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Dear neighbors,
The City Council is preparing to amend and adopt a City Budget for 2027. The 2027 Budget proposed by Mayor Frey in August includes cuts to many programs that our communities rely on while increasing the budget for MPD by more than $20 million.
We can recognize the City is facing real fiscal challenges while rejecting false austerity. These narratives are being used as a pretext for cuts to programs communities rely on, all while allowing MPD to have an ever ballooning budget that goes unchecked year after year.
Fiscal responsibility doesn’t look like just cutting across the board. It means examining every major area of city spending, identifying inefficiencies and measurable outcomes, and ensuring every tax dollar the City spends actually improves residents’ lives or enhances a public good.
MPD has gone $20 million over budget two years in a row, and MPD leaders have publicly admitted that there has been mismanagement of overtime. Earlier this year, both the Commissioner of Community Safety and the Chief Operating Officer both publicly stated they were unaware of this overspending for nearly all of 2025. Earlier this year, when ICE invaded our city, our communities stepped up to protect our neighbors while the MPD did little to nothing to keep us safe yet still got millions in overtime compensation. It is not fiscally responsible to increase MPD’s budget by $20 million when it is widely known that mismanagement of MPD is fueling unnecessary costs that are not meaningfully improving public safety..
The budget is funded by working people, and they deserve accountability and oversight of how their money is spent. This year, the Board of Estimate and Taxation, the body that sets the maximum tax levy, made it clear that unchecked police overspending needed to be meaningfully addressed. The City Council has the ability to use the budget as a tool for police accountability by investing in initiatives that work, and limiting MPD’s ability to waste public resources on things that don’t serve residents.
Below are some examples of Mayor Frey’s proposed cuts and reductions that would have devastating impacts to neighbors throughout the city. There are enough resources to fully fund these programs if we prioritize them instead of wasteful spending by MPD. In order to demonstrate just how possible it is to fund community needs, we are including the cost of each item measured in days of MPD overtime spending. One week of MPD overtime on average is about half a million dollars.
As elected officials, on behalf of our residents and the City, we have a responsibility to end the blank checks to MPD and invest in what improves our communities!
Homegrown Minneapolis
Total cost to restore: $342,000 or ~3.5 days of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
- Over 50 community gardens across the city that feed hundreds of people, build community, and activate vacant lots.
- Food Forward, a City program that helps restaurants reduce wasted food, save money, and make a lasting impact
- Providing nearly 200,000 people close to 1 million pounds of rescued food.
Emergency Housing Vouchers/Housing First Program
Total cost to restore: $1.8 million or ~2.5 weeks of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
- 50 families and 50 individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness receive housing and wraparound social services.
- At least 150 fewer residents living on the streets, in shelters, or in encampments.
Labor Standards Co-enforcement
Total cost to restore: $500,000 or ~1 week of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
- Eliminating education and resources for workers to know their rights. This program equips workers with resources and training on their workplace rights.
- To date, the co-enforcement program has helped recover over $3 million in stolen wages.
- During Operation Metro Surge, workers were harassed and lost an estimated $153 million in wages. Workers are still recovering and cannot afford to lose one of the best tools they have to combat wage theft.
Violence Prevention and Alternative Public Safety Services
Total cost to restore: $3 million or ~3-4 weeks of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
Regulatory Services/ Housing Inspectors
Total cost to restore: Up to $1,177,000 or ~2 weeks of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
- Staff and programming that protect renters from living in substandard or hazardous conditions.
- Enforcement and accountability for slumlords and absentee landlords.
- Services for both landlords and tenants requesting rental inspections.
- Protections for taxpayers from being forced to absorb costs from the consequences of weak enforcement of the housing code.
Partnership Engagement Fund
Total cost to restore: $500,000 or ~1 week of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
Climate Equity Programs
Total Cost of Restoration: $3.6 million or ~3-4 weeks of MPD overtime
Proposed cuts:
- A reduction of 72 small businesses and industrial customers served which will result in an increase of 1,900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
- Reduction of 300 home weatherization and electrification projects in 2027 that target mainly low-income neighborhoods.
- Reduced funding to support EVIE Carshare operations.
- A 35% cut to the urban forestry program and tree sales to the public.
- Green Careers: a 50% or greater reduction in programming and fifty fewer people going through workforce development training and placement in green jobs.
- Biochar: Further postponement of the completion and opening of the City’s Biochar facility, which is expected to generate $115,000 in revenue per year. This was a poor decision when the city critically needs sustainable new revenue.
- Cutting critical initiatives that advance the city’s Zero Waste goals, including data collection to implement organized collection and community-led grants.
Minneapolis deserves a budget that serves all of our neighbors. It’s time to end the blank checks to MPD and continue to invest in things that our communities need. We look forward to working with our colleagues to rightsize the budget to invest in our communities.
In solidarity,
Council Member Jason Chavez
Council Member Robin Wonsley
Council Member Aisha Chughtai
Council Member Soren Stevenson |
