rowe just moments before he voted not to increase the pay of the next Omaha City Council.

Councilman Ron Hug, who just replaced ousted Councilman Vinny Palermo, voted for the pay hike with some additional show and tell.

Councilman Ron Hug, Omaha (D): “This is our current salary, $41,000, Omaha City Council. This is the current Douglas County Board salary, $59,816. That’s about a 30 percent disparity. Now I’m not saying this is right or wrong I’m just saying if you’re criticizing the City Council for raising the salary 3 percent in four years, before you criticize the City Council for a three percent increase you might want to go back and say why didn’t anybody say anything when the County Board was raising their salary.

The city council salaries are jumping, going up to $51,000 a year in 2030.