LINCOLN — Gov. Pete Ricketts will close out his time as Nebraska governor Thursday, leaving what he describes as “the best job in the world” and the “honor and privilege of a lifetime.”

But he exits with an eye on another top political position, the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Nebraska’s junior senator, Ben Sasse.

“I want to continue to look for ways to be able to serve the people of Nebraska and I believe that my experience as governor for the last eight years makes me the best candidate to be the next U.S. senator,” Ricketts said in a year-end interview with The World-Herald.

“I’ve delivered results for the people of Nebraska, whether it’s improving services for how we run state government or it’s tax relief or getting us through the challenges we had in 2019 with the most widespread flooding or the COVID pandemic. I’ve got a track record that I’m very proud of working with people in state government.”

“I believe that is a strong case for why I should be the next U.S. senator,” he said.

Sasse is stepping down to become president of the University of Florida. The resignation takes effect Jan. 8. Ricketts has said he will leave it to the next governor, Jim Pillen, to name a replacement.

Pillen, who will be sworn in Thursday, is widely expected to appoint Ricketts.

Meanwhile, the 58-year-old Republican looks back on two terms at the helm of state government that included major tax cuts, spending restraint and conservative policies. They also included two unprecedented crises — record statewide flooding in 2019, followed by the COVID pandemic that started in 2020.

But he lists improvements in government services as one of his proudest accomplishments. Ricketts, a former T.D. Ameritrade executive, said he worked on creating a more customer-focused, efficient and effective government that would better serve Nebraskans.

He created a Center for Operational Excellence that completed 900 process improvement projects, saving 900,000 hours of state employee time and reducing costs by an estimated $100 million. He also consolidated some state functions.

Among the successes: cutting on-hold time for people seeking public benefits from an average of 23 minutes down to 5 minutes; streamlining registration and renewals for fleet vehicles that allowed one business to complete 4,000 renewals in three days rather than 30; and simplifying fire marshal reviews of building construction plans that cut 15 days out of the process.

“We found ways to ensure that Nebraskans are spending less time filling out forms, waiting in line or waiting on hold,” Ricketts said.

Those improvements are among the reasons outgoing Speaker of the Legislature Mike Hilgers of Lincoln called Ricketts a “tremendous governor for Nebraska.”

“That does not always show up in the headlines, but his efforts to make government work better, faster and more efficiently for its customer will be perhaps one of his most important accomplishments,” said Hilgers, who was elected attorney general in November.

The bigger headline-grabbers have been the tax relief measures. Two major packages passed in 2020 and 2022 capped off a series of tax bills passed on his watch. Together, they are projected to deliver $12.7 billion in tax relief by the time they are fully implemented in 2027. The total includes more than $10 billion in property tax relief.

They include expanded tax credits to offset property taxes, including some that directly reduce property tax bills and some offered as income tax credits. In addition, the top tax rates for individual and corporate income taxes are being reduced and the state is eliminating income taxes on military retirement and Social Security benefits.

Ricketts said he was able to deliver tax relief by keeping state expenses down. He held state budgets to an average of 2.8% growth annually, while revenues grew 4.5%. During an economic downturn in 2016 and 2017, state spending grew at a 0.5% annual average.

More recently, state coffers have benefited from steadily rising property valuations, which meant the state did not have to increase school aid as much as expected. Large infusions of federal pandemic relief since 2020 covered some state costs and shored up the state’s economy, which translated into stronger tax revenues.

“His legacy is one he can be proud of in the arena of fiscal restraint and tax reform,” said State Sen. Tom Briese of Albion.

But Ricketts failed to stop a gas tax increase in 2015. Lawmakers passed the increase over his veto to boost funding for highway construction and maintenance. Ricketts used some of that tax revenue later to help pay for a $450 million road-and bridge-building plan.

Lawmakers overrode two other vetoes that year, his first in political office. One was a bill repealing the state’s death penalty and the other on a bill allowing illegal immigrants brought to this country as children to get Nebraska driver’s licenses. Those are the youths involved with the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

He learned from those political setbacks. In later years, he worked more closely with friendly lawmakers to block bills before they came to his desk and he used his wealth to wield his political will. He was a major donor to a petition drive that restored the death penalty. He also targeted lawmakers that had voted for the veto overrides.

But Ricketts bristles at the idea that he has bought political wins, including spending more than $1.3 million to get Pillen elected governor this year. The son of T.D. Ameritrade founder Joe Ricketts, Pete Ricketts estimated his net worth at $50 million in 2018.

“Supporting candidates is a matter of free speech,” he said. “Can you have too much free speech? I think I’m exercising my free speech rights. Every American should be able to do that.”

He couldn’t stop Nebraskans from voting to expand Medicaid to more low-income people, as allowed under the federal Affordable Care Act, however. Expansion backers took the issue to voters with an initiative petition drive after Ricketts and fellow Republicans blocked it repeatedly in the Legislature.

Other challenges couldn’t be solved with wealth or political clout.

In March 2019, a combination of heavy snow and rain with extreme cold triggered unprecedented flooding across multiple communities. The floods caused an estimated $2.6 billion in damage to homes, businesses, farmland and roads and cost four lives.

Nebraska was still recovering in March 2020, when the first cases of COVID showed up in the state. Ricketts declared a coronavirus state of emergency on March 13 that year.

He navigated the pandemic with a mixture of public health restrictions and resistance to federal mandates. The combination, as he frequently notes, led Politico last year to name Nebraska as the state that fared best at balancing health, economic, educational and social well-being concerns.

Ricketts also had to deal with challenges inside state government, particularly Nebraska’s overcrowded and troubled prison system. The governor had been in office only a few months when the Tecumseh prison erupted in a deadly riot in May 2015.

He argues that the system has improved since then, with better programming and new construction that added beds. Still, Nebraska’s prison system remains the nation’s most overcrowded and has the fastest-growing inmate population in the country.

State Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha said Ricketts missed an opportunity by fighting a criminal justice reform plan in 2022. The plan came out of an intensive study guided by the nonprofit Crime and Justice Institute that involved all three branches of state government. Ricketts objected to parts of the plan as being “soft on crime,” and the two sides could not reach a compromise.

Ricketts said there were parts of the plan he supported, but those went down when the compromise efforts failed.

He said there is more work to be done in corrections. He has pushed to build a new prison to replace the aging Nebraska State Penitentiary. Lawmakers set aside money for the prison but have not authorized its construction.

He also said there is work to be done on reducing property taxes and major investments that need to be completed, such as the proposed Perkins County canal. Under the terms of a century-old compact with Colorado, construction of the canal would ensure Nebraska’s supply of water in the South Platte River.

Those tasks now fall to Pillen. Ricketts said he is confident handing over the reins because the two share a background in business.

“He’s going to take what we’ve done and take it to the next level,” Ricketts said.