The 2025 budget for the City of Minneapolis was headed to Mayor Jacob Frey’s desk on Wednesday, but he said he would veto a laundry list of amendments that add new spending.

The revised version approved by the City Council just before midnight on Tuesday after hours of public testimony and discussion was nearly $1.9 billion.

Among several concerns addressed by the Council were funding for nonprofits and property taxes.

Frey first proposed a property tax increase as high as 8.3%, which breaks down to around $214 per year for a home of median value. Frey said he would go as low as 6.4% if the City Council cut some of its nearly 80 amendments.

Council members, on Tuesday night, approved a record 71 amendments to the city’s general fund, bringing the original proposed tax levy increase down to 6.8% — which Frey said he would approve, but rejected the budget as a whole.

Less than an hour after members of the City Council’s progressive majority held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon touting its passage, Frey announced plans to veto the budget.

Council members, including President Elliott Payne and Vice President/Budget Committee Chair Aisha Chughtai, called their version of the budget “one of the most equitable” and historic investments ever made in city residents, citing a 1.5% reduction in Mayor Frey’s proposed property tax levy and the rearranging of money to pay for new public safety, public health and housing initiatives in areas where they said the need is greatest.

Council leadership said its priorities, including property taxes and homelessness response, came straight from constituents, and they said the administration’s current strategy isn’t getting the job done.

“Tough budget years are about prioritization, and this Council will always have Minneapolis residents’ — especially those who are struggling with most —  backs,” Chughtai said. 

In a separate press conference, Frey again called the Council’s newly funded programs “unvetted.” Members of the administration, including COO Margaret Anderson Kelliher, said the money used to cover the record number of amendments came from a multi-million-dollar reduction in existing city programs and services, like snow plowing, road repairs, police recruitment, other public safety services, and the city’s cash reserves.

Frey said that money would be necessary to offset an expected reduction in federal funding under the incoming Trump administration. In his 11 years participating in the city budget process as mayor and formerly as a City Council member, this was the first time he has not supported a budget at this point in the process, Frey added.

“I know that vetoing a budget is a tremendous step that has not been taken often, or possibly ever, but it’s the right thing to do for this city,” he said.

The mayor was also critical about cuts proposed to resources addressing two major issues the city has been dealing with for years: homelessness and building back up the police force. 

“Encampments are neither safe for the people living at homeless encampment nor are they safe for the surrounding neighborhood,” Frey said at the press conference just hours after city crews cleaned out an encampment that had burned down the night before. 

RELATED: 8 adults displaced after encampment fire spreads to Minneapolis home

“We had a proposal to help fix it. It was gutted,” Frey said. “It guts our ability to prevent some of these homeless encampments from forming,” he later added. 

But at their press conference, council members stood firm on their vision to address the issue. 

“There are cuts that were made to homeless response in this year’s budget, what we did actually is invest in programs that we know have a history of success,” council vice president Aisha Chughtai said, adding, “These are all programs that are going to help us reduce homelessness in the short term, medium term and long term.”

As for cuts to police, Chief Brian O’Hara who joined Mayor Frey in support, shared frustrations about an amendment taking money away from recruitment efforts — specifically with the city’s “Imagine Yourself” campaign Chief O’Hara says is starting to pay off. 

“We are finally getting people from communities that were never represented in this police department before. Why on earth would we want to stop recruiting,” Hara said. 

Once the veto is official, the next step is another vote by the full City Council. 

If members vote to sustain the mayor’s veto, then the city administration would begin work on a third version of the budget. If Council votes to override the veto, then that’s it; the 2025 city budget is finalized.

Council members could take up that vote as soon as Thursday.

Payne responded that he will work with the other councilmembers to override Frey’s veto:

“The fact that the Mayor is willing to veto the entire 2025 City budget because his co-equal branch of government made amendments that accounted for less than 2% of the total $1.88 billion City budget is absurd. Council Members learned of Mayor Frey’s intention to veto through a press release, before he even received the formal budget packet from the Clerk’s office at the time of his announcement. This is unfortunately part of a larger pattern of an unwillingness to work with the Legislative branch of the City. The fact that the Mayor is willing to risk the jobs of over 4,000 City employees and the reduction of basic City services in order to try and score political points is absolutely disheartening. The final budget was passed with 10 votes last night and 62 amendments passed with at least supermajority support. I will do everything in my power to work with my colleagues to overturn this reckless veto.”