Minneapolis mayor, Park Board battle over tax hike
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The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board is a semi-independent agency which oversees the city's parks, rec centers, parkways and trails. Photo: Kyle Stokes/Axios
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is pressuring the city’s semi-independent Park Board to trim its budget for next year.
Why it matters: Minneapolis’ parks are the city’s crown jewels, and the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board says further cuts to its staff would jeopardize the maintenance of the city’s greenspaces, rec centers, parkways and trails.
- But the mayor’s budget already calls for one of the largest property tax levy increases in the city’s modern history (11.3%) — and taxpayers would face an even bigger hike (11.9%) if Park Board members get all they're asking for.
The big picture: Minneapolis is the only major city in the U.S. with an elected Park Board, and some of its members are tired of these annual budget clashes with the mayor.
- They’re also concerned that after years of this back-and-forth, the parks’ share of city revenues has slowly eroded to something less than equitable.
What they’re saying: “It’s an attack on the Park Board, and it's an attack on our autonomy,” says Park Board VP Kedar Deshpande.
The other side: Frey says he supports Park Board independence, which he believes protects the parks as a civic asset.
- But “every other department in the city found efficiencies” to lower the levy increase — and now, he contends, it’s the Park Board’s turn.
Zoom in: In his budget proposal, Frey pushed the Park Board to increase their portion of the property tax levy by 2.5% — effectively, a $3.1 million cut to the parks’ roughly $160 million budget.
- “I will negotiate up from the 2.5%,” Frey tells Axios. “I am hopeful that they will negotiate down” from their current request for a 5.86% levy increase.
- The mayor believes the Park Board could save money by exploring “common sense” moves to eliminate overlap with the city: “Why do we need two payroll departments? Why do we need two IT departments?”
Friction points: A similar attempt at consolidation with the city failed in the early 2000s, park officials say — and while Park Board president Tom Olsen is open to exploring it again long-term, he tells Axios it isn’t a short-term budget fix.
- “The city is fixated on pennies on the dollar rather than the root causes of the overages in their budget,” Deshpande says.
What we’re watching: The arbiter of this dispute is the city’s Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET), which sets the city’s maximum property tax levy — and that body leans the Park Board’s way.
- BET member Steve Brandt has called the mayor’s park levy request “unrealistic” and BET member Eric Harris Bernstein says he supports the park board’s proposal.