Minneapolis, St. Paul city budgets need work

Opinion editor's note: Editorials represent the opinions of the Star Tribune Editorial Board, which operates independently from the newsroom.

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With citizens voicing continuing concerns about crime and policing, the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul rightly focused on solutions in budget proposals they offered last week.

As they did last year, both Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter proposed property tax increases — 6.5% in Minneapolis and 15% in St. Paul. Those figures, if adopted, would be tough to swallow for taxpayers already dealing with high inflation.

Frey described his budget proposal as a "here and now" plan designed to bring service levels back to pre-pandemic levels. And Carter called his plan a "nuts and bolts" spending package emphasizing basic city services.

Frey is suggesting the city for the first time adopt a two-year budget — a smart move that would help with long-term planning. The administration and City Council would review the budget after the first year and could make changes.

About $1.1 million of the spending in Frey's public safety plan would fund the new Office of Community Safety, which will be led by recently confirmed Commissioner Cedric Alexander. The city would have funding for about 835 police officers in 2025, up more than 200 from the current level.

In St. Paul, about half of the 15% property tax increase Carter proposes represents the move to shift what taxpayers would have paid in street maintenance fees to their regular property tax bills.

Under the plan, the city's fire and police departments would receive more funding. Carter told an editorial writer that the goal is to bring the police force up to 619 sworn officers from the current 550.

Carter also wants to improve economic stability for lower-income residents. An Inheritance Fund would offer forgivable housing-related loans of up to $100,000 to former residents and descendants of the Rondo neighborhood, where properties were taken by the city in the 1950s and 1960s for the construction of Interstate 94. Funding would come from the city's already established Housing Trust Fund.

In our view, that program should be placed on hold until the assessment of the mayor's guaranteed-income program is completed. That pilot initiative gave $500 per month to low-income families over a period of 18 months.

The mayoral budget proposals will be discussed and debated by the public and elected leaders of both cities in the months ahead. It's our hope that property tax burdens will be reduced without losing the critical focus on making both cities safer.