With the city’s annual budget process underway, Council looks to other cities for possible tweaks and improvements.
Property taxes are on the rise in Minneapolis. The park board wants more money than the mayor thinks it needs. Police overtime spending? No doubt that’ll come up again, too.
All said, it’s safe to assume that it’ll be a contentious budget process in Minneapolis this fall as a handful of officials decide how best to spend a couple billion dollars.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t all run a little smoother. And anything that simplifies the budget process could make it that much easier to observe and understand, and even weigh in on.
That’s why City Council members Aisha Chughtai (Ward 10) and Elizabeth Shaffer (Ward 7), who head up the Council’s budget committee, asked legislative staff last month to take a look at budget processes around the country and see if there was anything the city could learn.
“Any organization responsible for spending tax payer dollars must be continually striving for better process,” Shaffer said in a text.
The biggest takeaway from the Aug. 24 presentation given by Andrew Hawkins, director of legislative research and oversight? It takes Minneapolis a long time to get the budget passed.
At least four months, in fact. Mayor Frey announced his proposed budget on Aug. 12 – the opening salvo in the process. And the final budget, amendments and all, won’t be approved by the Council until sometime in December.
You might be surprised to learn that’s quite a long time compared to some other cities. Seattle handles the process in two months, although Hawkins noted that they only hear presentations from about 13 of the city’s departments.
Milwaukee’s budget is proposed and approved in about a month and a half, with two straight weeks of presentations from departments.
Detroit? Their budget process races by in a month, which is in part due to changes put in place following the city’s 2013 bankruptcy. So maybe let’s learn from their experience without hewing too closely to the example.
Hawkins emphasized that budgets are not an apples to apples comparison. Minneapolis, for example, has both an independent Board of Estimate and Taxation and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, whose unique roles influence the timeline.
But still, Council member Jamison Whiting (Ward 11) said in an interview that even adjusting when departments begin giving their budget presentations could make a difference.
“How can we have a better understanding of how they spend their fiscal resources at an earlier point in time?” he asked.
The comparison cities take other interesting measures when it comes to the amendment process, which is where much of the strife arises as the budget is determined.
In Seattle, the budget chair forms a “Balancing Package” to ease the process. That package takes into account amendments on which there is general consensus, then classifies the remaining amendments based on their level of support and other factors. As a result, the council and the community know in advance which items will be most contentious, requiring the most time.
Meanwhile in Milwaukee, the council holds “Budget Amendment Day,” where every single amendment is addressed in a marathon session that last year stretched from 9:13 a.m. to 7:04 p.m. on Oct. 31 – a truly haunting Halloween experience.
Hawkins charmingly referred to this idea as “patently insane” but acknowledged that Milwaukee appears to be successful with it.
And then there were smaller points, like relying on legislative staff to recap items or make items more clear. In Detroit, legislative staff report to the budget committee on community budget forums in each of the city’s wards.
Shaffer noted that Minneapolis, too, will have public input sessions planned throughout the city, but those have yet to be scheduled.
There was little discussion of the report or Hawkins’ presentation – Budget Committee members were running short on time at the end of a long meeting. But several expressed interest.
So will Minneapolitans see any major changes?
“It will be hard to pivot this year,” Shaffer said, given that the process is already underway. “However, it is not an impossibility and I am always open to any new ideas we can get off the ground now.”
For the ideas that do grow from these discussions, simplicity might be the key when it comes to getting the public to pay attention and engage.
After all, Whiting said, “We’re the only people that get paid full time to do this. Nobody else does.”
This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Programs without measurable results should not move forward this budget cycle. There should be no exceptions. Departments need to work within their approved preArpa funding parameters. That oney was categorized as temporary for a reason. IT may sting, or be uncomfortable but the cash flow has stopped. The cushy managerial positions for these programs should be eliminated. Report and fund what is working and stop over burdening the taxpayers.
If you are looking to Detroit for answers you looking in the wrong place. Lookup the video” lost Detroit”.
Pikey, That video began as a book in 2010 and produced in 2013 as a video. Since then, Detroit is experiencing a renaissance. The city finally realized that to revive the lost city, it needed to make the city safe and to add good paying jobs. AFTER revamping public safety, new companies with great jobs moved in. With new employees and public safety restored, workers rehabbed bad properties and built new ones. The city is now reviving itself. When will Mpls.city council members who favor far-left policies learn that without a safer city, more police and new employers, Minneapolis is circling the drain?