Council President Elliott Payne, from left, Council Member Emily Koski, and Council Member Jason Chavez listen during a meeting Thursday. (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Mayor Jacob Frey proposed Friday to cut the property tax levy increase in his recommended 2025 budget as the City Council dug into his plan. The move came days after Council Member Emily Koski announced a run for mayor and proposed a nearly identical change.

Frey unveiled a $1.9 billion budget blueprint in August with a proposed 8.1% tax levy increase over last year’s levy. His new proposal would increase the city’s overall levy by 6.4%. The levy is the total amount of money raised through property taxes. Changes to individual tax bills will vary.

The City Council began debating revisions to Frey’s budget on Friday in what promises to be a series of marathon “markup” meetings before the council votes on a final budget Tuesday night. Council members have proposed 73 amendments to Frey’s budget and begun the process of going through them. The meeting was contentious from the start, with Council Member Linea Palmisano accusing her colleagues of locking her out of talks.

“We are equal members of this body, and we need to start acting like it,” she said.

Frey said the council amendments add “wants” while cutting needs, divert city funds to private organizations and irresponsibly deplete the city’s cash reserves. He said the council’s amendments cut core services in order to increase spending for nonprofits, “pet projects” in wards and “unvetted, one-time programs.”

Frey said if the council disposed of those types of amendments, he’d support reducing his proposed hike by using more than $780,000 in unspent federal pandemic funds, cutting $2.3 million from 20 departments and $5.7 million from a technology improvement plan. By late in the day Friday, the council had winnowed the proposed levy increase to 6.9%.

Some council members were offended by Frey’s characterization of ward priorities as “pet projects.” Council Member Katie Cashman suggested the mayor was trying to “one-up” the council’s budget cuts.

Much was made of the fact that Frey put out a news release and letter Friday laying out his proposal to reduce the levy increase. Council Member Jason Chavez accused the mayor of “legislating through press releases” instead of talking to council members.

Asked about the mayor’s proposal coming on the heels of hers, Koski said, “Months after the mayor proposed the highest projected levy increase in a decade, then he decided to finally come to work.”

Frey said the council skipped his amendments, most likely for political reasons, but he’s happy to see that members want to cut taxes.

“I love that they now have an appetite to reduce taxes,” he said. “I would like to see property taxes reduced further. We can get down to that 6.4% levy [increase].”

The council will continue work on the budget Monday.