Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey releases finalized 2021 budget plan

Wednesday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey released his finalized 2021 budget proposal for the city.

The plan would allocate about $2.3 million more toward health services in the city, an increase of nearly 10%, but would cut from many other services in the city. Among those cuts are a 7.4% cut to police budgets, a 28% cut to community planning and economic development, 15% from the convention center and 1.4% to the fire department. No change was proposed for capital improvements.

Overall, the proposal would decrease the city’s expenditures by 6%.

Frey said the plan would decrease property taxes for three-quarters of residential property owners with a median-valued household’s bill dropping by $59.

His proposal includes a limited 5.75% maximum levy increase and a 12% increase in the overall tax base growth, a $7.2 million increase in funding for affordable housing work, allocating $5 million in one-time TIF funding for the Commercial Property Development Fund for rebuilding and recovery efforts for businesses and $2.5 million for the MinneapolisUs violence interrupters initiative.

Frey said his budget also invests in several safety beyond policing priorities and violence prevention work, with $300,000 going to support the implementation and recommendations from his opioid task-force and $50,000 to pilot a peer recovery initiative in partnership with the Minneapolis Fire Department, in addition to the funding for MinneapolisUs.

Mayor Frey’s budget calls for far fewer officers than MPD requested

The mayor said a hiring freeze, across-the-board reductions in spending, an early retirement incentive and broad reorganization mandates limited layoffs to 19 positions and allowed for flexibility in future planning.

"We cannot set aside our commitment to affordable housing and inclusive economic growth because of the pandemic – instead, we must double down on it," said Frey. "That’s why we’ve increased ongoing funding for affordable housing to record levels and allocated funding for important recovery work."

"This budget makes tough but necessary decisions to minimize layoffs while preserving core city services and maintaining flexibility for important decisions in the future," Frey added. "By restructuring departments to improve efficiency, we are laying the ground work for Minneapolis to be better able to expand funding for key priorities like affordable housing and economic inclusion when the recession is over."

You can see more details on the budget here.