The City Budget
Mayor R.T. Rybak’s 2013 Budget proposal calls for an overall City budget of $1.085 billion, which is a $39 million reduction from 2012. While the budget proposal is a reduction of 3.4 percent from last year’s budget, it represents a 1.77 percent levy increase from 2012.
The 2013 Mayor’s Recommended Budget includes significant changes for how the City will
address future financial challenges. It is important to be aware of these major changes when
making comparisons between budget years.
The major highlights in the Mayor’s 2013 budget proposal
- Significant investments in public safety, capital improvements, meeting long-term financial commitments and reducing the City’s debt. The Mayor’s budget:
- continues to pay down the City’s internal service fund debts,
- has funding to hire new police officers and firefighters,
- invests more than $120 million in capital improvements, including major street construction projects, road and bike trail maintenance, economic development projects and utility system upgrades, and stabilizes long-term financial commitments such as retirees’ pensions and bonded debt payments.
- 2013 is the second year of a two-year implementation of a Priority-Based Budgeting process. In this process, departments make proposals for funding their programs. These proposals are essentially applications for funding based on the City’s goals and priorities, and each proposal is allowed to apply for funding within a category.
- A major realignment of the City’s Regulatory Services Department that will reduce management costs and provide better service to the people of Minneapolis. Under the realignment, Regulatory Services’ business and development-review functions will move to the Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED), and environmental services will move to the Department of Health and Family Support. Regulatory Services’ remaining inspections responsibilities will be part of a new Department of Inspections.
- Laying the foundation for a significant wave of new development associated with the new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings.
- The new stadium will provide the City with additional revenue that will serve to offset related expenses. Without this new revenue, the Mayor’s proposed property tax levy would have been approximately $5 million higher in 2013. The new revenue will offset additional Convention Center and Target Center operating and maintenance expenses and provide for increased police presence around City entertainment venues.
Last updated Nov. 15, 2012