Today (12/1/14), at our “budget markup” meeting, the council approved on a close 7-6 vote a .18% property tax decrease (for a $180,000 home, we were told the savings would be approximately two dollars and fifty cents). I argued against this motion (and voted against it) for the simple reason that the small property tax savings were not worth the harm to critical investments, as well as creating a “budget hole” that will create challenges in future years.
What was cut to achieve this average savings of about $2.50? Our commitment to our Nation’s first clean energy partnership (a commitment leveraging significant staff and resource contributions from our partner utilities), diverse homeownership support and foreclosure prevention for communities of color, depleting the One Minneapolis Fund targeted to support leadership development in communities of color, and cutting in half our support for the disparities study that forms the legal basis for setting race-based goals for business inclusion in worker inclusion goals.
Barely saved, on another 7-6 motion, was one of the new equity positions within the city coordinator’s office. We have similar enterprise support positions in other key goal areas of the city, such as sustainability and the arts, and they have been highly effective in driving city-wide results and leveraging outside partnerships.
I am most concernedt that 7 of my colleagues voted to reduce our commitment to the Clean Energy Partnership – especially since this was one-time funding that will have no impact on the property tax levy. This investment would primarily be for designing and implementing programs to serve residents in Minneapolis. One of the highest on the list, in my mind, is how we address energy issues (and costs) at multi-unit residential buildings. I am hoping we can look for a solution on this item before the final budget approval of December 10.
More details are here:Â http://www.minneapolismn.gov/meetings/budgetsub/WCMS1P-130547