ARTICLE AD BOX
Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed a $2 billion budget and 7.8 percent property tax levy for the upcoming year, emphasizing limiting new spending next year amid a shifting tax base and uncertainty with the changing federal landscape.
That includes $23 million worth of cuts, Frey said in a speech Wednesday. Without those cuts, Frey said the property tax levy increase would have had to go up by 13 percent in order to maintain current services.
“This is a recalibration — an investment in the fundamentals that make Minneapolis strong,” he said.
The savings, as proposed, would come from allowing Minneapolis police officers’ double overtime to expire, phasing out vacant positions — without layoffs — and ending or scaling back new programs that are “untested or unsustainable.”
Council members responded Thursday that they are concerned by several of the proposed cuts and will be inquiring more about the impact to services in the coming weeks.
Frey’s address highlighted investments in capital projects, including rebuilding the Nicollet Avenue bridge over Minnehaha Creek and paving 55 miles of parkways. Spending would increase for public works and the city’s communications department. An additional $1 million would go toward emergency shelter response and another $8 million for other housing efforts, both one-time spends.
“Federal cuts have become a regular threat. And with [President] Donald Trump in office, the uncertainty isn’t just about politics, it’s about whether cities like ours can rely on federal partnership at all,” he said. “We saved where we could because when you don’t know what’s coming down the road, the smartest move is to make sure you’re ready.”
Frey’s proposal means that the median single family homeowner — in Minneapolis, that’s a $333,000 home — would pay $240 more next year. That adds up to $2,272 in property taxes for the median taxpayer.
Frey said his budget prioritizes core city services and maintains Minneapolis’ “solid footing.”
But several council members offered a different interpretation of the proposed budget.
Council vice president and budget chair Aisha Chughtai thanked city staff for their “immense undertaking,” particularly during a difficult year, but said the cuts “are not untested pilots or pet projects. These are very real and very critical services.”
“The starting point for myself and my colleagues will be reviewing the $23 million worth of proposed cuts, some of which I know would mean gutting programs and services that are near and dear to the communities we represent and therefore a priority for this council,” she said.
Some of the proposed cuts and funding shifts came from budget amendments that council members authored last year — when Frey vetoed their budget, before the council overturned that veto.
The proposed budget takes $1.4 million in Emergency Housing Vouchers — which the council added to the budget last year — and puts it toward a program called Stable Homes Stable Schools, which helps families with young children.
The housing voucher program was intended to provide permanent housing to 50 individuals and 50 families and to mimic a federal program that was “among the most effective tools we have seen for addressing homelessness in our community,” according to David Hewitt, Hennepin County’s director of housing stability.
“Hennepin County believes the creation of a new Emergency Housing Voucher program would be among the more impactful measures that could be taken to quantifiably reduce homelessness in our community,” Hewitt wrote in a letter last fall.
The program was not implemented this year, due to delays in the city reaching a funding agreement with the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and Hennepin County.
In an email reviewed by MPR News, an official with the housing authority said the city attorney had challenged the city’s ability to fund the “majority of critical emergency short-term housing assistance,” but MPHA remained hopeful the program could kick off later this year.
“We can fund Stable Homes Stable Schools and expand that and we can support emergency housing vouchers,” said Council member Jason Chavez. “We can’t just say that we’re moving funding from one program to another and then completely eliminating emergency housing vouchers that should be implemented by this administration.”
Another proposed cut would reduce the budget for helping connect workers to city and legal services related to wage theft and labor violations by about $350,000.
Council member Aurin Chowdhury said that’s a concern.
“The people who are impacted by those cuts are going to be largely, of course, working people, but immigrant community members who are facing the worst conditions in workplaces,” she said. “And in a moment where our immigrant community is under attack, it is deeply concerning that we are seeing such important funding being cut.”
In response to city council members, Ally Peters, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office, accused the group of “trying to sell the same false narrative they did last year: that you can lower taxes while increasing spending.”
MPD double overtime to expire at the end of the year
One cost-saving measure that’s anticipated to save $3.64 million is allowing double pay for officer overtime to expire from the police union contract at the end of the year.
Last month, the Minnesota Star Tribune first reported that MPD accrued a record amount of overtime in 2024 at $28 million, which was $12 million more than planned.
Frey said with recruitment efforts working — MPD has more than 600 sworn officers — it’s time to go back to paying officers time and a half, rather than double overtime. The boosted overtime is a provision in the police union contract that is set to expire at the end of the year.
“Regardless of the union I would have made the decision to continue double overtime if it were necessary. It’s not. It's not because we’ve seen success in recruiting more officers and we continue to see that success going forward,” Frey said.
Sgt. Sherral Schmidt, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis, said in a statement that without critical staffing overtime, the department will be left without an important incentive to fill open shifts.
In contrast to previous years, when the police department budget grew, the proposed budget would keep spending roughly the same.
Frey wants to add 15 more firefighters to the general fund and invest an additional $3.2 million into the city's parks system.
He said as had already been planned, the city will add two new positions to the unit which helps the police department and city reach compliance with court-mandated police reforms.
Public Works would see 25 new full-time positions related to transportation planning, design and engineering, and the communications team would grow by nine members. Another $600,000 would go toward downtown revitalization.
Next, the Board of Estimate and Taxation will set the maximum property tax levy increase in September. In the coming months, the city council will hold public hearings and likely propose amendments to the budget, which they will send back to the mayor for a final sign-off in December.
English (US) ·