Park Board to mayor: Your proposal to repair parks isn't good enough

Top Minneapolis parks officials have told Mayor Betsy Hodges that the parks portion of her outline to raise $300 million more for neighborhood parks and roads falls short of their needs.

Hodges and City Council Member John Quincy, who chairs the council's budget committee, said they support increasing already programmed property levy increases over the next 10 years to achieve their goal. That means roughly an extra 1.4 percent property tax increase for the two purposes, or almost a 5 percent increase annually. Parks would get $10 million annually and street repaving would get $20 million.

But the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board's original referendum proposal called for raising $300 million at a rate of $15 million per year for 20 years, mostly for repairing and rehabbing neighborhood park buildings and grounds. That would raise taxes by 5 percent, and inflate over time.

Alarmed by the prospect of voters raising taxes by that much, council members Barb Johnson and Lisa Goodman developed an alternate proposal that the Park Board has voted support for. They'd raise $8 million for capital projects from existing City Hall sources, plus $3 million for better park maintenance with a 1 percent tax increase, both over 20 years.

Hodges voiced displeasure for both the referendum and the Johnson-Goodman plan. She's vetoed Park Board actions calling for the referendum and supporting the Johnson-Goodman plan. She said that parks, streets and other city priorities need to be considered together, not in separate discussions.

But this week more than 20,000 voters began receiving a mailing form the Save Our Minneapolis Parks campaign committee established to support the referendum. It asks residents to contact Hodges and council members in support of the Johnson-Goodman plan.

Park Board President Liz Wielinski and Superintendent Jayne Miller said in a letter to Hodges dated Monday that her proposal falls short of their needs in several areas.

They said it commits $100 million, rather than the $300 million they sought and lacks any money to improve maintenance schedules at neighborhood parks. That means that only half of the city would see park improvements and could leave as many as 40 parks without any help, the pair said.

They also object on timing grounds. They said waiting to consider the Hodges proposal until this fall's budget-setting for 2017 "is too late and too risky." They want a spring agreement, but have said they stand ready to push ahead on a referendum if no agreement is reached with the city. There was no immediate response from Hodges.

There's a history here. Park commissioners remember 2000, when then-mayor Sharon Sayles Belton promised an increase in park capital spending by the city only to have that commitment undone by her successor when the city's fiscal condition worsened. Miller and Wielinski said Hodges does not offer long-term financial stability, given that her spending is subject to annual budgeting decisions. The Johnson-Goodman proposal also allows the city an out on parks funding if it faces a financial emergency, but there's a provision that allows the Park Board to go ahead with a referendum if that happens repeatedly.

So here's where things stand.

City lawyers say that there's no legal authority for the City Council to place a Park Board levy increase on the ballot this fall as a referendum, a stance with which a park legal advisor disagrees. The Park Board could also attempt to get the proposal before voters by going through the Charter Commission, a voter petition or asking the Legislature to authorize a vote.

Only six council members have publicly declared support for the Johnson-Goodman proposal. That's one vote short of a council majority. Even if the seventh vote is gained, two more would be needed to override a potential Hodges veto.

The Hodges proposal is opposed by the very Park Board it's designed to help, which likely would seek for a referendum instead.