NORFOLK -- A roundtable discussion Wednesday at Norfolk's District Event Center welcomed four of Nebraska's gubernatorial candidates to see how they would handle questions about infrastructure.

Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning and retired Nucor Steel manager Dirk Peterson interviewed each candidate in one session at a time, so the peers didn't know each other's responses. 

The opening topic was Nebraska's expressway system. After it was adopted in 1988, it was meant to expand multiple highways in the state. The plan was supposed to be complete by 2003, but today it is just nearly one-third finished. The candidates' first question, ergo, was how to hurry the process along. 

"We are the center of the United States, so we shouldn't be the only state without a north-south highway," said Theresa Thibodeau, who sat down with Moenning and Peterson first. 

Moenning stressed that the longer government waits to spend on the plan, the more expensive it gets. Originally budgeted at around 200 million dollars, completion today will cost closer to 2 billion dollars. 

One thing all the candidates agreed on was that there needed to be bonds to pay for more highways.

Thibodeau differed from her peers, stressing that she would like to use bond money already collected from taxpayers -- to avoid raising new taxes. 

Brett Lindstrom was one of the strongest supporters of more bonds. 

"I know it can be controversial, but I could make a fiscal argument, or the conservative argument, that it makes a lot of sense -- particularly with interest rates where they've been, probably better if we'd done this a couple of years ago [...] and they're as low as they're ever going to be in our lifetime," Lindstrom said. 

"I don't see another way we can get there," Charles Herbster said. But when asked if he'd consider federal funding, Herbster noted he'd be much more skeptical as to what "strings" come attached. 

"I'm not a very patient guy," responded Jim Pillen, in a similar line as his previous peers.

At the end of each candidate's 40-minute session of questions and answers, a couple of audience ponderings became predictable.

For example, Leah Barrett, president of Northeast Community College, asked each candidate about the worker shortage. She noted that the state of Nebraska needs more employees to actually build the infrastructure. Hence, she asked candidates how they would bring in more people.

Herbster responded by getting into CRT and education -- finally concluding his hope that Northeast needs to keep more students in the region after graduation.

Thibodeau, similarly thinking about the youth, suggested more student programs with potential employers and community leaders. 

On a different line of thinking, Lindstrom emphasized economy as the answer to positive migration. "We're going to have to address the property tax issue and the income tax issue, because if I'm there [Colorado] and I'm looking at South Dakota, I get more money, more bang for my buck by going there," Lindstrom said. 

Other ideas of note include Lindstrom's hope for a stronger highway trust fund; Thibodeau's questions about when Nebraska would benefit from the rural broadband budget in Biden's most recent infrastructure bill; and Pillen's point that he wants to "run government like a business."

At least, each candidate was united in the hopes that Nebraska's infrastructure is attended to. 

"We deserve that," said Pillen.