Before a crowded chamber of legislators, staff, family and friends, Pete Ricketts was sworn in Jan. 8 as the 40th governor of Nebraska.<\/p>\n
Joining Ricketts was his wife, Susanne Shore, and their three children, Roscoe, Margot and Eleanor. Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Heavican administered the oath of office.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Ricketts said that the success of the state depends upon the strength of its diverse citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur rich history is deeply rooted in freedom, opportunity, liberty and hope for a better life for future generations,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we gather here today, we continue to welcome people who value freedom and who search for a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ricketts outlined several priorities for lawmakers, including the creation of jobs, growth of businesses and modernization of educational policies. His number one priority, however, is cutting property taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must cut taxes,\u201d Ricketts said. \u201cAt the same time, we must act responsibly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe people of Nebraska expect government to work and they hold us to high standards. I will work every day to meet those standards and safeguard that trust,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The inaugural ceremonies also included the swearing in of several returning and newly elected officials, including:
\n\u2022 Lieutenant Governor Mike Foley;
\n\u2022 Secretary of State John Gale;
\n\u2022 State Treasurer Don Stenberg;
\n\u2022 State Auditor Charlie Janssen;
\n\u2022 Attorney General Doug Peterson;
\n\u2022 Public Service Commissioner Crystal Rhoades;
\n\u2022 State Board of Education members Patrick McPherson, Maureen Nickels, Molly O\u2019Holleran and Patricia Timm; and
\n\u2022 Board of Regents members Tim Clare and Rob Schafer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Before a crowded chamber of legislators, staff, family and friends, Pete Ricketts was sworn in Jan. 8 as the 40th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[30,167],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ceremonies","category-features"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15841"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15841\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15843,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15841\/revisions\/15843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}