Frey highlights public safety, housing in proposed budget

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey unveiled his $1.6 billion in budget priorities for 2022 in a video message Friday afternoon. He focused on COVID-19, public safety and affordable housing, and warned that the city is expected to face budget shortfalls for the next few years.

The mayor emphasized public safety during his budget speech, saying that “crime in Minneapolis is not felt evenly.” The mayor is recommending almost $192 million in spending for police, an almost 15 percent increase from the initial level the city council set for 2021.

“I’ve met extensively with Black and brown residents, small business owners...all through our city,” Frey said. “While no community is a monolith, the message we are hearing is clear: They want cops to be more present, more accountable and more community-minded. And they support our chief’s work.”

Frey said he's ordered the Minneapolis Police Department to advance about 150 new recruits and cadets through the police academy next year. He said his goal is to get the MPD from about 600 currently active officers to its required staffing level of 888 officers by 2024.

"Public safety experts continue to broadly agree that in a case like ours, with a diminished number of officers per capita, the data backs more and better — not more aggressive policing — as a key in driving down violent crime," Frey said.

The mayor said Minneapolis is predicting that it's going to cost $47 million to bring back necessary city staff and services in 2022, with more than $70 million dollars in shortfalls expected in the years following.

Frey said Minneapolis is using $120 million in federal funds to help fill gaps in the budget. He’s recommending a 5.45 percent property tax levy increase for 2022, saying he especially wants to protect homeowners on the city’s north side from big property tax increases.

“We have done everything possible to help ensure that the measures we’re taking won’t burden those who have been disproportionately impacted in the last year and a half,” Frey said.

Frey said he instituted about a dozen policy changes to Minneapolis police since George Floyd’s killing in May of 2020.

He announced a slate of new changes for the department he said will be implemented in the coming weeks, including that police will no longer conduct traffic stops for low-level offenses like expired tabs. Frey said the Minneapolis City Attorney’s Office will no longer prosecute people for failing to pay fines for suspended licenses as long as they didn’t act dangerously.

The mayor said the city continues to lead the nation in investments in affordable housing, with hundreds of units created last year, and more poised to go forward this year or next.

“We’ve worked hard to make these investments boring by making this funding an ongoing permanent fixture in every budget going forward,” Frey said. “In other words, it’s not news now.”

Frey also urged city residents to continue to get vaccinated so businesses and events that bring revenue into the city can resume. He said currently 87 percent of Minneapolis adults are vaccinated.

The city’s budget is controlled by the Minneapolis City Council. They’ll take up the mayor’s proposals in the coming months.