Minneapolis city council considers increased police funding for 2027

The Minneapolis City Council heard presentations from police and homelessness response leaders today, as they work to finalize the city’s 2027 budget.

Mayor Jacob Frey’s proposed funding includes cuts to about 100 staff positions across the city, and a property tax hike of 11.3 percent. That’s meant to account for a budget gap, which Frey said is mostly due to higher employee costs.

Under the plan, the police department would get a budget increase of about $20.5 million from 2026. The bulk of that — $13.1 million — would go toward paying police for overtime work.

At their presentation to the city council Monday, police department leaders said that boost is needed.

The department has overspent its overtime budget by millions in the last two years. This year, the department had $2.3 million in the budget for overtime; it’s on track to spend about $23 million more than that.

Frey and department leaders have said that some of the overtime was unavoidable, as the department staffed up to respond to the federal immigration enforcement operation and other emergencies in recent years. The department has fewer officers than it did before 2020 but has been working a similar number of hours.

Several council members have said they’re worried about that overspending. At Monday’s meeting, council member Jason Chavez pressed interim police Chief Bill Peterson to commit to sticking to the department’s 2027 budget.

Peterson said that’s a “goal.”

Chavez said that was disappointing.

“I wish that today we were going to hear a commitment from MPD that they were not going to overspend its budget,” Chavez said.

Peterson said he’s committed to “do everything possible to not go over budget.”

“However, I would like the community members to know that there are things that are out of our control,” Peterson said. “We are putting in place checks and balances to ensure, to the best of our ability, that we do not go over the mayor's proposed 2027 budget.”

Those checks and balances include new procedures for approving overtime. Assistant Chief Mark Klukow said the department previously lacked enough oversight.

“If overtime were a paint bucket, we gave out too many brushes,” Klukow said. “There were too many people that had independent ability to ‘paint’ overtime and use it.”

He said a limited team in the department now has the ability to approve overtime.

The police budget also adds funding for additional cadets and community safety officers. And department leaders told the council they anticipate cutting about 17 non-sworn positions, which are currently vacant, in the department’s investigations and forensics areas.

Council member Michael Rainville said he’s hopeful the department can stick to this budget, with its expanded overtime funds.

“This is the most honest, detailed budget I've ever heard,” Rainville said. “We expect you to be held accountable, and I will be the first to join in criticism if that doesn't happen.”

The council plans to hold more meetings to discuss the police budget and will hear from other departments about their proposed budgets as they draft a spending plan.

The Minneapolis City Council also heard a staff report about instituting a voluntary fee on tax-exempt properties in the city. Other cities around the country, including Boston, Mass., have instituted voluntary fees to cover costs associated with property owned by universities and hospitals.

The city of Minneapolis contains more than 6,000 tax-exempt properties, according to the report by city staff. An estimate using Boston's methodology identified about $2.2 million in potential payments in lieu of taxes in Minneapolis. The Minneapolis city attorney's office still needs to do a full legal review before the council can move forward with a payment in lieu of taxes program.

In another presentation, Minneapolis Department of Regulatory Services Director Enrique Velazquez told council members why his department’s budget should be increased to more than $35 million in 2027. The department provides inspections, animal control and the city's homeless and encampment program, among other services. He said the increased budget was due to inflation and increased costs.

Over the next three months, the Minneapolis City Council will consider changes to Mayor Jacob Frey's proposed budget of $2.3 billion, which includes $753 million in city general fund expenditures. Frey has proposed an 11 percent property tax levy increase, which his office has said would cost the median-value homeowner an additional $400 a year.