“In my opinion, the city of Minneapolis should be able to trim another $25-30 million from a $2.3 billion dollar budget. The question will be if my colleagues and I have the willpower and fiscal savvy to put the long-term health of our city first.”
Last night we had our Ward 7 Community Conversation on the mayor’s proposed 2027 budget. Our Budget Director Shawn Greene gave a presentation where he did an excellent job laying out the city’s relative strengths – including our AAA bond rating – while at the same time highlighting the reality that expenses are outpacing non-property tax revenues, leading the city to rely more on the levy to balance its books. Compounding the issue is that plummeting commercial property values mean that homeowners and renters are shouldering a greater share of that property tax burden than ever before. People are fed up with their taxes going up while it seems like the city is not doing enough to rein in expenses.
One decision that helped bring us here was using temporary American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to add new full-time positions. As ARPA funding dried up, these positions were often transferred onto the General Fund. When I served on the Park Board, we used ARPA dollars to work through a backlog of one-time projects. The distinction matters: a project ends when it is completed; a permanent position needs funding each year going forward. This is the reality for many municipalities who are wrestling with right-sizing budgets in light of discontinued ARPA funds.
Director Greene showed us what it would take to bring the proposed levy increase down to single digits, as I want to do. Each percentage point represents about $5.5 million, and the choices ahead could mean eliminating roughly 100 additional full-time positions. Those positions represent real people and livelihoods. We owe employees honesty and respect as we make these decisions, but city government is not a jobs program. We need to find efficiencies and scale back because we can’t balance our books by continuing to ask our residents to pay double-digit property tax increases year after year.
Yet I understand scaling back to this degree is something Minneapolis has little “muscle memory” of over the last ten years, and we aren’t used to exercising this discipline. This has to change. We only need to look across the river to the University of Minnesota for our inspiration and fortitude. The UMN recently announced a $225 million budget reduction from their $5.4 billion dollar budget. In my opinion, the city of Minneapolis should be able to trim another $25-30 million from a $2.3 billion dollar budget. The question will be if my colleagues and I have the willpower and fiscal savvy to put the long-term health of our city first. We cannot keep plodding along on this path of dipping into our reserve funds, raiding the downtown asset fund and risking the loss of our bond rating (forcing the city to pay more interest on our bond borrowing and reducing the number of our infrastructure projects).
I was also hoping we could discuss the maximum levy set by the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET). Instead, the six-member board deadlocked 3–3 at its meeting on Wednesday and set no maximum. (Whose idea was it to put an even number of people on this board?) The BET plans to meet again Tuesday at 4 p.m., ahead of Wednesday’s certification deadline to see if they can reach a decision.
Basically, what it boils down to is this: the Park Board has requested a 5.86% increase and appears likely to receive something close to it. The unresolved question is whether the City’s maximum will accommodate the mayor’s proposed 11.3% increase or require a lower number. If the BET cannot agree, last year’s levy limits may remain in place, forcing the Council and mayor to make substantially deeper cuts, in the neighborhood of $50 million.
I’m committed to working with colleagues across the ideological spectrum to bring the levy down. None of us will get everything we want. That is the work the voters elected us to do.
Staff Time and the Mayor’s Memo
Unfortunately, the relationship between the Council and mayor is making that work harder than it should be. The mayor has directed departments to limit the time staff spend at committee and Council meetings, submitting written memoranda instead. We do need access to staff when an item requires their expertise. But I also saw the mayor’s point at Tuesday’s Business, Housing and Zoning meeting: our business licensing manager sat through hours of testimony on the proposed Waymo ordinance before the items related to her department came up near the end. That was not the best use of her time, and we should be able to schedule staff time more efficiently than that.
The response from some of my colleagues has been to pull routine items from consent for discussion and delay action until staff appear. That has made meetings longer, but without resolving the underlying problem. It also puts staff and people outside City Hall in the middle of a fight they did not start.
Consider Aeon. The affordable housing provider urgently needs City action on mortgage and covenant restrictions tied to its distressed Villa Nova property. The committee moved the matter for further discussion instead of resolving it that day via the consent agenda, as originally proposed. Members are entitled to ask serious questions about the transaction. But if we let a dispute over staff attendance delay a time-sensitive decision, Aeon and its residents bear the risk. It’s also inappropriate to make them a pawn in the middle of the council’s fight with the mayor.
The fight reached the Public Health, Safety and Equity Committee, too, where outside compensation for Inspector Ryan Kelly’s travel to an October conference was sent forward without a recommendation. I think this is incredibly petty. Inspector Kelly has been nominated for an international police officer award for his heroic response to the Annunciation shooting – he was one of the very first on scene, and absent his combat medic skills, more lives would likely have been lost. His recognition shouldn’t risk becoming collateral damage in a fight between elected officials.
Committee leaders should manage agendas so staff can be present when their expertise is needed, and Council members should send routine questions ahead of time. The mayor’s office, in turn, needs to make sure we can get timely answers on decisions before us.
The budget will require difficult compromises. Turning every meeting into a power struggle is exhausting and makes those compromises harder. It may make for good headlines, or good social media content, but it does not make for good governance.
Call me Pollyanna, but I think that we will be able to find a way to put our differences aside and do what’s in the best interest of our residents.
Via constituent newsletter
What should we cut then? By the way, Minneapolis has a comparatively low staffing levels. It’s well below the national average. I thought we were possibly overstaffed when I read we haven’t had significant layoffs in many, many years. But my research proved me wrong. It’s sort of a gross thing to just throw out that city government isn’t a “jobs program” when the economy and job market is really challenging and taking into account how we measure up against other cities. I think the reason nobody has articulated ways to cut another $25 million is because there just isn’t much low hanging fruit.
How much could be saved by phasing out the violence Interrupters?
Lots of wasted dollars….
https://www.startribune.com/minneapolis-violence-prevention-audit-neighborhood-safety/601887756?utm_source=gift
Excerpt…
“Some City Council members have bristled at the cut, saying the program is crucial to fighting crime. Council Member Jason Chavez and Council Vice President Jamal Osman recently vowed to restore their funding.
Other council members are skeptical. During a March committee meeting, Council Member Pearll Warren said she’d rather spend money on police and firefighters than on violence interrupters she’s seen in her north Minneapolis ward.
She has worked in youth outreach and called the violence interrupters “21 Jump Street cops,” alluding to them being rookies, and said they look like a “parade of Skittles” doing nothing in the streets.”
Re the budget, St Paul had already started to use LESS outside orgs for public safety….
Excerpt..
“That coordination allows us to respond quickly, share critical information across systems, and align resources to better support residents and prevent violence. That’s why we’re part of the City structure.”
https://www.stpaul.gov/news/project-peace-meet-saint-pauls-violence-intervention-team
Excerpt…
“Project PEACE team members say their unique status — full-time City employees, reporting to the Office of Neighborhood Safety — helps them overcome that reluctance and earn the trust of the people and families it’s their mission to support. “If your city cares about you, they’ll put the money and effort into helping you,” says Dominique. “Nonprofits have empathy and caring, but when it’s the City — it brings that heart work into government,” as part of the democratic process.
Bringing violence prevention in-house has allowed Saint Paul to recruit and retain exceptional staff from the community with both professional and lived experience. Being part of local government gives the team unique insight and reach, allowing them to lead collaborative efforts while connecting people and families with trusted community-based organizations that provide programs, supports, and vital connections. “Our office helps legitimize this work,” Faith says. “We have strong connections with Saint Paul Parks & Rec, Saint Paul Public Libraries, SPPD, local schools and legal institutions. That coordination allows us to respond quickly, share critical information across systems, and align resources to better support residents and prevent violence. That’s why we’re part of the City structure.”
As the years pass, Project PEACE — and ONS beyond it — are changing how people in Saint Paul neighborhoods think about their City. “We are building a reputation in the community,” Faith explains. “We have our ONS gear on! We have very bright City colors that we wear so we are recognized.” And Project PEACE recently hired two new outreach workers, Undre Ellis and Juddah Battles, to build awareness even more.
Politics is a full contact sport. How is the city council president Eliot Payne not held accountable for managing the problems Ms. Schaefer cites? Taxpayer citizens should be fed up with being pawns in the infighting that costs us all directly, while also demoralizing city employees.
The city has a lot of room to cut. As Shaffer notes, many positions were created using one-time funds and now have suddenly become indispensable? That makes no sense and is also irresponsible of the city to do. The city hires lots of people who do zero work, and cannot show any progress toward any goals, but because they’re in departments with “climate” or “equity” in the name, they’re somehow important. Meanwhile, businessowners spend weeks trying to get simple responses about licensing and regulatory questions.
The parks have show fiscal discipline and limited budget growth. They’ve also been shortchanged pretty much every year for the last couple decades. As a former park commissioner, Shaffer knows this and has said she supports the parks, which are actually high functioning compared to the city or county.
To answer Shaffer’s question about the BET, it used to have 7 members. But when the library board was eliminated in 2008, the BET composition dropped to 6 members.
I, for one, support going back to the 2026 budget, forcing the $50MM in reductions Ms. Shaffer suggests. I bought in ’07. Had my property taxes simply followed the rate of inflation, they would be more than $4K less this year than they are. Another double-digit increase next year? No thanks.
I’m happy to grab my veto sharpie, roll up my sleeves, and make the “difficult” decisions for the mayor, council, and park board.